People have vowed never to return to Cardiff after waiting for hours to get out of car parks in the city after the Ed Sheeran concert at the Principality Stadium. The chart-topping star, who last graced the capital in 2018, has finally returned for a three-night run, which kicked off on Thursday, May 26.
Though concert-goers were left buzzing from the singer's bumper two-hour set on the opening night, many have described the "absolute chaos" that ensued in the city centre car parks once the concert ended at 10.30pm and everyone swarmed to get home. One wrote on Twitter at 12.29am: "Will definitely will not be returning to Cardiff after being sat in the car park for over an hour and counting".
Another tweeted at 12.53am: "My partner has just phoned me, she's been sat in her car trapped in St David's Car Park since 11pm... its absolute chaos!!" He later said in another tweet at 1.24am: "My misses has only now just got out of there... 2 & half hours later..." You can read all our Cardiff stories here.
Another driver wrote to WalesOnline at 12.20am, describing "total gridlock, queues on all levels" in the St David's car park and said people were becoming "very irate". She claimed: "After buying a ticket you only have 15 mins to get out of the barrier. So, consequently, people are getting to the barrier and not being able to get out, so everyone has to phone through to customer services.
"There are security / carpark people about who have so far not helped or tried to speed up the queue by lifting the barriers. The answer we got was, 'it's gridlock around Cardiff, nothing we can do about it'."
It seems the situation wasn't much better in other car parks. Another concert-goer, who wanted to remain anonymous, said her night had been "ruined" after she was stuck in the NCP car park on Dumfries Place for one hour and a half with small children. "No staff updating us, totally stuck," she claimed. "Only moved when one man ripped the barriers off."
Scott McGlynn didn't attend the concert but was one of the commuters who got trapped in the post-concert carnage in the car parks. The actor, who lives in Cardiff, had gone to London via train for work on Thursday. He had been forced to park in St David's car park, after discovering that he couldn't park in Cardiff Central station, which he was told would be closed all day for the nights Ed Sheeran was in town.
"I was unaware [of the car park closure]. I was up for work in London on Wednesday too, and that morning they said it was closed. They said I couldn't park there till later in the week. The person I spoke to said he was having to issue refunds to people who had prepaid for the car park online because they had just closed it. I don't know if they were preparing for the concert. But on Thursday I knew not to park there," he said.
He was advised to park in the St David's car park instead. Figuring the city centre would be busy when he returned from London, he decided to get his train back home an hour later on Thursday, arriving at midnight. But despite returning so late, he said the roads were "manic". He said: "It was crazy. It was so backlogged - taxis, people everywhere, queues everywhere - it was mad. I wish I got the later train now that arrived at 1am, because I didn't get home until 1.30am."
After reaching the car park, it was an hour until he finally left it. "No-one was letting me out. Some people were cut through spaces, they were pushing in from all different angles. It was crazy. I heard someone say, 'It's crazy up there' when I was going to my car."
He continued: "I've been before to a concert in the stadium, so I know how hectic it can be, but I don't know why but this was another level. I don't know what's gone on there," adding that thinks the fact commuters using the train station were forced to use other car parks may have contributed to this.
"After a long day, you don't really have to want to deal with that," he said adding that he will be "avoiding town" for the next few days. The Thinking Out Loud singer will be returning for two more gigs on Friday, May, 27 and Saturday, May, 27. You can read everything you need to know about attending the concerts from where to park to the set list here.
A spokesperson for NCP said: "Unfortunately the traffic on the road was so busy that our customers were having to queue to gain access onto the roads. Customers were all leaving at the same time and it meant they were queuing to gain access to roads which were blocked with traffic. We did have staff on all sites to assist as best as we could, and we are sorry for the delays experienced but we cannot control the traffic on the roads surrounding our car parks."
A spokesperson for St David's said: "A number of different events took place in the city last night, so it was a busy night at the centre and the roads were more congested than usual. We had extra staff on hand to help manage the queues and those staff will also be in place over the next couple of days. We’ll continue to let our guests know when there might be possible delays due to events in the city via our social media channels and would like to thank them in advance for their patience."
They added that the barriers were an important "safety mechanism" to control the flow of traffic outof the car park, and that they are continuing to liaise with the council and the city traffic control, who manage traffic flow outside the car park, to improve things for guests on busy nights.
Transport for Wales, which manages Cardiff Central Station car park, has been approached for comment. You can sign up for our CardiffOnline newsletter here.
