City of the Unexpected (ly large crowds)

I was in the city centre and boy was it crowded. I estimate about 10 times the number that came in for the football welcome home event.
I think some things had to be cancelled due to the huge numbers.
Could not get near any of the events and I felt sorry for parents with strollers trying to get through the throng.
The PA system also seemed unexpectedly small for the numbers, they also had a plane flying over with a "Welcome to Cardiff" banner while the speeches were being made which meant you could not hear anything!!

From the pictures and videos i have seen it looked like a great event, and much more popular than expected. Just goes to show how much pent up demand there is for events like this, and interest in Roald Dahl, i hope this could translate into a dedicated museum in the bay!

We managed to see the peach when it 'appeared' at the the Prince of Wales, but gave up trying to get anywhere near it again after that. The crowd management was poor though - we overheard a policeman saying to his colleague "this has cock-up written all over it". To be fair, its not easy to predict what sort of attendance you will get for an event like this and they wouldn't have presumed such unseasonably good weather. They needed a lot more stewards though, and probably some more barriers. We only saw a handful of SHOWSEC staff who frankly didn't seem to have a clue what was happening and didn't even seem familiar with Cardiff as a city. Later in the day, when the crowds had reduced a little, we saw gangs of Cardiff Council Safety Stewards wandering around. It got the impression they had drafted in extra stewards , but by then it it was too late.

I haven't seen an official attendance estimate, but I don't think I have seen the city busier - other than immediately before or after a big match or event at the stadium. But this was sustained through the whole afternoon and all across the city centre.

We too got quite close at the Prince of Wales. We tried to walk to the castle but it was impassable. We felt it was too risky with our little boy, so we decided to go home early.

Crowd control was a complete joke and it could have easily gone badly wrong IMHO.

I've got a bigger stereo system at home than their PA system.

The one thing that was at the back of my mind was the NICE attacks last month.
None of the steel crash barriers were operated, the ones that are always closed during stadium events, even though the crowds were far higher yesterday. The only protection were a few cones on the many road closure point with a chap in a hi-viz jacket.
Luckily nothing really unexpected happened.

Funny you should mention potential attacks, i suppose its in the back of all our minds. Walking past the Senedd today i noticed as usual the bins overflowing from the day before, which was a joke especially as what has happened in new york yesterday night.

Cardiff has a history of these kind of people in our communities, its bad enough a major tourist area is spoiled by litter without compromising safety and security. maybe they though HMS Kent in Roath dock would do all the work!