Amy WhiteWaterstones has apologised after booklovers complained of “utter chaos” and overcrowding at an event at its flagship shop on Wednesday.
Attendees said the bookseller’s annual BookFest was disorganised and potentially unsafe, with some social media users joking they had “survived” the event while one deemed it “hell on earth”.
Videos posted online showed large crowds throughout the shop in Piccadilly, central London, with long queues winding up the stairs and out onto the street.
The bookselling chain posted on X that it was “truly sorry to hear about any negative experiences”, and told the BBC that the safety of attendees was “never at risk”.
Kellie Greenhalgh said it was “extremely busy” when she arrived at the shop for the annual event, where readers meet authors, access early copies of books, and attend panels and workshops.
But she said that while there were hundreds of attendees, there were no staff present to give directions or assistance.
“I did not see a single member of Waterstones or event staff the whole time,” she told the BBC.
“The queues were all on the stairs, all in front of the lifts.”
The 33-year-old said she queued for an hour and a half to reach one stall: “I was shaking and did not feel well from the heat and stress”.
“One author had a panic attack and had to leave,” she added.
Porsche Barrett, 27, also saw attendees “queuing on the stairs” and “blocking up fire exits”, describing the situation as “downright dangerous” and “pure chaos”.
“Publishers were getting screamed at, people were being shoved, and throughout all of this not one Waterstones employee was there to try and diffuse a horrible situation,” she told the BBC.
Another attendee, who uses crutches, said she was left “standing shoulder to shoulder with hundreds of other people” trying to hand an author a book to sign, and that she was twice knocked over due to overcrowding.
Kellie GreenhalghHanna, 35, who only wanted to use her first name, said she was frustrated because such events were a “lifeline for connecting with others,” particularly for disabled booklovers, and said the event should have been fully ticketed.
While some talks were ticketed, entry to the shop was free – and attendees said access was left open to the general public.
“There was still shoppers trying to browse the shelves pushing through the queues, some with children or more elderly people who had no idea about the event,” Amy White said.
It was “impossible to move” through the shop, she added, and the heat was “unbearable due to the amount of people”.
Another person who attended, Chloe from London, told the BBC “there was no crowd control in place” and criticised Waterstones for “lazy” planning.
“No-one checked the number of people in or out of the building – tell me how they can say that is ‘safe’?”
In a statement posted to X late on Thursday, the booksellers said they would “review and learn from this year to deliver much-improved future events”.
In a further statement to the BBC, Waterstones added that “an unexpectedly high turnout led to very long queues and some crowding around publisher tables and author signings”.
“Both the central events team and the shop team were on hand throughout across the floors, and the safety of our customers was our top priority as always.”
It continued: “We fully appreciate that this was an unusually busy event, which unfortunately may have caused some of our visitors to feel uncomfortable or distressed.”
Additional reporting by Rozina Sini
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