Newmarket vows no room for loutish antics after music mayhem

Newmarket boss Amy Starkey has insisted that loutish and dangerous behaviour will not be tolerated at the course's popular summer Friday music nights after reports that children were left traumatised and injured following the Little Mix concert last week.

A sell-out crowd of 22,000 packed into the July course to watch pop quartet Little Mix perform, including a number of children and young families.

However, one eight-year-old girl was left covered in bruises having been involved in what her mother described as a 'mosh pit' as well as witnessing scenes of lurid behaviour.

In a Facebook post Chloe Price wrote: “My children have been left absolutely traumatised and covered in bruises. After walking in just two rows from the back it was like being in a mosh pit [with] paralytic 30-stone men falling over [and] children being elbowed in the face.

“Everywhere you looked [there] were crowds of families with young children in absolute tears, petrified [and] fighting their way out just to get their children safe.”

She added: “We had no help from the police, or any sort of management. I'm still up at 1am trying to settle a traumatised little girl, shaking in her bed after being so scared tonight, and [who] doesn't want to go out anywhere ever again.”

Price was not alone in her criticism of the crowd behaviour, and Starkey condemned the actions while adding the perpetrators had been dealt with and that the events of the night would be reviewed.

She said: “We had a sell-out crowd of 22,000 and unfortunately there were a small number of people who didn’t behave in the way we would expect. They were dealt with and ejected from the course as we had a strong police presence and a record number of security.

“We’ll be conducting a review of what happened on Friday and meet with our security advisory group to do a full investigation."

She added: "We’ve hosted over 200 music nights over the last 30 years and had over 200,000 people in attendance.”