‘Absolute nightmare’: Horror finish for Harry Style fans on Gold Coast

Thousands of Harry Styles fans were forced into a 2km late-night walk only to then face horror congestion after a sold-out show on the Gold Coast.

• REVIEW: Sizzling Harry Styles sends Gold Coast into frenzy

Thousands of Harry Styles fans were forced into a 2km late-night walk only to then face horror congestion following a sold-out Gold Coast show on Tuesday night.

Faced with extreme line-ups for buses outside Heritage Bank Stadium at Carrara when the Grammy award-winning singer’s show finished, thousands of concertgoers opted to walk the 2km along busy Nerang Broadbeach Rd to Nerang Train Station where many vehicles were parked.

Once there, however, motorists faced 40 minute delays to travel 100m from the carpark to the main road.

Traffic on the Gold Coast on Tuesday due to the Harry Styles concert.

Nerang Broadbeach Rd was at a standstill for kilometres, clogged with scores of buses brought in to transport the crowds.

Amanda Horswill and her daughter, Lauren, were two of the Harry fans who opted to wait for buses to transport them to their Gold Coast hotel but after the experience Ms Horswill said she would never again attend an event at the stadium.

“Harry finished at 9.30pm, we couldn’t get out of the stadium and onto a bus until 11.45pm and even though we splurged to stay in a hotel on the Gold Coast we didn’t get back until 1am,” Ms Horswill said.

“I will never go there again. The whole thing was an absolute nightmare. I have no idea why they held it down there in the first place if they couldn’t manage the traffic.”

Amanda Horswill and her daughter Lauren were kept waiting hours for transport back to their hotel after the Harry Styles concert. Picture: Supplied

After finally arriving at their hotel, Ms Horswill said she realised it would have been easier to walk to the train station and travel back up to their home in Brisbane.

Deputy opposition leader John-Paul Langbroek, who also attended the concert, took to Twitter to share his frustrations of trying to get out of the carpark at nearby Emerald Lakes.

“I always thought Boondall Entertainment Centre was bad to get out of after a concert but Emerald Lakes is just as bad after Harry Styles,” he wrote.

I always thought Boondall Entertainment Centre was bad to get out after a concert but Emerald Lakes is just as bad after @Harry_Styles@cityofgoldcoast@GCBulletin#trafficplan#nightmarepic.twitter.com/8jcdfwmd5U

— John-Paul Langbroek (@JPLangbroek) February 28, 2023

Other concertgoers also vented their anger at the traffic management situation on social media.

“This stadium is dead to me,” one person said.

Although another fan said “Harry was worth it”.

Free bus services were offered at the event but were only supposed to run for two hours. With thousands of people left still lining up to get onto buses after the two hours the venue made the decision to keep running services well into the night.

“At first we thought ‘two hours that’s plenty of time’ but after a while the clock kept ticking and there was still a massive line of people to get home,” she said.

There were also reports of severe traffic delays in the lead up to the concert.

Traffic lined up ahead of the Harry Styles concert on Tuesday night.