Riverfire 2021: Police make just four arrests in crowd of 70,000

More than 70,000 people hit Brisbane’s streets to take in the Riverfire spectacle on Saturday night, but almost just as impressive was this statistic from police that prove the locals were there just to have a good time.

Police arrested just four people in a crowd of 70,000 at Brisbane’s Riverfire last night.

South Brisbane District Inspector Stephen Gough said police were happy with the behaviour of the community.

South Brisbane District Inspector Stephen Gough

There were 67,000 people in the Southbank precinct and a crowd of about 2000 around Kangaroo Point, he said.

“We had one move on direction which is a diversionary method to arrest and we had a number of minor assaults, not serious assaults, but the typical sort of behaviour you would see from public nuisance or drunkenness,” Insp Gough said.

“I think overall, what we can speak of on the large, is those numbers are less than a handful of people in a crowd of 70,000.

Not quite the spectacle of a C17, but we reckon Polair still has the best seat in the house! #Riverfire2021🎆 pic.twitter.com/4xx7vJSIZ2

— Queensland Police (@QldPolice) September 26, 2021

“So those numbers are very pleasing from a policing perspective,” he said.

“When you look at those numbers it’s a handful in a large crowd which is less than .01 per cent which I think speaks volumes from the community that attended the event.”

Insp Gough said two of the assaults happened after the event. There were no Covid-19 breaches.
He said the event was held in the “correct spirit”.

Insp Gough said the event was policed by hundreds of officers.