The Canadian National Exhibition is re-evaluating its popular Youth Day, after a melee broke out inside the fairgrounds in Toronto on Tuesday night, forcing an early shutdown.
Cellphone video captured fights between several people in a large, moving crowd of youth at the CNE. At one point, some people appeared to be hitting each other, while others screamed.
There was also a false report of shots being fired, which sent the crowd into a panic.
Dozens of Toronto police officers, including a mounted unit, descended on the fairgrounds to control the crowd. The rides and attractions were supposed to stay open until midnight, but management decided to shut the CNE down shortly after 9 p.m.
“When you have families and strollers and people enjoying the night…it just creates a bit of an unsafe environment and we thought because of the actions of these folks, we should just shut the event down,” CNE general manager Virginia Ludy told CTV Toronto.
The melee ultimately resulted in arrests of three teenagers. One of them, a 16-year-old girl, is facing two counts of assault on a police officer. Police allege that the girl was trying to punch and kick officers while they were arresting someone else. Police said they used pepper spray “in an attempt to control the girl” before she was taken into custody and given medical assistance.
CNE estimates that about 80,000 people were at the fairgrounds when the fights broke out. Youth Day is hugely popular, as the price of admission drops to $6 per person after 5 p.m.
But after this incident, CNE management will have to decide whether Youth Day will continue in the future, Ludy said.
“I think we want to sit down and have a conversation with our security partners, with police and our staff internally and just make a determination whether we continue with Youth Day or not.”
With a report from CTV Toronto and files from The Canadian Press
