New Delhi, Oct. 28: A Metallica rock concert scheduled in Gurgaon this evening in the run-up to Sunday’s F1 race was postponed till tomorrow after the audience vandalised the venue, but a hint of possible cancellation hung in the air late tonight.

Organisers DNA Networks cited “technical difficulties” for the postponement of the American heavy metal band’s show, F1 Rocks, which was using the Formula One race’s logo.

Gurgaon police commissioner S.S. Deshwal texted this correspondent at 10.08pm, saying the organisers had still not sought permission to have the show tomorrow. Metallica is to perform in Bangalore on Sunday, and sources said it would be difficult for the technical crew and strenuous for the band to play in two cities on consecutive days.

Last February, a Bryan Adams show was cancelled in Gurgaon because the organisers had failed to obtain a no-objection certificate. Learning its lesson, the district administration had this time secured a bank guarantee of Rs 1 crore from DNA Networks, an event management company, so that the audience could be refunded in case of a cancellation.

The organisers said they had sold 25,000 tickets at Rs 2,750 for the front rows and Rs 1,650 for the rest.

Witnesses said the crowd, which had packed into the Leisure Valley resort’s open-air venue after the gates opened at 3pm, grew restless by 5pm.

“Guillotine (a Delhi band), which was supposed to open the concert, didn’t show up. The people in front near the barricades were falling over one another. They began to break the barricades,” said Gurgaon resident Shashank Shah, 26, who was at the venue.

According to those present, the organisers first said the show would begin after the barricades were fixed. But after they were fixed around 6.15pm, the postponement was announced.

“Then people smashed the barricades. Some went and broke the stage equipment. The police just stood and watched,” said Aman Kashyap, a Class XI student from Delhi.

Although Gurgaon police had pledged 70 personnel and the organisers said they had hired 300 private bouncers, audience members this correspondent spoke to put their cumulative tally to just around 50. Shah said he could spot only one SUV carrying policemen and around 20 bouncers.

“There were just four exits, three for the front row and just one for the back. I saw two emergency exits closed,” Shah said, adding that many people lost their tickets in the melee.

A member of Guillotine said on condition of anonymity that the band was backstage and was told the show had been postponed after people began attacking the stage.

“We were supposed to open at 5 with Revisiting Faith, a self-composition. The organisers said, ‘For audience safety, we’ll postpone it’.”

Police commissioner Deshwal, however, denied crowd trouble or poor security and claimed the show was cancelled as Metallica had not reached the venue from their Gurgaon hotel.

“The organisers have not informed the district administration about the reason the show was postponed. The crowd was all peaceful, fun-loving people. They were angry at the organisers but no major violence happened. There was full security,” Deshwal said.

PR consultant Tituraj Kashyap, a regular on Delhi’s music circuit, said: “So many bands come to Bangalore and Shillong but they don’t dare come here. The crowd here is crazy.”

His views were echoed all over Twitter and Facebook.

Tituraj said that when bands like Foreigner and Jethro Tull played in Delhi in the past couple of years, the crowds were only around 2,000.

“It was also a mixed crowd of all ages. For Metallica, though, attending the concert became a style statement to show that one had graduated to western music. It attracted only the youth, mostly those who had never heard Metallica.”

The weak mobile signal in the area meant hours of agonising wait for parents whose children were at the show.

Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah, whose sons Zahir and Zamir went to the concert, tweeted at 7.15 pm: “I’m glad my sons got out from the Metallica madness unscathed. Why can’t we organise an event without drama?”

Karuna Prithvi, media manager of DNA Networks, said: “As of now, it (the concert) is postponed to tomorrow. We are in talks with all police and security officials to get necessary clearances and find out what went wrong today. We have to also take in logistical and other considerations.”

F1 fever

Abhilash Paul, a 23-year-old student of St Xavier’s College in Calcutta and a Formula One junkie, found himself paying through his nose for a bus ride to the Buddh International Circuit.

“But I don’t mind. I’m just waiting to watch Alonso, Massa, Vettel and Webber drive,” he said.

Abhilash, who was in the Don Bosco School go-karting team, has shelled out Rs 8,500 for a seat in Star Stand East right in front of Turn 4. He will be joined by his friends on Saturday when the drivers race for grid positions.

Brit couple Sarah and Phillip Watars are here only for India’s inaugural Grand Prix. “We’d been to India a couple of times before and when we heard that they were going to host an F1 race, we got tickets online.”

Phillip, who has been following the sport for over two decades, was impressed with the circuit. “It’s nice but it’s a pity that we were not allowed to go around the track. Elsewhere, you are free to walk and explore, look at every corner of the track,” said Watars.

Sarah, a nurse, complained of lack of adequate signage and general confusion.

The white-canopied food tents looked pretty and aesthetic but a plate of biryani or a kathi roll came for Rs 300.

Additional reporting by Anasuya Basu