Teen ‘skirmish’ shuts stampede down early
For the first time in 51 years, organizers of the Virgil Stampede in Niagara-on-the-Lake had a “situation” that caused them to shut down the event ahead of schedule Saturday evening.
But it didn’t deter organizers from going ahead with plans Sunday and Monday and wrapping up a successful three-day event.
The decision to close the event early Saturday came near the end of the day and was made to defuse a situation between teens.
Saturday was a day of record crowds, said Phil Leboudec, president of the event host Virgil Business Association, but by about 5 p.m. he and other volunteers noticed an “extremely large group” of teenagers congregating in one area.
“We’ve never seen that before. They weren’t going on rides, they didn’t have wristbands — they really stuck out. It was a different element — not the groups of families and friends we’re used to seeing.”
When a “small skirmish” broke out between a couple of kids, with a crowd of about a hundred other teenagers surrounding them, organizers were able to move in and break it up very quickly, he said.
But when it happened a second time, police were called, and a decision was made to close the rides and shut down the stampede — at that time, about 8 p.m., there weren’t many other people left on the rides or the grounds.
It was obvious the teenagers were there to cause trouble, and in discussion with the officers who had responded, it seemed the best thing to do was to send them home, he said.
“They were intent on causing mischief,” said Leboudec, adding he heard some teens had broadcast on social media a plan to settle their differences at the stampede.
“It was a small group of kids who agreed to come here and do what they did, determined to fight or whatever they planned to do, and they had a captive audience, but it was dealt with swiftly. Within 45 minutes the place was empty.
“At no point did we let things get out of hand. I think we handled it well. We reacted quickly based on the situation as it happened. Never in 51 years have we had a situation like that — this was new to us. If going forward we have to do things differently so families and kids can have a good time, that’s what we’ll do.”
Leboudec said the disturbances that shut down the event later in the day were taking away from the fact that the demolition derby, the main attraction Saturday, “was fantastic, and very successful.” “We had a phenomenal day.” The business association had arranged to have security for the three-day event, but Leboudec heard Saturday morning the security firm had cancelled at the last minute, and attempts to find replacements were not successful. However, he had made arrangements by Sunday to have Niagara Regional Police officers on the property both remaining days.
He said he heard arrests had been made Saturday evening, but as far as he knew that was after the sports park was emptied and off the stampede grounds.
Staff Sgt. Paul Koscinski said officers responding to the call reported there were “some disturbances, some fights, some accusations of assaults,” and two men from St. Catharines, an 18-year-old and a 32-year-old, were arrested and charged with assault. The arrests were a result of separate incidents, he said, one of them at 10 p.m. at the entrance to the Virgil sports park. He couldn’t confirm when or where the other arrest had occurred.
The rest of the weekend went ahead as scheduled, and although the weather wasn’t as good as last year — Sunday was the first day it rained that heavily in five years, said Leboudec — “Monday was superbusy. It started out strong early and it just kept going. It’s been a fantastic weekend.”
Below-seasonable temperatures were a bonus in one respect, he said.
“Clearly cooler weather makes people hungry. We’ve sold more food than we ever have, especially poutine — that’s been big this year.”