One Direction Fans Bring South Wales To A Standstill
Fans of boy band One Direction are being blamed for bringing highways across South Wales to a standstill last night. One Direction are playing two nights at Cardiff’s millennium stadium, their first UK concert since former member Zayn Malik sensationally quit the band less than a quarter of the way through their On the Road Again world tour.
As One Direction fans headed for Cardiff along the M4 motorway, the main route into Wales from the South and East of England, they were joined by fans of the Welsh band Manic Street Preachers, who had a gig at Cardiff castle the same evening. The highway is a particularly busy route at the best of times and especially busy on a Friday. It was reported by the Inquisitr recently that there was a threat of rail strikes in the UK on Friday, and this threw many One Direction fans travel plans into chaos.
As a result, One Direction and Manic’s fans took to the road network to be sure of arriving in Cardiff in time to see their heroes perform. The M4 Motorway passes over the river Severn at one of its widest points, and motorists entering Wales are subject to a toll charge. According to the South Wales Evening Post, the sheer number of One Direction fans heading to Cardiff, combined with the usual heavy Friday traffic, produced a nightmare scenario for motorists.
Sky News reports that One Direction and Manic Street Preachers fans faced a 45-mile tailback as they tried to cross into Wales. A spokesman for Traffic Wales said the “horrendous” delays were “definitely because of the two concerts.” As a result of the tailback, many One Direction fans were delayed by over three hours.
Many people made light of the situation by taking to Twitter to vent their frustration. One Twitter user, who is clearly not a One Direction fan, joked that parents taking their children to the show might “be saved” by the delays.
#GoodNews if youre a parent taking your child to watch @onedirection in Cardiff…there's 40 mile queues on the #M4 so you might be saved!
— Jon Hands (@jon_hands) June 5, 2015
Another quipped that the sheer number of people crossing the bridge would pay off the construction costs.
In a rather bizarre turn of events given recent Twitter wars, some One Direction fans reported that Zayn Malik’s friend Naughty Boy was at the One Direction show last night. He has become a hate figure amongst One Direction fans after he and Louis Tomlinson fell out very publicly on social media. A One Directions fan posted a Vine of Harry Styles shadow boxing and suggested he was practicing for when he met up with Naughty Boy.
HARRY WAS PRACTICING BOXING SO WHEN HE MEETS NAUGHTY BOY
— lena (@leeenzyy) June 6, 2015
[Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images]
