*UPDATE*

More reports are coming in about what led up to the altercation. Rumor is the security guard that was involved had been seen inappropriately touching female attendees, someone confronted the security guard, the security guard then may or may not have "choked out" the individual confronting him, others around saw the "incident" and took action on the security guard. Again none of this has been officially confirmed. What we do know for sure is after all was broken up, the security guard then placed a call to the police stating there was a "riot" occurring at the venue.

An official statement has been made from Greg Diamond of Diamond Concerts via the Loud Fest 2017 Facebook event page:

To everyone that attended yesterday: I am truly & deeply sorry on how everything ended. I began booking this year's lineup back in May to get Despised Icon to New Jersey. This lineup was put together to really cater to the scene in this area, to see it all get taken away is extremely tough to deal with. The incident that transpired that led to this show being shut down was caused by a security guard from a private company. The venue has used this specific company for over 4 years through multiple fests & shows and have never had an issue that has ended this way. Fights happen at shows all of the time, this was a completely isolated incident that would've been easily solved and moved on from & the show could've easily continued. To shine some light on what actually led to this show being shut down - after the incident occurred and everything was settled, this security guard took it upon himself to call the police to say that there was a "riot" and that things were completely out of hand. To anyone that attended this show, they could easily see that everything was quite the opposite. The cops showed up in response to this call of a "riot" to see a bunch of people hanging out outside and bands continuing to play. While this security guard was making a scene outside, throwing water bottles and yelling at the cops, I did everything in my power to avoid an over reaction and talk with the police first, but this was all completely taken out of my control. The police entered the venue and began telling people to exit. Despite all of this, I'd like to thank everyone who came out and showed continued support for this type of music. Thank you to all of the bands who came together to shape this lineup into something truly special. I'd like to send a massive thank you to Joe Stanley for moving the rest of the lineup who couldn't play over to Champs in Trenton directly after for a free show. I also sincerely appreciate everyone who has reached out in the past 12 hours asking how they can help in any way. Please continue to post upcoming show flyers in this event page, please continue to post your bands music and please continue to go to shows. Thanks

*ORIGINAL STORY*

Loud Fest 2017 was set for the whole day yesterday in Howell, NJ but unfortunately attendees got shorted and the remainder of the night was cancelled after only a few bands. Reports are scattered everywhere about different stories about what fully led up to everything but the main cause to the shut down was "Due to an altercation between a private contracted security officer and a few concert goers, Howell Township Police cancelled the remainder of tonight's scheduled show," according to a statement made from GameChangerWorld (venue) and Diamond Concerts (see the full statement below).

Rumors are going around online that "fans jumped security," "security was molesting girls crowd surfing" and "security was rough handling a few people." None of these have been confirmed and may just be rumors.