The lights went out early on a dazzling visual display along the archway under the Manhattan Bridge Saturday night.
The first annual New York Festival of Light show in DUMBO was shutdown 2 1/2 hours early — at 8:30 p.m. — due to dangerous overcrowding, according to the event’s founder.
“We thought it would be best to close it down early because of the magnitude of all the people around the area,” said Liam O’Braion, co-founder of the festival.
But event goers were left in the dark.
“Festival of Lights show–fail!” Morris Didia, who went to the event with a group of friends, posted on Facebook.
The nighttime display started Thursday night and was expected to run from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.
The glittering lights, multiple DJ sets and three-dimensional last show drew hundreds of visitors on Thursday and Friday.
On Saturday, in an effort to deal with the surging crowd, event organizers tried to stagger the number of visitors through the bridge’s archway.
That didn’t work.
“We are incredibly happy that New Yorkers opened up to us,” O’Braion said. “But safety is the most important thing.”
O’Braion and others were so busy they didn’t post anything on the group’s site announcing the closure.
“It was so confusing. They didn’t announce anything,” Didia said. “It was a complete disaster.”
rblau@nydailynews.com