There was "no chaos" at the Red Hot Chili Peppers concert in Johannesburg on Saturday, Big Concerts have said.

The New Age reported that ticket holders left the FNB Stadium before the main event as they feared for their safety, with the publication citing "poor organisation, lack of crowd control and oversubscription" as the main concern cited by concertgoers after the event.

In a response to queries from iafrica.com, Big Concerts spokesperson Justin van Wyk wrote: "There was no chaos or any significant incident which required us to engage anyone other than our customers in the ordinary course of business. The inferences drawn by the New Age article are sensationalist, every large event has one or more operational issues behind the scenes and this concert was no different to any previous concert held at this venue."

However, the Big Concerts Facebook page was inundated with dozens of complaints about the organisation of the show, with one commenter posting: "As mentioned on numerous comments, the queues were very long, staff were unwilling or unable to assist. The most shocking was seeing girls squatting in the middle of a walkway and relieving themselves as they could not find toilets.

"I feared for my safety as the crowd on the way to the park and ride buses were blocked off by a locked gate and a subsequent scene out of the walking dead played itself out, with people being squashed against the gate, and a few toppling over the fence."

Another wrote: "Sad to say though that the performance was the only good thing because the rest of the event was an absolute, unmitigated abortion, from non-existent security, no parking demarcation or guidance, the bloody staff did not even know where the correct entrances were! FNB stadium too is not that great with poor lighting, no lights in toilets etc which needs to be addressed."

Big Concerts chief operations officer John Langford told The New Age that "all security guards used by Big Concerts were registered with the Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority and that all security measures were discussed with the police who supervised the entire event".