After nearly 2 hours of standing around our car, I approached a Police man & woman to indicate that things were ridiculous. They almost shrugged their shoulders and claimed a second gate was not being allowed to be opened by the airport, and that they and the organisers were "trying to convince the airport authorities to open the gate; other than this there was nothing else they could do."
The airport authority knows nothing of gate restrictions and suggests that you were fed a line to cast the blame elsewhere.