Splendour In The Grass organisers have issued a statement responding to claims of inadequate transportation from festivalgoers. The complaints predominantly focused on bus services from the festival on Saturday night, with many attendees claiming they were forced to wait several hours in the cold and mud.
As the likes of triple j point out, the complaints came in the early hours of Sunday morning following the first full day of Splendour’s 2022 event, having been forced to cancel events on the main stages on Friday due to severe weather conditions. As punters attempted to leave the North Byron Parklands, lengthy wait times for pre-booked buses left numerous people stranded until the daylight hours.
Splendour In The Grass have responded to the lengthy wait times
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“We got home at 6am from the bus disaster,” wrote one user on Instagram. “Ruined so many people [sic] day!!!” “Imagine having the opportunity to host the premium Australian music event and fucking it up this bad,” wrote another user. “The organisers should be embarrassed.”
On TikTok, users were sharing footage of the chaos, with one user noting that they had been “been waiting 4.5 hours for a bus out of Splendour in The Grass”, noting that this lengthy wait time had been for a pre-booked ticket. “They knew how many people needed to go home,” they added.
Splendour In The Grass organisers addressed the issues on social media on Sunday morning, citing “bus driver shortages” as the reason for the lengthy waits.
“We hear you and we understand your frustration with our bus services last night,” organisers wrote. “Our event site closes at 2am and 90% of our bus patrons were offsite by 3:30am, like it was in 2019.
“Unfortunately, some of our Tweed routes experienced extended delays due to bus driver shortages. We estimate that approx. 1000 people were affected. Our sincere apologies to you all.”
Despite saying they were “doing everything we can to secure extra services for tonight’s exit”, they also conceded the “challenging” nature of such a task. However, attendees were far from impressed with the festival’s response, going so far as to label it “gaslighting”, and challenging the festival’s account of events.
“This is a lie. Part of the continuous denial of people’s actual experiences at Splendour,” wrote one user on Instagram. “How do you expect 1000 people were affected when there wasn’t even any staff there to count us,” asked another.
Splendour In The Grass is scheduled to conclude following a headline performance from Tyler, The Creator.
Further Reading
Splendour In The Grass Organisers Reportedly Knew Of U-18 Rule Change Last Month
Splendour In The Grass Patrons Could Be Compensated For Unlawful Police Searches
