- by Jason Gregory
- Monday, July 30, 2007
- filed in: Festivals
Organisers of last weekends (July 27th-28th) Global Gathering dance festival in Warwickshire have defended the event amid complaints it took too long to get into the festival site.
The Stratford-Upon-Avon festival – which saw headlining performances from Basement Jaxx and Faithless – had gone ahead despite the previous weekend’s torrential weather which affected many music festivals across the UK.
One dance fan claimed that it had taken her four and a half hours just to get into the site on Friday evening and that, when finally inside, festivalgoers were faced with a waterlogged campsite.
She told the BBC: "This year it's been diabolical. We queued for four-and-a-half hours to get through security to get our tickets.
“We got in, the campsite was full,” she added. “They said it wasn't flooded, it was flooded, it was boggy."
One of the festivals chief organisers has refuted the fans claims, however, saying that the festival had done everything in its powers to ensure entry was swift and the campsite was safe.
Organiser James Algate said: “Usually I would say fifteen to twenty minutes for getting into the event - I don't know where those people were coming from... I think yesterday's (Friday) queues at a maximum were an hour. To be honest, for a festival of this size that's expected.”
Speaking about the sites safety, he added: "Our festival team have worked incredibly hard to make this site both safe and (able to) accommodate the amount of people.
"The council wouldn't have allowed us to open unless they were happy we had the boxes ticked, so to speak."
Let us know what your experience of this years festival was like by posting a comment below.
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- i paid for v.i.p £105 and it was such a wast of money because we got nothing extra,even tho the toilets were a littel cleaner there was a bigger waiting time as not enough toilets for us v.i.p!the people oranizing it knew the weather was not getting better,so why did they not think (like most people)why not add more cover over the seating and the decking as decking when wet gets very slippery!and when people get wet they get cold where was the heaters!like i said they knew the weather was g
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- Very, very muddy and wet despite the fact everyone was told it would’nt be
- Over 3 hours to get in, all the campsites were mudbaths, the organisers know this is the truth and they should just admit it.
- I liked to see anyone who didnt push to the front who had just a 1 hour queue!!! Rose tinted glasses.... The worst bit was for all the people who were told to move there tents at 6am sat morning, why wernt they told when putting the tents up where to put them!! There was no one organizing of camping to be seen anywhere. Under staffed,hardly any security to be seen in the campsite at all and the most unorganized festival i and all the other people we spoke to have ever been to!!
- Took 5 hours to get in, queueing from 10am, not a member of staff or police in site, no metal walkways as stated on the site, anywhere!, tents where not put up till the saturday, campsite was a huge mudbath, never again.
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