Global Gathering Organisers Defend Festival

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.