festgrrl likes to stay positive. festgrrl likes to promote the fine musical events put on by dedicated folks. And before this year, festgrrl had great things to say about Floydfest in Virginia.
Not anymore.
festgrrl can, sadly, no longer recommend this fest.
This year, the festival was hit by extreme weather, which is, of course, challenging. And it turned the fest site into a chaotic mudfest. That's nature and that's nobody's fault.
The trouble with this year's Floydfest was not the weather. The trouble was that the fest logistics were horribly managed, adding frustration and even danger to the experience. Job #1 is health and safety for festival-goers. And on these most critical missions, Floydfest failed.
The trouble started way before the rain hit. When we arrived at noon Thursday, we expected to drop off our camping gear on trailers and shuttle up to the fest site as usual. A 30-minute endeavor in my experience in six previous Floydfests. Wow were we surprised to end up in a six-hour line that was a complete debacle.
First, we had to lug all of our stuff -- surprise! -- for THREE HOURS in the hot sun, no water offered, people with kids and gear, having to carry EVERYTHING in 3 lines that inched forward slowly in a hot field. This was a supposedly new and improved system to "check bags" for the short ride up the mountain. Those three lines became a chaotic full-crowd rush when the gear trailers appeared. No volunteers were keeping order. No volunteers had information, they didn't even have directions to the other parking lots when people needed information.
Once that 3-hour nightmare was over, we all had to walk to another field, where we faced hundreds of other concertgoers in ANOTHER THREE HOUR line just to get on the bus for the short drive up the mountain.
And then, once on the bus, we all were shocked to pass a field chock-full of empty, idle busses! The local newspaper later said there weren't enough drivers to use all the buses. Nice planning, Floydfest! You knew how many tickets you had sold and what was required to handle the crowd size, and you fell down on the job completely.
No one had prepared for any of this -- getting there at noon and not getting to the site until 6 pm. Once we got to the top of the mountain, we saw a a giant pile of stuff, and no one available to locate our gear.
Since the fest site has limited space, Floydfest set up remote camping areas a short drive away. After the day's shows ended, people told me they had to wait as long as three hours to get a bus back to their campsite. The festival made a major error in that they did not provide separate buses for folks who were camped in the fest's designated offsite lots. Every time they needed to go back to their camp, their fate was tied up with the giant crowds coming and going to the whole fest -- day ticket holders, etc.
People who had VIP passes -- $700 -- were promised convenient onsite parking, but when they got there they found out they had to park way far away, despite the significant coin they spent.
And then a disastrous rain happened -- a flash-flood rain, an epic rain. That's never fun. So Floydfest shut down all comings and goings. The parking lot where we had started our journey became a dangerous mudbog and people had to be towed out. People with day tickets couldn't come to the fest\at all. OK, we get that part, it's bad weather, and it's unfortunate.
The conditions became truly treacherous at the fest site, with slick mud in key walking routes. At first, they brought in hay to make things safer. And then, they just...didn't. They didn't bring in hay or gravel or anything Saturday night, and people were slipping and falling and getting hurt. They didn't bring in hay to make things safer until Sunday night -- after the fest ended.
People who bailed on Sunday morning had to wait in giant muddy lines for buses. The fest extended musical performances Sunday night and urged people to stay so that the parking areas could dry out a bit more. That made sense.
When they announced that shuttle buses would start to get people off the mountain at 9 a.m. Monday morning, many people lined up starting at 8 a.m. We were sure there would be lines of buses ready to get us off, but... there weren't. One bus at a time lumbered up, and long lines once again snaked through the fest site.
The organizers can say there were just so many people this year, and that the weather was bad, and yada yada, but the truth is, they created a logistical fiasco and we all paid the price.
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