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TomorrowWorld Faces Massive Backlash From Punters After Rain Leaves Thousands Stranded

28 September 2015 | 4:10 pm | Staff Writer

Social media has been inundated with the voices of angry attendees at this weekend's event in Georgia

Anybody with a horror story about transport to or from Splendour In The Grass in recent years just got majorly outdone (not that that's a good thing) by EDM festival TomorrowWorld (held this weekend in Georgia), which is being pilloried online after "tens of thousands" of event-goers were left stranded without food, shelter or transport for several hours at the weekend.

Twitter is awash with images and impassioned tweets directed at the event organisers, at whose feet attendees have laid blame for a total lack of logistical preparation, compounded by three days of rain. Despite indications that the precipitation may be getting saddled with more responsibility than called for — only 35mm fell over the 72 hours before the chaos — organisers have nonetheless blamed the downpour (and the damage and obstructions caused to parking lots and pick-up/drop-off zones) for its difficulties, closing its third day to non-camping attendees in the wake of the debacle — not that you'd expect many of the stranded punters to be in a massive hurry to return.

"Mother Nature has decided otherwise," TomorrowWorld organisers wrote on Facebook, in their only address regarding the weekend's events, aside from a follow-up post directing people to their refund policy.

"Continuous rainfall over the last three days has severely limited capacity of the parking lots, entrance roads and drop-off locations in and around the festival site. The experience of the TomorrowWorld visitors is always number-one priority, so TomorrowWorld was forced to close all daily parking lots and drop-off locations."

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Limiting the numbers, however, came way too late to be beneficial for anyone but those who were still on-ground for the festival's final day, when attendance was estimated to hit about 40,000 due to the closures — well down on the 140,000 that had been expected.

Among the widely circulated complaints directed towards the festival — aside from the base inconvenience of being forced to sleep exposed in the mud in the middle of nowhere — are the fact that several of the stranded punters were in possession of festival shuttle passes but no services were being offered or organised; attendees were ushered further down the road (most estimates fall about the five-mile/8km mark) to meet additional shuttles that did not exist; replacement transport was not available through Uber, nor mobile coverage through T-Mobile, despite both companies being partners of the festival; and — good to know we're not alone in Australia with this — volunteers and staff seemed to have little idea as to what they were supposed to be doing to aid the situation.

Have a read of some of the tales to have emerged from the festival grounds below.

In what probably comes as very little comfort for those impacted at the weekend, the final day of TomorrowWorld — at least according to the few positive tweets that have risen to the top of the mass of vitriol being slung at the event — apparently went off without a hitch. But, for those left in the lurch, all the bangers in the world won't scrub their minds of this experience.

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