After two years of delays due to Covid, the Splendour in the Grass festival is in chaos with ticket holders reporting 15-hour queues, wild weather and flooded campsites.
The Byron Bay grounds of Australia’s biggest music festival have been hit by torrential rain this week, with thousands of attendees arriving to find their campsites inundated with water. Many took to social media to report long queues, as vehicles got bogged and cars ran out of fuel, causing delays.
The Bureau of Meteorology issued a severe weather warning for the New South Wales northern rivers district, but forecasted that conditions will begin to ease on Saturday afternoon.
On Friday morning, Splendour organisers announced on social media that the festival’s main campsite at North Byron Parklands was closing to new arrivals “due to ongoing weather conditions” and directed all incoming travellers to head to the Byron Events Farm 13km away.
All “Accessible, Flashcamp and Tent City” ticket holders will still be accepted at the parklands, and a free bus shuttle will be provided between the two sites.
“The weather and staff shortages were all worse than expected,” a message on the festival’s Facebook page said late on Thursday. “We are doing the best we can – the show will go on rain, hail or shine.”
But festival-goers, many of whom have paid more than $500 each for a three-day ticket and a camping pass, have complained about “total chaos” on their arrival, reporting a lack of communication from Splendour organisers or staff on the ground.
Hilary Randall was in the queue at 3pm on Thursday in her car. She was only admitted to the new campsite at 9.30am this morning.
“At about 2am we got confirmation to turn our engines off and sleep in the car,” she told Guardian Australia.
“It was about 9am when they told us to go to the new camp site. We’ve heard nothing at all from Splendour. Anything we’ve heard has been from other people inside or people further up the queue, or people who are walking up and down the queue trying to find out what is going on.”
“The only messaging we have seen is on social media, which has been ‘we’ll go ahead rain hail or shine’, which is a kick in the guts.”
No food or drink was provided to those waiting hours in their cars overnight, she said.
“We walked up this morning to see if we could just get our wristbands, so we could go in and get food and they told us we couldn’t do that. We didn’t bring food, so we had nothing since 2pm yesterday.”
Guardian Australia audio producer Miles Herbert arrived at North Byron Parklands at 9.30pm on Thursday and said it took two hours to move 20 metres in the queue.
“There were literally cars breaking down, running out of fuel, people pulling over on the side of the road because their car’s battery has died,” he said. “Tow trucks were coming in and pulling cars out of the queue, and people were peeing on the side of the road. Truly horrible, literally the whole night.
“As we were driving into the venue, to our left and right there were people who had just been like, ‘Fuck this, I can’t wait any longer’ and had pulled off to sleep in their cars. So I think that’s what opened things up for us.”
He arrived at his campsite at North Byron Parklands at 4.30am, but it was completely flooded.
“They give us the option, they told us we could risk it if you want … It was just such an absurd situation – truly laughable,” Herbert said. “I think we all thought we were gonna get in, we were gonna get to our tents, everything was gonna be fine. And once we entered the parklands we were immediately confronted with like, that wasn’t going to happen.”
He left the grounds and managed to get a hotel room at 5.30am.
Festival organisers have been approached for comment.
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The chaos comes as wild weather lashed the east coast on Friday.
People were being warned to stay out of the ocean as an offshore weather system moves from south-east Queensland to northern NSW. Beaches are closed and flash flooding is affecting areas of the South Burnett region, about three hours north-west of Brisbane. Drivers are being urged to stay off the roads.
Rainfall totals of more than 100mm have been reported in the Sunshine Coast hinterland, with the town of Maleny among the hardest hit.
A minor flood warning is in place for the Stanley River at Woodford, about an hour north of Brisbane.
The low-pressure weather system is expected to move south on Friday and Saturday.
The festival has also been beset by several acts pulling out recently.
US rock headliners Yeah Yeah Yeahs announced last week they would no longer be playing due to health issues, and were replaced on the bill by The Avalanches. Australian singer Adrian Eagle, New Zealand band Mako Road, US band Surfaces, British soul musician Tom Misch and Spanish rock band Hinds have all also pulled out, being replaced by local acts including Pond and Tasman Keith.
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