Harvest Promoter Calls Queues ‘Atrocious’

The inaugural Harvest Festival kicked off over the weekend with events in Sydney and Melbourne, and whilst most enjoyed the amazing lineup of acts there were a few teething problems that sullied what could have otherwise been a perfect day. Promoter AJ Maddah was on Twitter the entire day responding to feedback from punters that gives us a rare insight into the operations of the festival.

Focusing on Melbourne, punters were delighted by the venue which was not only beautiful but provided ample shade through out the site, a rarity at a music festival. The gods also shined upon organisers Soundwave as the Melbourne event was blessed with pretty much perfect weather.

As mentioned in the flyer handed out at the front gate everyone was there to see the amazing lineup of bands. The the bands did not disappoint with Portishead proving naysayers wrong with an incredibly emotional set that worked better than expected in the festival environment.

But the flyer also stressed that promoter AJ Maddah sincerely hoped that people would return next year because the experience was great, and judging by some of the feedback on social media most seem determined to give it a miss next time round.

Melbourne’s troubles can all be stemmed back to poor crowd management, with queues developing for drink tickets, drinks, food, and most importantly toilets throughout the day. The queues were not terrible for the entire day but some unlucky punters got stuck in lines that snaked around the festival grounds and exceeded an hour long.

@googy71 I spent the whole day with army of vols selling coupons out in crowd & then ditstributing free pizza to help queues

— AJ (@iamnotshouting) November 13, 2011

Fans of a cold beer were also no doubt disappointed when the beer ran out halfway through the festival, shortly followed by the cider, wine, champagne, and most mixed drinks.

The toilet situation was also dire with many unable to wait in the long queues instead opting to do their business in the bushes around the site. No doubt the site cleanup around the toilet areas would have been pretty awful.

@ruminski I am still trying to find out about that. we asked for 1 toilet per 60 people (twice as many as most festivals).

— AJ (@iamnotshouting) November 13, 2011

When the festival was over a bottleneck in the car exit and a severe understaffing of traffic wardens meant the carpark quickly decended into chaos reminiscent of a game of tetris and reports on Twitter have people stuck in the jam for 2 hours before they finally managed to get off site.

But it wasn’t all bad news for organisers as ample buses were provided as promised ensuring that no one would be left behind in Werribee when the festival was over. Maddah jumped on Twitter again at the close of the event to offer his thought on what went wrong.

@thetummybugs the food and bev people were fucking attrocious.

— AJ (@iamnotshouting) November 12, 2011

@thetummybugs not only were they light on staff, the ones that were there worked like they were on valium

— AJ (@iamnotshouting) November 12, 2011

LOSSES TODAY: Inept bar operators. Spent 2 hours with our volunteers & staff fixing their fuck-ups & selling coupons to get rid off lines

— AJ (@iamnotshouting) November 12, 2011

The Sydney event did not run into the same problems and most enjoyed their day without much inconvenience. The Brisbane event is next weekend. Do you have a story about Harvest Festival? Tell us about it in the comments below. We’ll have a full review ready tomorrow for your enjoyment.