St Jeromes Laneway Festival kicked off in Brisbane over the weekend as the first punters in Australia were treated to sets such as The Horrors, The Drums, M83, and Washed Out. But whole event was very nearly washed out after a tropical storm threatened to derail the entire festival.

Organisers quickly responded on Friday, with co-promoter Danny Rogers issuing a statement saying “All stages and punter viewing areas of tomorrow’s event will be hosted undercover ensuring that both the amazing bands and the punters that we want to have the best experience possible can enjoy these artists without the hindrance of wet weather.”

“Despite a week of crazy tropical weather,” he continued. “The vibe on the festival in Brisbane is unbelievably positive. Everything from our end is well on track to deliver a brilliant event, the showers will prove a wonderful relief and the cooler weather conditions are pretty much perfect for an event in Brisbane.”

But not everything went as smoothly as Rogers would have hoped with technical difficulties delaying headiner M83’s set by up to 50 minutes, resulting in a severely reduced setlist. Promoters quickly learnt that when you have a mob of hipsters and gen y music lovers they don’t just keep their anger pent up, it explodes onto social media.

According to FasterLouder, in response to criticism that during the delay organisers at the event failed to inform or keep up-to-date the crowd the promoters have issued a statement of the Brisbane Laneway Festival website apologising for the delay and the technical difficulties during the set.

“We are very sorry for the issues that caused the delay in getting M83 on stage which forced the band to cut their set short by 15 minutes at the Brisbane event last night,” read the statement. “It was due to unfortunate and uncommon technical difficulties beyond M83’s and our production team’s control.”

“Some aspects of their show were not reflective of the way they usually play and M83 performed in these difficult circumstances to the best of their ability and delivered a great show. We are very grateful for your patience and understanding and sincerely hope it didn’t detract from M83’s incredible live performance and a day of amazing music.”

“The promoters apologise for not communicating what was happening during the delays. We ask you to understand that our focus was trying to get the show up and running as quickly as possible and on a number of occasions we thought that the show was ready, only to discover that the problem was still unresolved. It was an unfortunate situation.”

“The sound issues that occurred on the other stages at a few points throughout the day were a consequence of the decision to move the entire event indoors two days prior. While they were unfortunate, the issues were relatively minor and on balance we think a better alternative to standing outside all day in the rain. Our goal was to give you and the bands the best possible solution to something (weather) that was obviously out of our control.”

“We are very grateful for the feedback we received both during and post the event.”

Laneway Festival is in Auckland, New Zealand today, before returning to Australia for events in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, and Perth. Check out our photos from the Brisbane Laneway here.

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