Monday, July 07, 2008

Zoo shambles

Another festival disaster: Zoo8 seems to have been something of a nightmare with half the bands not showing, and the venue (a zoo, of course) having to dig deep into their own pockets to see that Ash would play when the promoters didn't look able to guarantee the payment.

Which means, in effect, that the penguins and tigers of Port Lympne were subsidising a music festival.

Even with Ash secured, no-shows and overflows left fans less-than-thrilled:

Fan David Haskoll said there were four toilets and no taps in the campsite, while the toilets in the main arena were "full to overflowing".

Julia Bray, whose daughter was at the event, wrote on a Facebook page: "Hours of queuing, campsite dreadful, bands didn't show up or moved stages, staff very rude or unhelpful."

Another fan, Rachel Collings, wrote: "Badly organised, badly informed. Worst fest ever!"

Hey - Woodstock II would take issue with that.

Funnily enough, though - presumably following the Eavis playbook - those charged with overseeing the event report a wonderful time had by all:
A spokeswoman for the park said: "As with all music festivals, there were some hiccups.

"This being the first Zoo8 at the park, there were bound to be some problems but they were all resolved quickly and efficiently, mainly by our own staff who stepped in to sort things out.

"According to St John Ambulance, Health and Safety, the licensing office, environmental health and the police, they were all happy."

Then again, none of those fine organisations would be expected to factor in the non-appearance of Dizzee Rascal, Athlete, The Rascals or Wiley.


3 comments:

Simon said...

There is a magnificent, although probably apochryphal, story about how Mark Ronson, the only other headliner to appear, was paid. Apparently, along with the striking stagehands and disappearing security (and, it's rumoured, disappearing promoter) upwards of 25 artists didn't appear due to non-payment or their stage being closed, and some of the others chose to let the crowd know what was going on. We've been watching and waiting for it, and now I think festival overload valhalla has been hit.

Unknown said...

First and only Zoo8 I reckon. If only because next year it'll be Zoo9.

Anonymous said...

I think Woodstock '99 might take issue with the claim that the worst fest ever was Woodstock II (the tedious but fairly uneventful 1994 one).

Post a Comment

As a general rule, posts will only be deleted if they reek of spam.