Splendour in the mud
IT’S been far from splendour and grass has turned to mud as one of Australia’s most famous music festivals descends into a wild weather horror show near Byron Bay.
The violent weather system lashing the east coast has turned Splendour in the Grass into a chaotic struggle as punters battle knee-deep mud, fivehour queues and tents being ripped from pegs at the Byron Parklands on Friday’s opening day of the weekend festival.
It forced the cancellation of Friday night acts.
One Tiktokker described the nightmare as “hell in there, it’s horror, you’d have to be a certain type of person to survive”.
Since Thursday afternoon, thousands of revellers have descended on the quiet slice of wilderness north of Byron Bay for the long-awaited return of the iconic festival, which features The Gorillaz, The Strokes and former Oasis legend Liam Gallagher on the bill.
The arrival of thousands of gig pigs caused traffic chaos on the Pacific Highway, with cars piled back for 10km, while commuters trying to get to Byron Bay and other northern NSW towns reported delays of up to five hours.
People were forced to sleep in their cars overnight as kilometre-long queues choked the entrance while cars got bogged in mud and ran out of petrol while waiting in queues.
“We got here at 3.30pm yesterday and then we got stuck for hours and hours and hours on part of the road coming in,” festivalgoer Abby Hincks said.
“About 12am, we were still nowhere near the campground and no one has said anything. Not a single worker has come across to us. I walked and found volunteers but they said they don’t really know anything, so we slept in our cars.
“We got into the grounds by 7.30pm and we’ve been stuck in the line into the campground since. It’s so wet that people are getting bogged and some were running out of petrol and there’s just no places to put anybody.”
Social media also went into meltdown as the parklands camping precinct descended into a swamp of rain and mud.
“We have progressed to Splendour in the Mud,” wrote one person on a Tiktok video panning across an inland sea as miserable hordes trudged past in rain ponchos and gum boots.
“Turn around while you still can!” warned one punter to a crowd waiting for a bus to transport people into the campsite.
In a statement on the Splendour website, organisers thanked festivalgoers for their patience and called for people to “be kind and patient”.