Festival is slammed by music fans
THIRSTY visitors to a Glasgow festival have complained about huge queues for food and drink on one of the hottest weekends of the year.
One woman told how she paid £200 for a family ticket and all she got for her money was “an embarrassing few hours”.
She said the lack of food facilities was “disgraceful” and blasted the ‘third rate’ event.
A GLASGOW festival has come under fire from angry punters who were caught up in huge queues for food and drink on one of the hottest weekends of the year.
Fiesta x FOLD took place at Kelvingrove Park over Saturday and Sunday with a line-up that included Earth, Wind & Fire, Nile Rodgers & Chic, Emeli Sande and Goldfrapp.
However, furious customers have complained over sound production issues and long waits that ruined their experience.
Julie Ross told the Evening Times there wasn’t much fun in the sun to be had at the fest: “I paid £200 for a family ticket and what I got was an embarrassing few hours on Saturday. “So much was wrong with it.” Julie claimed there were long lines of disgruntled customers for food, drink and the toilets.
She said: “The lack of food facilities was disgraceful, made worse by the fact customers couldn’t bring any food or drink in with them. I queued for an hour and a half, leaving the rest of my family sitting waiting for me, but had to abandon my place in the queue as Chic were starting to play, leaving us without any food.”
Julie claimed she would have been better off waiting in the queue for the fish and chips. She added: “Don’t get me started on the sound.
“I have seen Chic and Nile Rodgers twice before – including last year at the bandstand – and they haven’t disappointed. Yet Nile was embarrassed at being unable to provide a worthy show for the paying punters. The sound was so poor I had people having an audible conversation in front of me.
“My family and I had been looking forward to this event for months. We were expecting a great day out, but ended up leaving at 10.15pm because we were so hungry and as the sound of Earth, Wind & Fire was no better than Chic, we, along with many others, walked out.”
Julie suggested for the organisers to scale back the festival or give greater consideration to the location, crowd numbers and ancillary facilities of any future event. She also believes they should consider refunding some of the ticket money for this year’s festival.
Julie added: “£200 is, in my opinion, an awful lot of money to be spending on what turned out to be a third-rate event.”
Many other punters agreed with Julie’s complaints, taking to the event’s Facebook page to air their grievances.
However, there were also many positive comments left.
Lorien Imrie posted: “We had the best day out on Saturday, we loved it. Brilliant atmosphere, great line-up and beautiful weather, who could ask for more. I’ve read a lot of negative reviews which is a real shame.
“I agree that the sound quality wasn’t great to start with but the problems were rectified so all good. As far as for long waits at the bars, well you’re at a festival, what’s the problem? It’s all just part of festival life.
“Toilet queues and conditions by the end of the night – again what would you expect after a 10-hour day which hosted about 10-15,000 people.
“I do wonder if the more ‘mature’ crowd aren’t quite as forgiving as a younger audience would have been. I think the teething problems this year can be easily remedied but you can’t buy atmosphere and lovely people and that is what this festival had in abundance. I hope the negative reviews don’t put people off. We will definitely be back.”
Fiesta x FOLD has been contacted for comment.