Revellers at Splendour in the Grass have tried to make the most of the muddy situation, but long queues and “a lack of communication” have left some running low on patience.
Organisers of Australia’s biggest music festival urged fans to turn up to the event on Saturday, after performances were cancelled on Friday.
“The site is weather-affected,” organisers said on Saturday.
“The ground is soft – so please wear your gumboots and rug up for at night.
“However don’t let it wash away your spirit! We have waited three long years for this and have worked so hard to bring you the show.
“Be patient, kind and safe.”
Hilary Randall said she was trying to be patient on Saturday afternoon.
The Sydney woman spent Thursday night in a car with no food trying to get into the flooded campground, before being directed to a different campground on Friday.
“We joined the car queue at for Splendour camping on Thursday at 3pm. At 2am [Friday] we were told by other campers to just sleep in the car. Early the next morning we walked to the front to ask for wrist bands so we could get some food, but we were told no.”
She said by 8am she was directed to the Byron Events Farm to set up camp.
Excited and ready for the festival to kick off on Saturday, Randall spent three hours in a queue at the Byron Events Farm waiting for a bus, with an estimated 600 people still in front of her.
“There is maybe not enough buses,” she said.
“Everyone in this queue has been amazing and everyone is really just trying to make the most of it at this point,” she said on Saturday afternoon.
“This is my fifth year and I have always camped in the actual campgrounds near the festival site and walked in and out all day with no issue.
“I think the difference this year is the lack of organisation or communication, everything just seems to have fallen apart.
“We find out most things from people who aren’t at the festival, people who aren’t camping. I know Splendour has been putting things on Instagram but reception here is so shoddy, nobody is checking Instagram.
“Some direct texts to ticket purchasers would be amazing.”
Liam Bourke and his four mates spent two evenings in their car after their tents were flooded on Thursday night.
“We have a gazebo and two tents attached, one of the tents is totally flooded, the other one is a bit luckier … but we won’t sleep in it,” Bourke said on Friday night.
The group spent the first night in their car because of the rain and woke up surrounded by water.
While their stuff was all wet, they were glad their campsite wasn’t 10cm underwater.
“Some of the people are underwater, it’s not just like a bit of mud, you can’t camp there, people are parked in and they can’t get out.”
Gale force winds and dangerous surf battered Queensland and northern New South Wales, as waves up to five metres created hazardous conditions, closing beaches on Saturday.
However, conditions began to ease as the system slowly moved south east by the afternoon, although hazardous surf warnings remain in place.
The severe weather warning for NSW was cancelled just after 2.30pm.
Zar Chavla, 23, who came up with a group of friends from Newcastle on Thursday morning, said if they got through Friday night, “the remaining two days will be OK”.
Chavla said staff had told him the poles holding up the marquees in the main area were sinking into the ground, which was why Friday was cancelled.
“We feel like they have endlessly said we are going to have a good time and then they cancel.”
Kayla Naugton and her friends had all their things flooded. They couldn’t move their car to get out, and after one volunteer checked to see if they were OK on Friday morning, no one from Splendour had contacted them or come to their campsite.
“There are tankers trying to get some water out but apart from that, nothing,” she said.
She said her group were more annoyed the organisers said it would go ahead no matter what – before cancelling the first day.
“There’s just been zero communication and it’s not the volunteers’ fault.
“This weather is bad, but it’s pretty unsafe and it was a lot of money.”
Alex Dray said patrons were annoyed about the lack of communication from organisers but said everyone he spoke to was hoping this wouldn’t be the last Splendour.
“We’ve had two years of lockdowns, now this. It would be a shame for it to be the last one.
“I want this festival to keep going.”
Not everyone was as relaxed, with some deciding the mud and stress just wasn’t worth it.
“We arrived in the lineup to the festival at 5.20pm – didn’t enter festival grounds until 3.05am,” said Daniel Waters, who along with thousands of others, waited in line on Thursday evening to get in.
“By the time we entered the festival grounds, we could only find three staff members on site, all of whom were clearly exhausted,” he said.
Waters and his mates were assigned a camp spot in the day-parking area, and set up their tent, which flooded within a few hours.
In the morning, with the rain still pouring, they decided to leave.
“We’re also hoping that we can somehow get a full refund of the ticket due to the entire festival being ruined by the weather conditions and poor organisation.”
Splendour in the Grass has been contacted for comment.
