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ZOO8: the worst festival ever? Attendees speak out
There's anger in the ranks, as attendees of ZOO8 - held over the weekend in Port Lympne Wild Animal Park, Kent - have voiced their disgust at the quality of the festival, on-site health and safety, and the value for money it offered.
The three-day event - July 4-6 - featured Mark Ronson, The Cribs (pictured), Lethal Bizzle, Young Knives and British Sea Power. Dizzee Rascal dropped out at the last minute (presumably to celebrate his number one somewhere else), Athlete did not play as they had not been paid, and a number of other acts reportedly cancelled. The festival's second stage was closed for good on the Saturday due to a faulty tent pole.
Gigwise.com reports that "facilities at the festival were below standard and improper organisation meant delays of up to five hours getting into the event".
Comments on the festival's Facebook page aren't entirely positive, either.
'Liam' comments: "I cant believe how fucking shit this was. Would have had more fun camping in my back garden with some heroin and a razor blade." 'Will' says: "Shambles. That's all I have to say, perhaps a budget and accountant would come in handy for next year's festival... if there ever is one".
And 'Thomas' certainly doesn't hide his feelings:
"This was complete rubbish and between me and my friends we've lost over 2,000 quid because of this. Where's my fucking money back?
"Any why were you still having the complete cheek to sell programmes for the event on Sunday when nothing was happening that was on there? Ridiculous - you should of been giving them away as a souvenir of what a shit organisation you are and how you have raked in everyone's money when they are mostly completely blind to it.
"Bring on ofcom and trading standards - I hope you get fucked for it!"
Did you attend ZOO8? (Official site here.) Was it as bad as people are making out? Just what did - or rather didn't - happen?
From the archive
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this makes me wish
i had gone.
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I've read
that the organisers were arrested. And that Mark Ronson was paid in pound coins.
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paging Bamos to thread.
Bamos to thread!
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Well, the forum isn't there any more...
Conveniently timed eh?
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possibly a mix of
tickets and transport for a big group of mates?
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i was there.
everything you've heard is true.
p.s. i didn't pay.
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it was...
...a shambles, I and a number of my friends bands played the event. Stage times were being altered, as were the stages bands were playing at the last minute. The security didnt have a clue what was going on an promoters and organisers could not be contacted. Big named acts were being replaced on the main stages by unknown bands. There were loads of fights and it was a complete mess.
The list of complaints could go on and on.
I feel sorry for the Aspinall Foundation and Port Lympne Zoo as apparently they had to step in and pay some of the bands because the promoters couldnt. Hopefully people realise it wasnt their fault.
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haha
glad i didnt go to this, heard it started fucking up on friday on the local news
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It's a facebook comment
You can't expect them to have any idea of how the real world actually works. Trading Standards probably a better bet though, yes.
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It did sound ludicrous.
I think there were 8 arenas listed on the website.
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but two grand?? They could have gone on holiday for that
or to a good festival, at least.
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*shakes fist*
get ofsted involved as well.
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:D
Seems normal to me...
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I do hope Ronson was ripped off
you know, on account of him being a cock and all.
-
There are two ways of looking at it.
1. I just seem to haemorrhage money when I go to festivals due to my desire to buy the round for as many people as possible.
or
2. I once spent £4000 on a bean bag. -
The first thing
I did this morning after getting home from my TEN HOUR BUS JOURNEY was email the organiser (on facebook, since the website is conveniently offline) about a refund. I don't expect I will get one but nevertheless I intend to email everyone I possibly can. It was an actual shambles; half the bands had to cancel because they didn't get paid, the security had not been trained or in fact informed where anything was (and they were getting paid less than I did when I worked in a supermarket), the queue to get in at like 11am on Friday was RIDICULOUS, someone kicked in my tent (I KNOW IT WAS YOU)... I had a bad weekend. I even went backstage for a bit and there was like two festival workers in charge of the whole main stage. And no free food. Fuck it, I want my refund.
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I feel sorry for ANYONE who attended this festival
I hope they get some sort of refund.
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...
Attendants deserve it for liking gash acts.
I only know about this due to the terms "Lily Allen" and "Botch" calling me like a siren...
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This and Wild In The Country
bad week for festivals I guess. Hopefully they'll get rained in a little numbers wise next year then and the line-ups will improve as a result.
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It's probably best summed up
by a post last week on Lucky Soul's blog I came across last night when reading up on this - can't remember the exact wording apart from the times, but it was something like "we are playing Zoo Thousand this weekend and will be onstage at 2.30pm. The programme says we will be on at 5.40pm, but that's wrong." Three hours!
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There were SOME good acts.
I expect most of the gooduns pulled out though.
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Wow, that looks terrible.
Organisers apparently marched off site? No drinking water on site after a while? Sounds like a complete mess.
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good christ
Was it made of handstitched unicorn eyelids and solid gold beans?
Point 1 indicates you'd be a useful person to have around at a festival.
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It's not just the lineups
It's the general organisation. There's too many cowboy outfits/well meaning people who don't appreciate how much organisation needs to go into holding a successful event. At least the shambles that was Fflam last year and Wild in the Country were cancelled (albeit at the last minute and pretty shoddily) rather than going ahead with an even worse experience for everyone.
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Yep.
There was never any drinking water, for anyone on the whole site.
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Your name is Jack
and I claim my £5.
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Mere teething problems, allegedly
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7493040.stm
I like how the organisers shut down the forum to quell any suggestion of disenchantment, and within hours they're being related instead in a story on the BBC news ticker.
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Shocking
Surely there's quite bad health implications without there being drinking water? Something like that's more than a teething problem..
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Definitely
Field Day had teething problems (long queues for the bar, shoddy sound on the mainstage). Zoo Festival just sounds like an absolute fucking nightmare. This sounds more like a cavity than a teething problem.
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what a terrible festival it seems
the 2nd stage was closed for a bit on the saturday, and then fully on sunday! Jesus.
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Sounds more like being kerbstomped..
I was at Field Day, and whilst that had it's problems there was enough good stuff to outweigh the bad. (Basically Electrelane, Liars, and finding a spot in the sun for a nap)
Having that many bands pull out, no clean toilets etc makes you wonder how the organisers got the backing to put the festival on in the first place. Not to mention what happened with the budgets... (the story of Mark Ronson being paid in pound coins is funny though)
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All
the good acts can't afford to play festivals where they might not get paid. My friends' record company wouldn't let them go.
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It was unbelievably badly organised
How can it take so long to get so few people into the site? If the 20,000 people they claimed the site would hold had've turned up, there'd have been mayhem.
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same
for Frank Turner, message on his blog saying he wasn't going to play as he was told he probably wasn't going to get paid!
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Picture of
The Hives at the Zoo is the highlight of my day so far.
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imagine
what would have happened if 20,000 people had turned up to camp! the site was practically brimming as it was.
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who were
the promoters?
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Not True
No the organisers were NOT arrested, and Mark Ronson was NOT paid in pound coins. He was paid up front, just as Dizzee Rascal who did a runner with the money and left everyone else scrambling to pick up the pieces.
If you want to blame anyone blame the Port Lympne Zoo, who ON THE DAY blackmailed the organisers for more money or they'd pull the plug, and are now going around telling the news they had to step in to pay the bands because they organisers couldn't do it. Of course the organisers are the ones getting blamed, but don't worry everyone - they're not getting a penny from this. -
Frank Turner's blog
from the day before the festival:
"I won't be playing ZOO8 festival tomorrow. Sorry for anyone expecting to see me down there. Basically the deal is this: I'm a working musician, I earn little money and my budgets are shoestring. I can't afford to take risks with running a whole paid-up band and crew and fuel down to Kent for a risk of not getting paid. No blame for anyone, I just can't afford those risks. Apologies."
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Are you
Mrs Zoo8?
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I went...
it was toss...
We went home Sunday afternoon because nobody we wanted to see had turned up (or as it now seems, been paid) i.e. Late of the Pier, DIOYY?, Charlotte Hatherley, Roni Size, Dizzee, Friendly Fires etc etc etcccc!
Best part of our weekend was our trip to the actual Zoo - to get there we were told we had to walk about 2 miles up a country lane with no pavements and cars going about 60mph. What a treat.
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Truly
awful.
Not only were bands cancelled, but no one, including both staff, audience and artists, knew what was going on so the only way to find out if your favourite band was cancelled or moved to another tent or given a time change was to constantly check every single tent.Even the advertising pissed me off; I have never been spammed on Facebook before (only MySpace) but have been added by numerous false accounts just to advertise the festival.
The best part was the amazing french sausage+potato i ate, and the only good thing about the disorganisation is how easy it was to go in without a ticket and go straight to the help desk pretending to be one of the many people whose eTickets didn't work, so being given a weekend wristband for free, as I saw people doing.
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money aside
what about all the other problems?
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'Bring on ofcom'
fuck it, why the hell not. Get MI5 involved too.
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Oh and I don't believe your claim that......
Port Lympne Zoo demanded more money on the day, surely you had a legal contract in place months before the event took place?
Why would they set out to attempt to ruin an event which was helping to raise money for the Aspinall Foundation?
Your version of events makes no sense at all.
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Post history...
..hmmm..
Pitchforks out.
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"The best part was the amazing french sausage+potato i ate"
Hahaha, definitely signs of a bad festival then!
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GET ME
NICKY CAMPBELL...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/consumer/tv_and_radio/watchdog/contact_index.shtml sign up if you went do it do it do it
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More to the point
why would they then fork out their own money just so that some of the bands actually did play when they were going to pack up and leave without doing so?
It amazes me that promoters usually seem incapable of admitting that it's been a shambles after these kinds of events.
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bullshit.
I spoke to Dizzee's agent on Friday. He wasn't paid the deposit for his fee in advance as the contract said. Neither were most of the other acts from the same agency.
They didn't sell enough tickets to be able to pay Ronson or Dizzee up front.
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Nope.
Not Mrs.Matt Dice sorry, you'll have to throw your eggs elsewhere.
Of course it makes no sense at all, given the subjective anti-Zoo sentiment that's been whipped up since the festival. The only version of events that makes sense now is the negative version that's been touted around.
The zoo saw they were in a position to extort the organisers for the majority share in the business - and now they have rights to the name so if another festival goes ahead, they'll own it, leaving the organisers who did all the hard work holding nothing. Kushty eh. -
Except the fucking mess they left
what with being unable to organise
- water
- toilets
- security/stewards
- money to pay the bands they'd booked
- a safe marquee for their second biggest stage
- money to pay their local crews
- getting x thousand people onsiteYour version would make sense, if the zoo wasn't now left out of pocket and with a reputation quite possibly in tatters and the promoters had been capable of sorting out the basic things that a festival of any size would need before even thinking about bands and stuff.
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yeh that did well out of
that deal didnt they? lucky old them.
your evil conspiracy, the 'negative version thats been touted around' is what every person who's been says, what every booking agent says, what every band says. are they all lying? why would they do that?
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Erm...
The negative statements that have flooded message boards across teh internetz all seem to be first hand accounts of what actually happened, from performers and punters alike. I'm with the majority on this one. And it sounds like NO hard work was done by the organisers, hence the mess they're probably in now.
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I'm sorry, but none of this rings true...........
you're talking about a zoo, not the Russian mafia!
Besides which, referring back to my previous post...what about the legal contract?
You must have had one in place, clearly stating exactly how much money they would be getting (or what proportion of the overall 'take') and signed by all parties concerned.
As such it would be impossible for the zoo to 'extort' money from the organisers even if they were minded to do so (which I SERIOUSLY doubt).
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So why the loyalty to
defending the name of Zoo8 unless you have a business/marketing interest in it seeing as everyone else who seems to have gone as a paying punter had as much fun as Boy George at a Klan rally?
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Organise ??
Doesn't sound like anyone organised any fucking thing !!
-
maybe they threatened
them with a baboon. 'give us some fucking money or we'll get you with our baboon'.
something like that. -
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Payment: Acceptance PAYPAL
Email: Rain@nikepage.com
Tel.: 86-594-3182199
MSN: nikepage02@hotmail.com
Website: http://www.nikepage.com -
Weeeeeeeeeeeeeell..
This does not explain the complete shambles that was the campsite. I was working at the festival so I didn't mind personally about the arena issues, although I did catch Mark Ronson who was top notch.
For me, it was the lack of drinking water (which is illegal), lack of lighting in the campsites which made it very unsafe, security not being provided the information to do their jobs, the huge queues EVERYWHERE making many people miss half the day, lack of food outside of the arena.. so many little things. This was the result of a lack of planning, not extortion from the aspinall foundation on the day. The organisers have A LOT to answer for, whether what you say is true or not. -
Did any of you
visit the zoo?
I adopted a gorilla, highlight of my weekend.
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Next year
missthing organises Pissupinbrewery09.
Punters bemoan lack of beer.
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missthing
if Dizzee 'did a runner with the money' then he would face criminal liability for theft, an action for breach of contract or an action in tort for unjust enrichment.
not likely is it, you utter cretin
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i felt sorry
for the people going to this festival, BEFORE all this this happened. I mean, did you see the line-up?
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Sure
Sorry guys, it seems I did indeed mistake the businessmen at the zoo, making shrewd business decisions, for the Russian mafia. Of course the guys at the top of a world-renowned organisation haven't got expert legal advice to get them what they want when they want it, particularly when they hold the trump card - "our venue, our terms".
Silly me!
I'll let you get back to nursing your camping sores while I sip my legal drinking water in my VIP backstage area.
Invitations to pissupinabrewery 09 coming soon!
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Fear not all you festivalgoers
Look at the festival's name:
ZOO8
At the most they can do a ZOO9, then they're screwed. Because as Chris Morris will tell you, "10 into ZOO won't go..."
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Each post more nonsensical than the last........
What is your connection to Z008?
We all know that you're talking out of your VIP backstage area, but it would be interesting to know why.
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Ja!
Their cooked breakfasts were good!
As were the monkeys that were wearing capes. -
false
i was one of the performers.
the promoters did NOT pay bands up front.
and the Port Lympne people did NOT ask for more money.
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that name is TMd
btw...
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Hats Off to...
a guy called Nick Harrison and a band called Marner Brown - who when the stage was screwed in the middle of saturday as Ronnie Size buggered off (dont get me wrong - fair enough if he didnt get paid!) - and the Crowd were getting less than happy - first this chap on his own came out with an acoustic guitar (Nick Harrison) and saved the stage from being mobbed with angry punters, then followed up by a band that were supposed to open the friday but didnt because of cock ups - and in my opinion one of the best bands of the festival - Marner Brown - Top Band! Shit festival! I doubt there will be a Z009?!?!
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if they hire a spokesman
who doesnt no the difference between 'insecure' and 'unsecure' then it speaks volumes for the festival as a whole.
"On Saturday the infrastructure became insecure and was then fixed and the evening went ahead in there. When the high winds picked up on Sunday, it was necessary to close that down." -
I sincerely hope you weren't involved in ZOO8
All you're doing is confirming everyone's point that the organisers did not give one shit about anything that's important to making a successful festival. You need a good kick in the nuts.
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that doesnt even make sense
and you havent answered the valid questions asked of you. this kind of thing is just going to do your more damage in the long term.
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That sentence was way too long.
*pause for air*
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They have monkeys in capes?!?!!
Awesome.
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1 post...
...have any involvement with these artists by any chance? Fair enough they took to the stage, but what unknown band would not take to the stage to play infront of a few thousand people?
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this is gonna run and run
i like it
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So Dizzee was paid up front then was he?
ZOO8
07 Jul 2008 02:09:30 pm
Dizzee would like to apologize to those of you who attended ZOO8 expecting to see him perform.
With constant rumors over the weeks leading up to the event, that in part due to poor ticket sales the festival was in jeopardy our agents Primary Talent advised us to withdraw from the concert, as we had not received payment in full for the show.
Although a deposit had been paid the promoters of ZOO8 missed 3 scheduled payments and we had failed to receive any payment by late afternoon on Friday the 4th of July.
Due to the fact that at least ten other acts with our agent had failed to receive any form of payment, we followed Primary's advice and withdrew from the show.
Sincere Apologies,
Dirtee Stank Recordings
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I am certainly
going to take the word of an annonymous person who wont admit her involvement in the festival rather than any posts from anyone that paid to go, any of the acts, or any of their promoters.
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But more importantly,
I thought, hey, like its not about the money its about the music? Surely they all should have played anyway?
Yours
SarcasticDevilsadvocateposter#1 -
yoah
i thought everything was brilliant apart from the music and the organisation.
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WHO ELSE BROKE IN?
FUCK NIGEL!
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bet 5 quid missthing
is the creation of one of those pr companies who post false accounts on websites praising their clients or spreading rumours to deflect attention from bad news stories
is there a word for people who perform that role? a proper word other than 'scum'?
-
Poo8
literally.
-
WHY THE HELL
WOULD YOU WANT THE RIGHTS TO THAT NAME NOW?
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nah
its definitely a joke account.
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mark ronson
probably has a scrooge mcduck style pound coin swimming pool thanks to the zutons
-
..
i think we need to give credit to the bands who did perform!! firstly, bizzle was a brave man stepping on stage in place of dizzee and really got the crowd going. the holloways were AMAZING on the main stage as a replacement for athlete and the hives seemed happy enough to be there, despite how small the crowd was in the rain last night.
depsite this, the actual organisation of the event was terrible. obviously there may be "teething problems" but did they really think they could get away without paying the bands?? and if rumours were true that security weren't being paid, we're lucky a serious riot didnt break out!!
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i just sent this email to zoo8 website!
I am not a happy customer,i never normally moan or whinge about things but i feel that the hell and hardship that your festival has put me through has forced me to say something.
how do i begin to express my disapointment? i think i will begin with the parking arrangements,after parking me and my friends almost got run over trying to cross the road from the parking field to the walkway up to the entrance,there were absolutly no signs to tell on coming traffic that we were there or crossing,nor were there any staff alocated at that very dangerous point. surely a simple sign,staff and possibly traffic lights like what glastonbury inforce.
i was shocked to read that you wasnt opening your doors till 10am and that the music started at 2pm, how on earth did you think 20,000 or so people would filter through one entrance with etickets in time to see the first act? why couldnt you open earlier? why couldnt you open on thursday like every other festival does so that people are given an option to stagger their arrival so that major cues are avoided? but no i was forced to stand in a cue for 5 and a half hours in the blistering heat,no staff available to tell us what was happening,no water provided,no first aid. there were a lot of children cueing up with us and i was discussted that they had tpo go through that,im lucky im a reletivly fit man but even i struggled waiting with my belongings for that amount of time without any help or assistance. i cant belive there were no first aid assistance or free water being given out,or any information as to where we were cueing to or how long or what we could do to mabey organise ourselves in the cue so that the process could speed up. i ask the question to you that why is it that last week when i went to glastonbury they could filter through 200,000 people into their event and i had absolutly no problem arriving at a peak time (i knew it was peak time because the glastonbury website has a peak time guide to help you),yet a very small event in comparison had so many problems?
did anyone actually do any studies or investigation as to what might work and what wouldnt,surely its common sence that everyone that had weekend tickets or day tickets for the first day wants to be pitched up and in the arena in time to see the first act! how did you think it was possible in the four hours u gave us?i feel a lot more couldve been done to help us customers,it wasnt a good impression and was not a safe environment to put us into. the only people around to help us were the security guards,they didnt know what was happening,i dont blane them because its not their job. i cannot for the life of me undersatnd why there wasnt any zoo8 representatives around to help? even the staff in the ticket kiosk were not properly informed as to the situation,this comes to my next point the online ticket fiasco. when i buy a weekend ticket to any festival i expect it to include camping,why would i buy any weekend ticket and not want to camp? yes if i lived locally and was going to travel every day but i would say that 99% of the people that bought weekend tickets that i spoke to had arranged to camp.
so why were the weekend tickets as a package with the camping? i cannot belive that we had to buy an added camping pass its absolutly insane,and the fact that it was in no way stated on the online form that we needed to purchase a separate camping pass is just really bad organisation. so after my five and a half hour wait i had to re-cue in the customer service line with thousands of other weekend ticket holders to pay £5 so that i could actually be let into the venue. this, after i had already payed £98 for a ticket is pathetic and further more slowed down the process.one gate to get in the venue, four ticket kiosks(unless your vip) and three customer service personnel were not enough staff or facilities for the peak time that everyone arrived at.
next were the facilities, where was the water? was there any particular reason why the standard campsite had no water facilities? in the heat we had over the weekend i thought this was dangerous and made us spend our own cash on water when surely it should be a human right as we are staying on your property,under your supervision that we should have water facilities? i saw water tubs in the vip camping which was fenced off to anyone without vip bands,and also saw one water tub in the actual arena...how were we suppost to get water? we wasnt alowd to take bottles or containers into the arena so how could we take it back to the campsite where we needed it. absolutly discusting,i felt like we we treated worse than animals. we are the customers,we spent our hard earned money and took time off to come to your event to not even have water provided to us is just unacceptable. the campsite itself was discusting,there were no cleaners, hardly any marked bins,no recycling facilities and the stench of the field after even the first night i wouldnt even place pigs into.
then we come onto the actual event. my disapointment with the acts that didnt turn up for one reason or another is great.i know nothing is perfect and im a keen festival attender so i know acts do not turn up sometimes,but the amount of acts that didnt turn up is unreal. i bought my weekend ticket on the back of what you advertised,you booked the acts,you as a provider to the customers who bought the product are responsible, i did not get the service you advertised.
its the amount of big acts that we didnt see, the tent that wasnt actually safe for the public and on sunday there was literally three tents open in the evening. we had absolutly no idea who was playing,at what time and on what stage? i bought an official programme at a discracful £6 which was completely useless because the acts and times changed completely.
we were given the odd announcment but unless you hung around the main stage at the exact time it was announced we werent to know what acts didnt turn up,as there were so many. it was as if the festival was organised by the local primary school,mabey thats slightly flattering.
i write this email as i am sickned by the level of quality of your festival and how you justified charging me and the rest of the public £98 for the pleasure. i hearby think you should not just offer me a full refund but that as a basic human right i should be entitled to one due to the lack of quality, lack of organisation, lack of service to the public and also the health and safety issues with the cueing and the lack of water facilities.
i hope to hear from you soon
darryl lawson -
Nice rant
but your spelling is hideous!
I would have checked it before sending!!
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what a load of hype
Artcile: Zoo thousand 8
Zoo Thousand 8 the eagerly awaited festival; cheap, great line up and of course it's only on your door step! However when arriving at ten am, I found myself in a three hour queue before I could even see the campsite.
Once in the next biggest issue was camping, how the organisers thought a tiny field would have been big enough for the thousands of people there I don't know, it had already turned into a joke especially when not being able to find a space we went to pitch up on the side of walkway to be told to keep inside the designated areas! (A day later tents where pitched anywhere possible that had grass on it).
When setting up camp the eclectic range of people and the buzz of finally being there was immense, but then after another 2 hour delayed start to get into the arena and music stages, everyone's spirits where only kept alive by alcohol consumption.
Walking around the arena and being able to go from stage to stage to see bands I'd never herd of was brilliant, however finding out their name was a different story. The line up neck things every paid £6 for, ended up being a complete waste of time as NOTHING during the whole three days followed the schedule or order as every day something happened to delay the starts by at least an hour. Due to the lack of signs on the first day I missed Kele from Bloc Party's DJ set, that's if he played of course, and spent half an hour going from tent to tent to find The Pendulum Dj set.
The biggest first blow was waiting for Dizzee Rascal to come on, everyone was crowed around the stage, when after waiting half an hour someone comes out and announces due to circumstances he wont be playing tonight; at this point you feel gutted for the people that played out for a day ticket and waited all night to see him headline before Mark Ronson. Don't get me wrong Lethal Bizzle fill in set was really amazing and it was almost surreal when these hundreds of people all started jumping as soon as his first beat kicked in. You had to admire him for standing in and even defending Dizzie at one point after the abuse given at the poor guy whole told everyone about the change in line up.
I woke up the next day thinking it would all get better, now that was a joke. Hadouken who were due to play got delayed and came on stage in what I assume was anger at the organisers or something. They were fucking amazing though, they played old and new songs; the highlight for me was when they played The Prodigy's 'Fire starter' and these blokey blokey next to us just kept saying 'yes mate, oh my god did you hear that'.
The two hour wait in the freezing cold on the Sunday was the final straw for many, due to a tent falling down in the arena we weren't allowed in due to health and safety (but the Vip's were?!). Many people left to go home after a 'disappointing weekend' and we even overheard 'Zoo8 more like Queue8' which pretty much summed up how everyone felt.
Another thing that made me laugh was the 'random search' into the arena, how they managed to let a stereotypical drug dealer into the venue was beside me (brazenly walking around asking everyone if they wanted anything!), and how they only seemed to pull across the people who looked harmless was ridiculous!
The only good thing I can say about the constantly changing line ups, was finding Polka Party, I caught the end of their set on Saturday night and loved it. Although I was well pissed off at the fact the Tap and Tin tent changed again on the Sunday, these guys were the first to play and they really blew me away their energy was amazing and they really knew how to work up a fed up wet crowd!
Having searched for ages we did catch the whole of The Young Knifes set in the Tap in Tent, they constant energy was really mind blowing and the banter in between the songs really made everyone laugh.
After hearing that another band I really wanted to see The Metros had pulled out I decided I'd had enough and went home! Only to find myself going back after a shower and change of clothes to see Does It offend you yeah?!, having waited forty five minuets at the front of the crowd talking to other fans, a Flogging Molly banner was put on the stage. We asked security what was going on and they said, 'it keeps being changed', I was livid, and so was everyone else by the boos and abuse shouted as it was risen. Now I actually like Flogging Molly, but keeping in mind I'm drenched and cold, I also found myself shouting abuse and getting really angry at the thought of another hour and a half at least in the rain to hear my favourite band. A lot of other fans left when they realised the same fate as me, and everyone seemed convinced the whole weekend was a money scam.
The plus points were the people there, I had a funny discussion with a couple in the queue to the toilet, some of the stall owners whilst getting my morning coffee and the security team were a right laugh. I also loved the way they had a graffiti wall in the middle of the arena it was so good to watch other people's art, and the amusement rides were also a good laugh!
The weekend for me was fun in terms of the company and fun we made, and not through Zoo8's organisation skills. Rumours of scams, people walking out, bands turning up and leaving were all I kept hearing in the many queues I waited in over the weekend. I think next years Zoo thousand 9, will have to pull a lot of stunts to be able to regain the respect and audience it had before this years event.
By Abigail Stephenson
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I love how you put 'by Abigail Stephenson' at the end
It's so cute!
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Age 18 3/4 :D
Zoo8: EPIC FAIL
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err yeah
but you have to remember that the Holloways were supposed to be headlining the 2nd stage but the tent got closed down and Bizzle also got moved up a stage.
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The Young Knifes?
They sound good.
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Lies
I had the funniest weekend of my life... but then i had a free ticket, camped in the staff site (which was empty after most of them walked out on Saturday) and left before the rain came along on Sunday.
I haven't read all the comments, but in case no-one else has mentioned it; gallows were fucking amazing.
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it sounded exciting
"A bloke near us had his tent taken, stole all his possessions and they also burnt all his clothes. Security didn’t seem too fussed about this at all and explained that unfortunately there is nothing they can do; it’s just one of those things. "
My god.
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'astroturfing'
As in false grass roots. That's one term I've heard. There may be more appropriate ones. It's very common - although I doubt zoo8 could afford / be arsed to employ astroturfers. Especially since the organisers are probably dragging a suitcase full of money to the costa del sol as we type.
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POO8
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"just one of those things"
if had a pound for every time someone burnt all my clothes at a festival..
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Something about...........
'Wow dat wuz well random!!!!11'
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hahahahahahaha...
poo8
genius.
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"stolen"
my mate was walking back from the loos at about 5 in the morn and sed that she saw a bloke shouting at security because his tent had been stolen.
security offered to help him look for it but he was convinced it had disappeared. But then to be fair she did also say that this bloke was absolutely off his nut.
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good point
well made
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Other way around
surely?
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^5
: D
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hey
the infrastructure has feelings too you know!
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UPDATE
"We ran out of money," say organisers.
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you = liar
half the bands didnt turn up because they werent paid their deposits like, MONTHS AGO.
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yeh
exactly what he said applies to us. only, replace crew, with lea, and replace no blame for anyone with blame matt dice.
sorry if anyone was expecting us, we were quite looking forward to it as well..
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big fat LOL
was this event organised by a much of media studies students?
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i feel bad for the people who went
but this comments board is worth its weight in lols.
i think we can all call it a "qualified success".
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How the fuck did you get into Bristol?
Please transfer to the meeja studiez course at UWE with immediate effect!
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Filling the state school quota, obvs
Can you enlighten me?!
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yeah
it was close but this beats the zoo8 forum, I've had a right laugh.
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"a potentially dangerous situation that could have turned very nasty!"
and that's just the security's pov :oD rofl...
http://www.kentonline.co.uk/speakout/view_topic.asp?topic_recid=507
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...
"Our biggest problem was one of miscalculation over cash-flow," said Danny Blanche, co-director.
Rough translation "I'm an incompetant cunt who can't use a calculator / spreadsheet"
mind you, the line-up looked shite, so I'm not surpirsed the cashflow was a problem...must have undersold massively
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I got
Knocked to the ground and trampled on during Gallows. Which at the time WASN'T fun, but looking back, is quite an amusing tale.
I am now one massive bruise.
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