Splendour in the Grass revellers claim they were forced to wait in “hellish” queues for up to six hours just to get on a bus out of the festival grounds on Saturday night.
The three-day music festival has been plagued by problems after relentless rain turned the site into a flooded marsh and forced organisers to cancel all headline acts on Friday night.
Conditions improved on Saturday as the rain relented and thousands gathered to watch headline acts Jack Harlow and The Strokes perform, but things got messy as the night came to a close.
“When you’ve been in the bus line for four hours and still have so far to go,” one frustrated woman wrote on TikTok as she shared footage of crowds packed together like sardines waiting for transport.
“This is so grim shame on the organisers! What do they expect not allowing people to be picked up and no parking – total scam artists,” wrote one angry attendee.
“This is hell,” added another.
Another woman claimed she had been stuck in the queue for six hours.
At 4am, a defeated group of mates took to TikTok to reveal they were still waiting for a bus after almost five hours in the cold.
“Not to mention it’s a PREBOOKED bus ticket… like they knew how many people needed to go home,” one woman in the group wrote.
“Update: just got home. It’s 6am. The sun is UP.”
Revellers also complained about queues to get into the festival on Saturday morning.
“It’s taken us 2.5 hours and apparently another 45 minutes wait at the festival for entrance,” one person commented on a social media clip showing a huge line of people waiting to get into the showground.
One person tweeted: “#SITG2022 get some buses to BEF where everyone has paid for parking. 3 hour wait and looks like an hour to go.”
Another said: “Three hour bus queue to get from the car park that takes you to Splendour. Another hour once you get to the site. #fail #splendourinthegrass.”
Others attempted to get alternative means of transport to Splendour in the Grass but prices meant not everyone could.
Uber costs for drop-offs to the festival soared as high as $250 on Friday night, – with some popular camping areas around Byron Bay and Mullumbimby experiencing a shortage of Uber rides on Saturday.
The high demand has meant many festivalgoers who forked out savings for tickets, supplies, accommodation and other festival fees have taken to social media in an attempt to split the cost of travel.
For fans looking to travel up to the festival from any of the off-site camping locations suggested on the Splendour website, expect to see a hike in rideshare and taxi prices as an increase in demand and limited number of cars are driving up the prices.
Many who had to make the trek back from Splendour after a miserable day one noted the high rideshare prices.
Posting to Facebook group ‘Splendour In The Grassers 2022’ on Friday night, Riley Lynch was unimpressed by the $150 dollar cost on the way back from Splendour to Byron Bay.
Others shared screenshots of their Uber trips after being slugged $250 for a 25-minute journey out of the festival grounds.
The sky-high prices come after extreme weather saw day one of the festival cancelled.
Thousands of festivalgoers were forced to retreat to Byron Bay after main stage acts, including headliners Gorillaz as well as the Avalanches and Kacey Musgraves, were cancelled as hectic weather turning turned the festival site into a flooded swamp.
The unlucky ticketholders who had to trek through muddy water were promised refunded tickets.
Day two was less chaotic, with Grace Tame the only major act to pull out.
With the rain relenting, organisers are hoping the final day of Splendour will run smoothly as tens of thousands gather to watch rapper Tyler, The Creator headline after sets by Oasis rocker Liam Gallagher and British star Aitch.
Originally published as Splendour in the Grass revellers wait ‘six hours’ to catch bus out of festival
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