Car park disgrace!

Took two hours of complete stand still to move from the carpark and therefore did not get back to London until 3.30am. Very poorly organised with no stewards where they were needed, and then 10 of them on the road once you got out. Ridiculous planning by Vince Power and completely ruined any good vibes from the music.

Have been to many festivals and have never seen any car park exit so badly organised.

Will not be returning as a result of this and I am sure the thousands of others in the same position will agree.

Absolutely right - we took just under 3 hours to get out and saw one attendant who clearly had no idea what was going on. It completely ruined the day and hopefully Vince Power will suffer the consequences with the thousands who won't bother next time. If you're going to organise an event with no trains afterward then make an effort with the car parking - it's not difficult. Everyone realises it is going to take a while to get out but to have no arrangement other than a total free for all while the organisers presumably just sit back and count their takings is a joke.

thats what it was like, badly organised

A great neil young gig though, his acoustic set was sublime and his A DAY IN THE LIFE
Neil young covering a beatles song
I THOUGHT I HAD DIED AND GONE TO HEAVEN

Totally agree, took two hours to move, and then was a total free for all. I've been to many events with lots of cars, and never before have I seen such chaos.

It would be nice to see an apology and an acknowledgement of what happened.

We had two kids and left 1/2 hour early to beat the rush, but even that was too late, and we basically sat in the car park for 2 hours. We'd came for the whole day, and were at a big disadvantage since we were parked near the front.

As far as we could tell, the problem was caused by no marshals, and people just driving out by any route and bottle-necking at the exits from the farm. Terrible, really terrible.

2 hours toget out the carpark - 2hours 30mins to get backto Birmingham - says it all! Thank god for Neil Young- dont know what bloodfart is on but he really was awesome

It's really not that hard. Have more than one exit, have plenty of people stewarding traffic and ensure people get out safely. Luckily having spent two solid hours stationary in the car there was no danger of me running anyone over.

By arriving early we were seemingly penalised even more by it becoming logistically impossible to get out.

Where were the police?

The V Festival in Chelmsford had this problem once and now has it sorted. Maybe some sponsorsip of car park stewards would make all the difference!!

I agree with previous comments - a heartfelt acknowledgement and apology for this fiasco would be appreciated by the VP organisation or the man himself.

Perhaps it's just as well I couldn't keep my ticket stub!!! That's another subject..


Flaves

andyg wrote:Thank god for Neil Young- dont know what bloodfart is on but he really was awesome

Indeed - what a set. Nice to see the early albums get so much playtime.

Yep 2 hours sitting there waiting to get out they did have three exits but no stewards!!!!
I got there early as wanted to see all the bands a totaly awsome day spoiled by the car parking so was parked in the furthest corner from the exits. Come Vince Power and The Hop Fam sort it out. Seeing Neil Young was just brilliant tho staked out my spot at the front early on fantastic.

It always takes ages to get out of these sort of functions, doesn't it? I expected to get back home at about 3.00, knowing it would take ages to get out and I got in 20 minutes early!!! Great day and Bloodfart? Well............

We managed to get out quickly, but part of the reason we didn't have any delay was that we couldn't find our car in the first place. When we did the car park we were in was nearly empty.

It would have helped if the stewards were better informed and more able to direct the lost and confused. Only one had a map. He sent us back in the direction of one of his co-workers who had sent us up by him. Two stewards said they didn't know anything about the parking and had to ask someone else.

Because we arrived later on in the show (during the Guillemots) we were in the overspill car park. It had no markers such as signs, numbers, etc, and working out where it was in the dark was tricky. But of course being near the exit meant we were out early. On the way through a lot of people were asking us what was going on and if there was any movement. Most people looked resigned to a long wait but they weren't thrilled by it. One car load was dancing under the moonlight to "Harvest Moon" so they were happy enough, but they were the exception.

...the whole thing was a total balls up!

They only had about 4-5 people trying to steward all the traffic in the Yellow Zone and only 1 of those was over the age of 20.

None of them seemed to have any experience and it was only because the people actually got out of their cars and told them what to do that the whole thing got sorted out.

I've been to many events like this and it has NEVER been this bad!!

Vince really needs to get on this website and make an official apology but I bet he's tucked up in BED!!!

Can sympathise with you all. I've experienced this shambles at Hop farm events before so took the gamble of leaving at 10-20pm and missing the last couple of songs. Sailed straight out of there and through a cordon of about 10 police motorbikes sitting there doing nothing. Heard the last strains of 'Words' as I was going out the gate so I gather I didn't miss too much after that.
Some other form of entertainment, especially for the kids, would have been a good idea as my 11 and 12 year old got a bit bored at times especially between bands.
People moan about the organisation at the Hop farm but it was the model of efficiency compared to the Z00 thousand festival at Port Lympne where on Friday my wife and kids arrived at 9am but weren't actually allowed into the arena until 4-30pm !!! when the gates were supposed to open at 10am, no access to food or drink while they waited and then one of the 'headliners' didn't even turn up. Complete disaster!!!!!!

Generally I was happy with this event because it was a lot more like festivals should be. Kids allowed in free, you could take your own food and drink and plenty of people clearing up keeping the site tidy. Great bands, good atmosphere but crap weather.

No Sponsorship : No Branding : and we can now add No F#*king Clue. Mr Power couldn't care I imagine. He only relented on the No Food or Drink because of the response from the very people that he was evidently trying to attract, and of course this was quite some time before the event. There's no point in having entry into the car park well marshalled (good organisation) but leaving the exit to a complete free for all, and yes it was basically first in last out, we made it to the road at just before 2am. Thankfully we only live about 30 miles away, I feel sorry for those with a much longer journey.

Moggett ~ my boredom solution was a nintendo DS with a plastic covering also an umbrella and colouring & Su-Duko for kids ~ mine are younger than yours though ~ I've also got a horrible plastic green sofa in my boot now ~ anything to keep them happy, it was a *&^*^%& to deflate

Got back from gig at 3 a.m. to Leatherhead. We missed collecting our daughter at Gatwick airport even tho we left gig early and missed some of Neil Young. 30,000 people at nearly £50 a ticket. How dare you abandon decent people like that! Never again. You'll get the worst adverse publicity you've ever known. There were marshalls littered all over the exit and the road outside the car parks, bored and underemployed, and ONE beleaguered apologetic marshall inside the car park. This is at best appalling planning and at worst imbecilic. All the enjoyment of Neil Young was forgotten in our desperation to get to our daughter and rage at your irresponsible, shambolic, GREEDY organisation. How difficult is it to put the same number of marshalls in the car park to exit as there were to enter? We're booked for the V festival and this has almost completely put me off going to any outdoor festivals. I should, however, go in order to restore my faith in people's intelligence and decency.
Suzie Williams

Blimey! Lighten up people - it was never going to be anything other than carnage getting out last night, with only one road leading to the site you were guaranteed a long wait. Shame some of you feel that ruined the day - the only thing that would have ruined the day for me was if Neil hadn't shown up!

£50 for a days entertainment of that quality is a bargain if you ask me - and praise the lord for no sponsorship - I was at the 02 festival in Hyde Park on friday, and the huge amount of advertising (adverts screened in between performances!!! wtf?) totally killed the atmosphere. I rather have slightly shambolic organisation and a bit of a wait to leave than ever go to some crappy corporate event like the 02 "festival".

cybr40hn wrote:No Sponsorship : No Branding : and we can now add No F#*king Clue. Mr Power couldn't care I imagine. He only relented on the No Food or Drink because of the response from the very people that he was evidently trying to attract, and of course this was quite some time before the event. There's no point in having entry into the car park well marshalled (good organisation) but leaving the exit to a complete free for all, and yes it was basically first in last out, we made it to the road at just before 2am. Thankfully we only live about 30 miles away, I feel sorry for those with a much longer journey.

Couldn't agree more - the car parking was a joke what with anyone wearing a flourescent jacket, and having an idea of how to move a relatively small number of people, disappearing at midnight. Strange phenomenon that it only seems to happen after the gig when no doubt VP et al are congratulating themselves on a good and presumably profitable day. We got home at 4.40am thanks to being trapped in the car park for almost 3 hours. Also other niggles include; some rather agressive security, got grunted at on entry my bag grabbed, opened and searched without even any eye contact (see Glasto for how security at a really large event should behave) also saw another punter get hassled by a large chap who didn't seem to have anything else to do, not enough loos and food and drink on the whole over priced and of poor quality.

We're regular festival and gig goers and genuinely haven't seen chaos like this for a long time (made the mistake of going to V once but that's for another day!)

What could of been really good (line up great and Neil Young sublime!) was tainted by the niggling doubt that the whole thing was ever so slightly cynical!

Hank Hendrix wrote:Blimey! Lighten up people - it was never going to be anything other than carnage getting out last night, with only one road leading to the site you were guaranteed a long wait. Shame some of you feel that ruined the day

The problem wasn't with the single road - it was with the lack of marshalling. From what I saw, order was partially restored by some altruistic punters who basically gave advice to the young, inexperienced and overwhelmed marshals who were in the wrong locations.

When we eventually got onto the single-lane track out of there (one of three), there were loads of marshals, and they really weren't needed there - they were needed inside the fields to stop the free-for-all stampede for the exits.

I wouldn't say it ruined the day - Young was fantastic - but to sit in a car, having left early, for two hours without moving one inch was pretty extreme, and is neither normal nor necessary. It was badly organised.

It was a f*****g disgrace trying to get out of that place. Like someone else said, I was expecting a *bit* of carnage, but what happened there was downright dangerous. I did try and speak to one of the 15-year-old "marshalls" to find out what was going on but he was doing his best to direct coach passengers at the time, so all I could get was "...it's the weight of traffic". There was someone yelling at the other end of his Walkie Talkie tho, "someones going to get killed here..."

I should have expected it really, school kids uninterestedly waving their arms at cars on the way in, coppers jamming up traffic and (on one occasion) telling traffic to move on straight into other traffic already on the entrance roundabout! Once I saw that and the narrow roads I pretty much knew we were in for trouble. Didn't see one single copper on the way out. Mind you, that may have been a blessing, who knows.

The exits such as they were were totally inadequate, and the "organisation" was non-existent. I followed an AA sign at the exit road saying M25 and ended up in f*****g Tunbridge Wells ffs!

Neil Young was awesome, so were My Morning Jacket. The rain was crap. We left before Neils encore, got to the car at 11:05pm, started moving out the car park around 12:45am, which actually sounds a bit better than some. Made it back to Essex around 2:30am, so thats 3 1/2 hours for the homeward journey. Crap.

Vince Power Media Group contact details here: http://www.vpmg.net/contact/ - maybe if enough of us bitch it won't happen again. I won't be going back tho.

Couldn't agree more with the rest.

The biggest farce I have ever seen to get away from a gig and I've seen some bad ones. We got out of the car park just after 3 hours after getting back to the car. Got home at nearly 4am and have had to take the day off.

Thanks for punishing those who arrived earliest by parking them in the most far flung part of the field.

No transport, abysmal parking arrangements and stewards who had no clue about stewarding and just disappeared.

Other aspects of this concert were also a debacle. Take the toilets for example. Where have you been to a 30,000 festival and seen most of the toilets with only cubicles. The length of the queues was testament to the fact that most of the blokes hadn't found the single toilet in the far corner with urinals.

The directions were also appalling. the festival website indicated there would be directions from all areas. After trying to follow their poor directions and getting lost we eventually stumbled on the place and lo and behold direction signs appear just as you are nearly there. After finally getting out of the car park, half of the local roads are closed even though it is 2 am and you are sent in totally the opposite directions you want to go with no help at all.

Nothing Vince Power could do about the weather but the ridiculous parking situation has placed Hop Farm firmly at the top of my worst organised festival list and one I shall vow never ever to attend again.

See you next year the PA announced as we left (expecting to be home within a couple of hours). Not a chance Vince. I'd rather poke myself in the eye with a hot poker than attend another gig at Hop Farm. You should be banned from organising festivals.

Bloody disgrace.

It wasn't just the car park that was a shambles. The gig was a last minute surprise for me from my parents so no real time to book taxis or anything. Hotel was 12 miles away. No taxis = walking along a pitch dark road (with no pavements) with the trickle of cars able to leave speeding along. Didn't exactly feel safe with that.

Neil was excellent, but I'm not sure I'd go back after that shambles. What happened to the Taxis, Mr Power? They all seemed to be booked. The ones that weren't booked didn't seem interested in taking people such a short distance (compared to those heading back to London, etc. in taxis) - one even told me that he would take me in 10 minutes if he couldn't get any other fares! Ridiculous!

Jethro wrote:Other aspects of this concert were also a debacle. Take the toilets for example. Where have you been to a 30,000 festival and seen most of the toilets with only cubicles. The length of the queues was testament to the fact that most of the blokes hadn't found the single toilet in the far corner with urinals.

All 3 main toilet areas across the site had urinal blocks in the "male" sections - the stupidity was in not have more urinals, and putting them in the middle of the cubicles which just made the queuing worse.

Car parking was madness, and the worst i've seen at an event like this (though I have spent big stints in cars at Reading and V before now). Unfortunately, VP isn't going to care less really - he's got his ticket money and we're all out of the arena area - hard cheese. Crap, but thats the way it is at all these things.

[quote="swinny"]

Jethro wrote:Unfortunately, VP isn't going to care less really - he's got his ticket money and we're all out of the arena area - hard cheese. Crap, but thats the way it is at all these things.

He is if he wants to sell anything else! Steve Lamacq was talking about next year, and I don't think VP's ready to retire yet. I suspect this forum might soon disappear due to 'inappropriate comments', though.

Paul_H_42 wrote:I suspect this forum might soon disappear due to 'inappropriate comments', though.

Hope not (although they can delete any post started by bloodfart). Apart from the parking and a little more thought needed on the loo-front, I've no complaints. Check out the news on the Zoo8 festival if you want to put it in perspective...