In a statement that's likely to raise the hackles of many of those who attended, the organisers of ZOO8 have declared the festival a "qualified success". The statement comes after many fans complained of incompetence and disorganisation.
"Our biggest problem was one of miscalculation over cash-flow” admitted Danny Blanche, Zoothousand Festival Co-Director. “This required us to make pragmatic decision to cancel a few acts. Thankfully, with some vital assistance from Port Lympne Wildlife Park, we managed to keep the show on the road, with the vast majority of the popular acts appearing.
“We also had to temporarily shut the Big Top tent on Saturday entirely because of Health & Safety due to problems with one of the poles supporting the structure. The obvious knock-on effect of this was that we had to move the acts into other performance spaces, which did cause some confusion, but there was no choice – safety always has to come first.”
Blanche continued: “We have had feedback that people were unhappy with the length of time they were waiting to get into the event, and the toilets on the campsite. People turned up much earlier than predicted on Friday causing delays, and the campsites became busier than expected which caused some infrastructure problems. These are all areas that we dealt with as best we could as they arose.
“Obviously, none of this was ideal or planned – and not the quality of experience that we had aimed to deliver – and for that we unreservedly apologise to all those affected by the situation. We want to stress that this was our first festival and that we have dealt with all problems directly and will continue to do so in preparation for next year."
So confident are the festival organisers of rectifying the problems that marred the event, they're already thinking of holding the eventnext year. Said Matt Dice, the festival's Co-Director: “Three other festivals went under this very weekend- we’re operating in seriously tough market conditions but we’ll rectify everything from this year and definitely be back for Z009”.
Were you there? Would do you think? A fair assessment of what happened or an experience different from yours? Leave your comments below.
http://www.xfm.co.uk/news/2008/zoo8-organisers-declare-festival-a-qualified-success
Hehe, good use of picture...
"Our biggest problem was one of miscalculation over cash-flow”
OOPS
Yeah, they forgot that the performers would like to be paid.
Great line though.........
I'm going to go for a meal out tomorrow, leave my wallet at home, order the most extravagant items on the menu and then use it.
put it up on youtube please
In denial?
They sound like they are trying to rescue the situation by glossing over the catalogue of disasters even though it's been widely reported by people who went as a shambles. Remind anyone of an attempt at government spin?
My favourite thing about this
is how when it became apparent people were some way distance of happy they closed the site forum, presuming that would stop any ill feeling from becoming public.
Within hours it was all over the music sites and second top story on the BBC news entertainment section.
jokes.
cashflow line = bullshit. they knew they wouldnt be able to pay bands way before the festival started. thanks for ruining my weekend, matt dice.
Utter Cunts
Trying to put a positive spin on it so that they don't have to offer partial or full refunds is disgusting.
Matt Dice can go climb a wall of dicks
That would be quite easy
If the dicks were erect.
Cock climbing
I think it'll catch on
Steve T
The Companies House website shows the Limited Company behind the event, Wild Life Music Events Ltd, as never having filed any accounts/returns since they were incorporated in February 2007. Which they are legally obliged to do.
Oh and here's some info on one of the organisers, who ran an online pharmaceuticals scam selling knock-off flu drugs (see points 4B & 6B): http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/decisions/html/2006/d2006-0170.html
Does the word "cowboys" occur to anyone else?
wow
im torn between congratulating you for your detective work and worrying about your obsessive stalking of these guys.. maybe let it be.. unless they owe you money personally of course
Amazing
LOL.
Wow x 2
The dude is just a marauding crook looking for the next group of mugs to rip off.
I guess he didn't get much change out the international pharaceutical company and so decided to aim his cheese-loaded spunk rifle at a load of music fans who were unlikely to bring a class action againts his thieving ass.
This is the most infuriating story of the week. By far.
DiS should run this as a news story
C'mon, Diver
"Obviously none of this was planned.."
well obviously.
does anyone
have a list of all bands that were cancelled?
Would also like to know
this
apparently:
dizzee rascal, the rascals newham gernerals, wiley, young knives, athlete, does it offend you yeah, johnny foreigner, late of the pier, roni size, charlotte hatherly, these nw puritans, delays, frank turner, friendly fires, i was a cub scout, mitchell brothers, we start fires, the metros, ox eagle lion man, elle ' sapelle, sunny day sets fire, jacobb stories
young knives played
i was a cub scout don't exist
everything else = yes
as in, yes, they didn't play
OBVS.
copied off
efestivals, ennit
we start fires played on the sturday night after young knives
by cancelled
i guess you mean pulled out.
looking at the whole thing it does seem a bit ambitious for a debut festival "run" by people apparently with no experience of promoting never mind running a festival.
they should have just started off by having a few local bands playing one stage in a field to a few hundred instead of aiming so high without the right backing that it would inevitably fail.
Exactly..........
Truck has been running for a decade and last year they had around 6,000 tickets.
To shoot for 20,000 in your first year, putting the event on a par with the likes of Latitude and Bestival just smacks of greed.
greed
and total stupidity!
lots of complaints:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=32560862824
Blair calls war in Iraq as a "minor military operation"
They should offer refunds, at least partially so. But I bet they don't