What draws music lovers to iconic festivals like Tomorrowland, EDC, HARD, and Mysteryland is the infectious positivity in the electronic dance community. Complete strangers positively interact with one another without preconceived notions, offering water to their fellow dehydrated shufflers, or overhearing the most sincere apology you swear you’ve ever heard for stepping on someone’s foot. You would think that the people who promote and organize these events would foster this kind of culture at their events.
This past weekend, TomorrowWorld organizers, SFX Entertainment and ID&T, showed no signs of respect for their festival goers when a massive storm unexpectedly hit TomorrowWorld. Promoters announced Sunday morning, “The experience of the TomorrowWorld visitors is always number one priority, so TomorrowWorld was forced to close all daily parking lots and drop off locations. TomorrowWorld regrets that festivalgoers with day tickets, guest list tickets, and anyone not already camping at DreamVille will unfortunately not be able to access the festival.”
Essentially, non-campers were denied access for the remainder of the festival in order to keep the integrity of the festival experience in tact, so they at least had to make sure someone was able to enjoy the full TomorrowWorld experience. Which is mildly understandable at best. What makes matters worse is the fact that they cut off all access to transportation and failed to put in place a secure shuttle service because they were the ones who blocked off all vehicle entry points, thus leaving festivalgoers stranded, freezing, and hungry with no transportation or cell service.
Needless to say it was a PR nightmare for TomorrowWorld and all festival organizers involved.
