TomorrowWorld is now labeled the music festival “from hell”.
Thousands of festival-goers were left stranded at TomorrowWorld and forced to sleep on top of cars and in wet muddy grass.
Organizers of the event offered refunds for Sunday’s ticket holders as the bad weather made the last day of the three-day EDM festival inaccessible.
But those who tried to leave after Saturday night’s closing set were left waiting in the rain for hours as poor planning led to traffic congestion around the festival site outside of Atlanta, Georgia.
The festival was only accessible to visitors in the DreamVille on-site camping area after heavy rain shut down drop-off locations and shuttle bus systems.
According to Mashable.com, people were unable to escape the TomorrowLand 8,000 acre site because organizes prevented cabs, Uber cars, and shuttle buses from approaching pick-up locations. Ultimately, poor preparation by organizers meant those who were not camping on site were left with no food water or shelter.
Many took to Facebook and Twitter to report their hellish experience as they were left with no other options but to walk miles in order to find another way to get home or to sleep in the muddy fields.
In addition, there were allegations that girls were left stranded on the side of the road sexually assaulted.
One Twitter user said: ‘@TomorrowWorld Nice going charging VIP price and offering the homeless experience. Thousands of people sleeping on the road. #NotMagical’
Another added: ‘People of @TomorrowWorld stranded sitting for hours waiting for shuttles/uber some even sleeping in the mud.
Some posted pictures and memes of the nightmarish situation to a Facebook group that sprung up in light of the problems, called “TomorrowWorld 2015 Sucks.”
Sarah Gray said: ‘I saw golf carts flipped over, others trying to push wheelchairs through the mud, people throwing up, and much more.
She added: ‘Worst experience ever.’
The festival was expected to bring over 180,000 visitors to the Georgia hillside but only 40,000 campers remained on the grounds to watch the last day’s performances, Mashable reported.
TomorrowWorld organizes said Sunday
will be refunded entirely and automatically, including service, shipping and payment fees, AP reported.
Single-day tickets cost $145, according to TomorrowWorld’s website.
A statement to visitors on the website said the following:
‘First of all we would like to sincerely apologize for the inconveniences due to the weather conditions and to all who couldn’t be part of the 3rd day of TomorrowWorld 2015.
‘Continuous and unexpected rainfall over the last three days has severely limited capacity of the parking lots, entrance roads, and drop off locations in and around the festival site, and has led to severe traffic congestion.
‘The experience and safety of the TomorrowWorld visitors is and always was our top priority.’
In a statement, Tom Reed, the mayor of Chattahoochee Hills, commented on the TomorrowWorld fiasco.
‘While the rain (compounded by serious promoter communication issues and transportation vendor failures) has obviously caused a mess, with serious parking and access issues, our Public Safety teams and their partners have been working tirelessly to maintain safety. Attendees are now continuing to safely (if slowly) leave the site.
‘We have been in constant communication with the TomorrowWorld folks – once the load out procedure is completed, cleanup inside (and more importantly OUTSIDE) of the festival grounds will be a top priority.
‘Our top priority now is ensuring that folks get home safely now that the festival has ended.’
He added: ‘A dissection of what went wrong, and a process to ensure it does not happen again, will follow.’
