Organizers Ill-Prepared for the Crowds at Cypress (2)

Inside the venue there were crowds everywhere.  Trying to fit thousands of people in the space allocated was next-to-impossible and lines were long

Quick summary of the challenges at Cypress:

  • The warming tents (actually I saw only one) were not big enough to hold a freezing cold crowd
  • Apparently one of the heaters broke down in the warming tent
  • For those who had general admission tickets, there was nowhere to sit to take a break.  Standing was required for the entire time.  (I guess you could sit on a porta potty)
  • The line food was impossibly long.  People were waiting more than 1.5 hours.  There was apparently a power outage in the food prep area which contributed to the delays, but generally there were just not enough food stations.
  • But never mind the power outage, they simply ran out of food.

You can imagine after standing in the hungry and cold and rain that once the event finished, people wanted to get home as quickly as possible…  well…

There were buses and then there were none.  People waited in line for more than 1.5 hours because buses had to drop people off and then return to the venue.  When the buses arrived, things seemed very disorganized as staff tried to marshal the buses to the correct locations (for where the people were standing).  There were loud words said on both sides of the fence.

Let’s just hope it was opening-day issues.  I’ll report back on Monday on how it went.

[Sorry, no photos]