Experts have warned festival-goers to be wary of small music festivals with inexperienced organisers due to the recent rise of festivals prioritising profit over the safety of their attendees.
Michael Baker, who is the events coordinator of the UK festival awards and editor of Festival Insights, blames “greed and poor planning” for poor festival organisation. He argues that many up-and-coming festivals often “get too big for their boots” and attempt to grow too big, too fast, report The Guardian.
Hundreds of festivals across the UK experience last-minute cancellations leaving attendees without anywhere to stay for the night, unacceptable health and safety measures and a failure to prepare for British weather.
Baker continues: “Some people try to circumvent some of that or cut corners and even sell too many tickets or not communicate as well as they should on the day. That leads to festivals getting cancelled and all manner of different disasters. There’s always a few high-profile cases a year”.
Mutiny Festival in Portsmouth recently cancelled its final day after two drug-related deaths. There were concerns throughout the festival about the lack of accessible drinking water though these claims were denied by the festival organisers. Representatives forMutiny Festival said that the team went “above and beyond” to meet the event licence’s requirements.
Parents have spoken out to warn of the dangers of drugs after their children died at the festival. 18-year-old Georgia Jones and 20-year-old Tommy Cowan died in separate incidents at the festival’s site in King George V Playing Fields, Cosham.
Following the incident, Parklife festival have warned over warn about strong ‘Punisher’ ecstasy pills following recent festival drug deaths.