There were a huge number of festivals this weekend, but the one everyone is talking about is the first ever Zoo8 Festival. Although, not for the reasons the promoters would have liked.
Fans, bands and even the owners of the venue, Port Lympne Wild Animal Park, complained of poor organisation and a number of acts pulled out at the last minute, angering the fans even further. Dizzie Rascal, Athlete, The Rascals and Wiley all cancelled their sets. Lethal Bizzle stepped in to replace Dizzie Rascal and Ash only performed because the managers of the Port Lympne Wild Animal Park, who did not organise the event, stepped in and paid the band themselves in order to secure their performance. Ash bassist Mark Hamilton told BBC Radio Kent: "We didn't know if it was going to go ahead earlier on. There were a lot of issues with the promoters".
So, with everything going wrong on the main stage, at least there was a second stage to enjoy. Except that it was closed for a lot of the weekend after its structure because unstable. A spokesman for the event said: "The Tap 'n' Tin Tent, which was the second stage, had to close temporarily on Saturday and permanently on Sunday. On Saturday the infrastructure became insecure and was then fixed and the evening went ahead in there. When the high winds picked up on Sunday, it was necessary to close that down".
But, hey, it couldn't have been all that bad, could it? I mean, it was a festival in a zoo, after all. Perhaps not - some festival-goers have described the event as a "complete shambles". One told the BBC that there were only four toilets with no taps in the campsite and those in the main arena were "full to overflowing". The mother of another person at the event summed it up saying: "Hours of queuing, campsite dreadful, bands didn't show up or moved stages, staff very rude or unhelpful", while another who was actually there simply said: "Badly organised, badly informed. Worst fest ever!"
All that said, a spokeswoman for the park, while not defending the promoters, who they too had problems with, told reporters that the event wasn't, in the end, all that bad. She said: "As with all music festivals, there were some hiccups. This being the first Zoo8 at the park, there were bound to be some problems but they were all resolved quickly and efficiently, mainly by our own staff who stepped in to sort things out. According to St John Ambulance, Health and Safety, the licensing office, environmental health and the police, they were all happy".