A day after rain and flooding left many TomorrowWorld attendees stranded and waiting hours for rides, the uber-popular Atlanta-area music festival banned non-camping revelers from entering its grounds.
The electronic music festival in Chattahoochee Hills — about 30 miles southwest of Atlanta — announced Sunday that "continuous rainfall over the last three days [had] severely limited" parking lot capacity and created issues on entrance roads and drop-off locations. It said anyone not already camping on-site would not be allowed in for the final day of the three-day festival.
“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 (on Sunday),” the festival posted on its website Sunday morning. “The last day of the festival will go on for the 40,000 visitors already situated in Dreamville,” an on-site campground for attendees.
The festival said information on a refund policy would “be available soon.” According to the TomorrowWorld website, single-day tickets cost $145.
Weather had been an issue since the festival started Friday, turning fields into mudpits and forcing attendees to be re-routed to auxiliary parking lots. On Saturday night, TomorrowWorld issued a statement apologizing for traffic, entry and exit delays.
Photos showing festivalgoers sleeping on the side of the road — and complaints of hours-long waits for shuttles — made rounds on social media.
Birmingham, Ala., resident Ralph Goodwin told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that his and his wife’s experience at TomorrowWorld was “probably one of the better” ones, but called the weekend “a zoo.” He said he was denied the prepaid on-site parking he paid for, and spent hours getting to and from his car Friday night.
On Saturday night, Goodwin said, five shuttle buses were provided for the tens of thousands of stranded festivalgoers. Issues were exacerbated when people grew tired of waiting and started walking down the already-clogged two-lane road to their cars.
Reach by phone shortly after noon Sunday, Goodwin said he and his wife were headed home to Alabama, where they plan to file a “charge-back” on his credit card for services not rendered.
“It’s absolutely ludicrous for management to say rain is the reason things went bad,” Goodwin said. “Things went bad because they did not know how to deal with it.”
About the Author
