Zoo 08 Festival - 7 July, 2008

Just wanted to make a note of how disappointed I was with the Zoo 08 festival in Kent this weekend. Whilst on paper the festival sounds great, good location, charity backed, line-up looks great and its reasonably priced! Great!…

Until half the main bands drop out that is. Dizee Rascal, The Rascals, Frank Turner, Roni Size, Whiley and Late of the Pier to name a few, all citing the lack of being paid as the reason, fair enough, I wouldn’t work for free, but where has the money gone? why were the bands allowed to reach the site before being informed that there was no money to pay them and why was the festival so badly managed that it got to this stage for so many fans to be disappointed? The cynic in many people might see it as a get rich quick scheme for the festival, drop the big bands at the last minute once the tickets have been sold and save a few grand per band.

To compound the problems on site for fans the second stage was closed for most of the second and third day with the VIP stage doubling up to host some of the second stage bands, but that only those with specific VIP tickets could see these bands, bands that people had paid a lot of money to see. And getting to see the bands you wanted was impossible with all the constant lineup changes meaning no one was on the right stage at the time they were billed…and that was after you had paid £6 for the privilege of knowing what times the bands were on.

Even getting onto the site via public transport was a nightmare as the promised shuttle buses were none existent, instead festivals-goers were reliant on the sketchy local buses, running round all the back villages, and stopping everywhere before getting to the site, and only if you could stand waiting long enough for one to arrive in the first place. Once on site you were lucky to get a camping space as by the second day officials were saying the site was full. Yet ticket sales were down apparently, they hadn’t made enough money to pay the bands, how could the site be full?

Poor management, lack of consideration for fans and a disappointing series of drop-outs and cancellations, a direct result of a badly organised festival may leave a sour taste in many peoples mouths, and one that many might not want to repeat next year.