Saturday at TomorrowWorld was an experience you can’t put into words. Several thousand guests were left stranded on dark country roads until 6 am because hotel shuttles buses, off site parking lot shuttles and Uber shuttles ceased operations. Many people slept in the woods or on the road in the cold weather without food or water. The event organizers did not send any assistance to those who were stranded through no fault of their own. – Suzanne Crosswhite

Day two of TomorrowWorld turned into a nightmare for festival attendees as they left the grounds. Due to incredibly poor planning and a complete disregard for its festival goers, organizers stopped allowing vehicles into pick up locations; forcing thousands of non-campers to walk nearly ten miles to be picked up. Vehicles were getting stuck in the mud in the pick up lots, which is what prompted the organizers to close off those areas.

Hundreds of festival goers have been online reporting that it took 4-5 hours to walk to reach a shuttle or an Uber. Once they finally did, they were hit with skyhigh prices, upwards of $250, just to get home. Others could not make the walk, and opted to sleep in the country roads or woods.

Suzanne Crosswhite was someone who was stuck walking hours out of the festival, and she was kind enough to share her experience.

“Our journey: At 12:50 am, my husband and I tried to buy sprite and water from concessions to prepare for the exit adventure. The main stage concession stands were out of sprite and water but were gladly still pouring alcoholic drinks. (There were no water stations available for us to fill up water bottles).

Once you exit the venue, it’s a 2 mile walk to the Uber shuttles. When we arrived to the shuttle lot, security informed us that the Uber shuttles could no longer reach the area and informed us to walk another mile for pick up. Little did we realize, there were absolutely no Uber shuttles down the road. The Uber Lot was approximately 4 miles away and we had no option besides wait for help (which never arrived) or keep walking. We walked 4 miles in total darkness with zero guidance from event organizers. Along the way, many people gave up and just sat on the side of the road. I saw several people injured and unable to continue walking. Some people were too exhausted and chose to sleep in the woods.

After 2+ hours of walking along dark country roads, we got to the Uber lot and there were around 750+ people in line for Uber, but there was not a single Uber in site. We realized something was wrong, so we decided to just keep walking. After walking another mile, we finally began to see headlights and it was Uber drivers to the rescue! The event arranged a $60 flat rate but these Uber drivers instead opted to take the highest bids from those of us still walking. I walked by an SUV asking for $350-500. We were fortunate and found a driver willing to drive the 2 of us for $250. As we drove on, we passed very few Uber cars going to pick up people. We realized at that point, that several thousand people were going to be stranded for many hours because we left the show just as it ended so there were still many left behind. My friend said that there were 1,500 people still in line at Uber at 4:30 am.

It’s not unusual for things to go wrong at music festivals but event organizers need to make attendees safety their number one priority. The event organizers did absolutely nothing to help. They didn’t bring food, water or arrange emergency transportation. They left people overnight stranded on dark country roads.

I will never attend Tomorrowworld again. Saturday night wasn’t ruined by the light drizzle of rain, it was ruined by organizers having zero contingency plan in place to protect the attendees when their shuttle system failed.

Tomorrowworld posted a flyer today calling the event a “fairytale” meanwhile they created a nightmare and they should be fined for their negligence.”

The festival announed that it was cancelling day 3 for anyone not camping on festival grounds to avoid a repeat situation. This leaves about 160,000 out of the festival on day 3, and the organizers have just posted their plans for reimbursement.

The festival’s Facebook page is now overrun with negative comments and law suit threats. Some are also asking how to get their belongings left in the lockers on site.

Check out #TomorrowWorldNightmare on Instagram to see more photos and read more stories from festival attendees like Suzanne.

XO Steph

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