Anarchy In The Grass

I'd just like to draw peoples attention to a statement I made last month, about the time that the announcement for Splendour In The Grass was made:

Where I shake my head.. the ticketing system. Anyone who went, and thousands of people who didn't (and consequently left abusive messages on the Splendour myspace) will express disgust at how it all went down last year. The website crashed repeatedly and many who were lucky enough to even get to the ticket screen were thrown to the back of the queue. I sat there with a phone in hand, redialling with my feet whilst constantly refreshing for god knows how long. I got through eventually, on the phone. This year there will be no phone and the hopes and dreams of every Splendour attendee sit in the hands of Qjump.

If I dont get my ticket because the site goes down, heads will roll. Please Splendour, make me eat my words in some delicious yet environmentally friendly way that makes my crap smell nice.

Well, yesterday was the day. The big day when tickets go on sale and people like myself go into a state of anxiety awaiting confirmation of our attendance. Got through at exactly 9 o clock, straight to the ordering page, did so, entered credit card details and then sat waiting for the order to finish 'processing'. It never did finish. Minutes later the order timed out and it appeared that we were in for another fiasco. And we were.

The 'queue' involved a pink line that moved backwards and forwards at will, clearly not indicative of anyones position in the line (for those who even GOT to the line). The site crashed (surprise surprise) and the SITG forum, not to mention Triple J radio were inundated with calls and messages asking 'WTF?'. Releases were slow in coming and didn't really answer anyones questions at the time. Just after 12 I got through again and tried to reorder my 3 tickets. Only to be told I could order ONE. While this might have led me to believe that the 3 had originally been processed, without being able to go to my account information (due to the site shitting itself) I had no way of being sure. Neither did anyone else. Last night at about 9 I finally got on to see that the order HAD gone through, but its status was, and still is 'Not Finished'. Until it is, I don't know for sure that I've got my tickets. Im 90%-95% percent sure, but not 100. Now I have to play the waiting game for an order that was apparently placed at 9:04 yesterday morning. Not to mention the fact it means that staying on for as long as I did was completely pointless. But come on - waiting for hours on end to see if your order was even placed let alone confirmed is fucking ridiculous.

So did Splendour make me eat my words? No. With the lack of phone and outlet sales did everyone get fucked over like I anticipated? Yes. What, if any, research was conducted after the disaster of last year? It just escapes me how the situation that unfolded yesterday (and is still unfolding) was allowed to happen. How was it not foreseen? Will this help with NEXT YEARS ticketing system? Do I even have tickets? This year has thrown up more questions than it has answered, and created more problems than it has solved. I'm sure that I'm one of many people who will walk into the Belongil fields with a feeling of relief but wondering if we'll even BE THERE a year later.

Thats if we even get our tickets....