Hundreds of Bluesfest punters were forced to walk home to towns around Byron shire early this morning after buses they expected after the festival highlight act ended never showed up.
Scores of angry young people who had waited patiently at the bus zone for almost two hours decided to walk home on the highway.
They risked life and limb walking on the edge of the motorway as speeding B-doubles and other vehicles passed them after 2am.
Some truck drivers had to use their horns to warn the many people who took to the road on foot.
The chaos at the bus zone was obvious as many people asked security staff if any more buses were due and were told they expected so.
Echonetdaily asked one security guard outside the zone who said there were no buses after 12.30am.
But there were no signs or announcements to let people know buses were unavailable after the last gigs.
The impatience and occasional aggression because of the delays were obvious and police and security staff controlling the zone were none the wiser as to why buses were not there.
‘This is ….. appalling, why won’t they tell us if more buses are coming?’ one punter said.
Many gave up and went to the taxi rank, only to have to wait there some more.
‘This is bullshit’, another said, ‘they knew most people would leave after Kendrick Lamar and the Wailers but they just don’t give a rats’.
A spokesperson for the festival or the local bus company Blanchs could not be reached for comment at the time of going to press.
But a Myocum reader said the chaos ‘started way before that!’
‘I was at the Mullum stop at 9.45pm to catch the 10pm bus. It never came!’ she said.
‘At 10.30am, the four people who where waiting with me decided to take a taxi but when I realised it was going to be too long of a walk to the rank for me, I went back to the stop thinking it wouldn’t be long.
‘After an hour and a half wait with the 104.5pm not showing up either, a young man and I decided to get a taxi whose rank now moved closer to the south gate. Over $22 to Queens Street!
‘In the meantime time there was a consistent three to four buses sitting idle, then one would go past me and line up behind three other empty buses at the Byron stop with only the first one getting filled half way!
‘Therefore six to seven empty buses were going nowhere with the Bruns stop getting two buses the whole time I waited.
‘This mirrors the total absurdity of our public transport system which see Blanches and BVC buses on their ludicrous hourly schedules barrel through our small street neighbourhoods belching out diesel fumes with nobody on them!
‘The school and festival runs must be the only thing keeping them from insolvency.
‘Perhaps a small mini bus on a half-hourly schedule would be better. Then I am sure more people would use pubic transport.
‘But what I can’t understand is how they didn’t think of this already?
‘If we want to save this planet from overuse of fossil fuels the Blanches and BVC better get their act together!
‘They could be setting a precedent for other communities in rural area. For our grandchildren’s sake why aren’t they doing it?’ the longtime Bluesfest supporter told Echonetdaily.
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and now this venue has been granted extra days a year so expect this to be a regular occurrence , it’s absolutely crazy of the organizers to not to expect this, suppose anything that will save promoters money has to be a good thing.
It took over 2 1/2 hours to get out of the North car park as well. This is not good enough and there were a lot of angry people around, Put a real damper on what for most was a great night. If it happens again then Bluesfest can count me out!!
“Perhaps a small mini bus on a half-hourly schedule would be better. Then I am sure more people would use pubic transport”. Why would more people use a mini-bus than a bus?!?!?! Stupid!
because mike, they would come along more often and be cheaper to run, they do this in the UK a lot in satellite towns…