Blues Festival parking charge

Ross Allan, Kingscliff

I purchased a five day pass for this year’s Bluesfest at last year’s festival. No mention was made at that time of having to pay for parking in the future.

I heard through a friend of a friend about this paid parking fundraiser for Mr Noble. I honestly thought it was a scam as I have heard nothing from Bluesfest about this imposition. Being on their mailing list, I hear from them weekly but with NO mention of the parking charge.

I sought clarification of this matter with a follow-up email a week later. They have not had the courtesy to acknowledge my emails, let alone comment on them!

This is morally and ethically wrong. I live at Kingscliff and the regularity of buses (which I believe we have to pay for) means we will be away from home significantly longer for each of the five days than if we drove.

I don’t know how many car spaces there are but it’d have to be close to a couple of thousand. If that’s correct, the daily gross take for Mr Noble would be in the vicinity of $50,000. How much does it cost to run the car park, given that many of the staff directing traffic are volunteers?

I’m disgusted by Bluefest’s high-handed, money-grabbing tactic of announcing changes after we bought our tickets. Surely that is illegal? There’s not much point in offering refunds when many people will have already paid for accommodation and airfares.

Since and including 1994, I’ve attended 16 Bluesfests. I can assure Mr Noble that this year will be my last Bluesfest. That’s a shame but I will not continue to support an organisation that in my opinion has ripped off the punters with this charge.

Remember Mr Noble – what goes around, comes around.