Governors Ball evacuation leads to stranded attendees trashing artwork
Yesterday morning the ninth annual Governors Ball announced that a severe weather concern was going to cause day 3 of the festival to be delayed. The concern pushed doors back to 6:30 p.m., upsetting fans and causing them to send sun and forecast pics to the festival’s socials.
The event did end opening its doors, only to be evacuated three hours later. Unfortunately, getting a mass amount of people to evacuate an island is no easy task, leaving many attendees stranded in the rain unable to leave the island.
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The concern over incoming severe weather had Governors Ball taking to socials asking fans not to come to Randall’s Island Park. The festival later announced an updated schedule of performances after revealing doors would not open until 6:30 p.m. EST.
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Many fans were upset over the delay, stating that the weather was currently clear and sunny with the severe weather not expected to start until after the gates were set to open.
y’all are crazy pic.twitter.com/6UyN5Obkbj
— phoebe (@katysmychampion) June 2, 2019
Y’all know the worst storms are at 8 right? No chance today happens
— Andrew Horne (@AndrewHorneCFC) June 2, 2019
Gates did end up opening at 6:30 p.m., but three hours later the festival announced they would need to evacuate.
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Fortunately, the festival did announce they would be offering refunds for Sunday while posting the following statement on their website:
“After close consultation with NYC officials and law enforcement, it was deemed necessary to evacuate the site and cancel the Sunday evening of Gov Ball 2019 for the safety of our festival goers, artists, and crew. The safety of everyone always comes first.
All customers who purchased a Sunday ticket and Sunday transportation ticket through the Gov Ball ticketing page will receive a refund directly to the account used to purchase. All customers who purchased a 3-Day Pass and 3-Day Transportation pass directly through the Gov Ball Ticketing page will receive a partial/pro-rated refund directly to the account used to purchase. At this time we expect all refunds to be processed within 21 days.”
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Attendees can find info regarding refunds, here.
However, if you’ve ever attended Governors Ball you’re well aware of how difficult it is to get on and off the island. Attendees took to social media to share the “riot” that ensued following the evacuation with many claiming people were dragging the balloon arches and knocking down fences.
First my girlfriends got STRANDED waiting 3 hours for governors ball gates to open, only to get KICKED OUT, then TRAPPED and unable to exit! The bad news keeps coming.#govballfail #govballnyc #govball2019 pic.twitter.com/uMP1P8ezmv
— Nez B (@NezAlpha) June 3, 2019
My fav performance of gov ball is the crowd of ppl who knocked down this giant fence so we could get the fuck off this island pic.twitter.com/XeqaUx0ruH
— AP (@xpetite) June 3, 2019
As someone who has supervised an event staff/fireguards of hundreds in the past I can say that gov ball’s evac plan tonight was a shitshow. Shrugging off attendees with questions and giving out conflicting information is really not cool.
— bad hombre (@badhombreee) June 3, 2019
Live from #GovBallNYC #govball … riots and getting shoved into the storm! Having a blast. Thanks for the hospitality @GovBallNYC. Wish I saw you guys @thestrokes pic.twitter.com/BmioXf3px5
— hels ❂ (@xHelenhu) June 3, 2019
people tp’ing trees, dragging balloon arches, literally rioting like it’s the apocalypse while chanting “refund” “repent” at Gov Ball while evacuating. vid taken before torrential rain and lightning pic.twitter.com/9E000FLgby
— Michael Eisele (@michaeIeisele) June 3, 2019
According to some festival attendees, some were destroying artwork on their way out of the event.
#govball!!! pic.twitter.com/d9sh8E2trY
— emily! (@EmilyHausmann) June 3, 2019
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