Last weekend’s rainy Neon Lights music and arts festival was hampered by a slew of problems, from technical glitches to long queues and a power cut.
There were issues from nearly start to finish of the two-day outdoor event, beginning with festivalgoers stuck in hours-long queues late Saturday afternoon due to malfunctioning scanners. Those who stayed on Sunday evening for Australian musician Nick Murphy caught a shorter than expected set due to a power cut.
“We regret that this technical glitch prevented Nick from delivering the show that he and the fans expected. It was a huge disappointment for all involved and we apologize to all attendees for the unfortunate circumstances,” the organizer wrote yesterday, in one of two statements addressing cock-ups at the event.
Regarding Saturday’s long queues, the organizer blamed the tech.
“The main reason for this is that there were technological difficulties with the new scanning system that we used at the entrance.”
“This led to knock-on effects of very long queues and slow entry which was extremely frustrating for those arriving at the entrance. We sincerely apologize for this and acknowledge that we should have reacted more quickly and communicated more effectively to the people in the queues.”
The long queues happened between 5pm and 7pm on Saturday, when English electronic duo Honne was playing on the main stage. Festivalgoers stuck waiting posted photos to Instagram of the long lines snaking from the entrance.
English folk-rock band Mumford & Sons had their set pushed back 15 minutes to 7:45pm, allowing late entries to catch the band in time.
Meanwhile, Murphy’s Sunday set was meant to go on for 45 minutes, from 8:30pm to 9:15pm. But when the juice cut, most of his musical equipment was affected, forcing it to end just 15 minutes in, according to online posts.
Responding to fans about what had happened via his Instagram, the 31-year-old said he was just as disappointed as they were, and that he would definitely come back to Singapore to do a full set.
“Hi Zanny me too, the stage had bad power so equipment kept crashing. I wasn’t storming off just wasn’t able to play music without my working instruments. Will come back soon and play a full set,” he said in response to @Zannyleonghie, who thought Murphy had “stormed off” the stage.
“Thank you, will definitely be back to play a full set, I’m disappointed too,” he responded to another fan, who noted there were technical issues throughout his set.
#RefundNeonLights
Festivalgoers have taken their grievances to Neon Lights’ social media pages demanding refunds and complaining about other shows that were affected.
“Soundstage integrity is the bread and butter of any music festival. There were several power cuts during other acts as well (i.e. Aurora). If you guys had one job to get right, it is the freaking sound. But it appears the organizers were more focused on figuring out how to shaft concert-goers for money with their mandatory cashless system and overpriced water. The event was completely mismanaged. Don’t organize a music festival you spineless amateurs,” @Lllooyd wrote on the festival’s Instagram.
“Not even mention Aurora? Power cut in the middle of “Running with the Wolf”? No? Okay. Your festival management was so f***ed up since day one tho,” @Nadnadduchamp wrote.
“REFUND US. [You’re] literally RESPONSIBLE for making sure stuff like power cuts don’t happen at your own event that you made money off,” @Mint.rang wrote.
A “Refund Neon Lights” page has been set up calling for ticket refunds.
Last week, American singer-songwriter Halsey, who was meant to be one of the fest’s star headliners, dropped out of the event, with organizers citing “unforeseen circumstances,” without elaborating further.
More news from the Little Red Dot at Coconuts.co/Singapore.
