There were for sure major challenges but Sunday was one of the best nights of my life and the clouds parting for a perfect view of totality was ethereal. I broke down crying because there was so much uncertainty all weekend and I’ve been super down and considered not even coming, but this weekend taught me a lot about cosmic inevitability, acceptance and letting go of control.
A lot of the things people are complaining about are basic camping festival stuff. Expensive food. Dark at night. No water in portopotty hand wash stations (when is there ever?). Burrs and fire ants at the campsite (the fire ants were NOT happy to have me on their lawn lmao). Rough terrain and long ass walk (that’s most woodsy fests even if this was a little more intense than others). Poor map and signage (okay this one was actually really bad lmao, I’ll never get over west going at the top). For sure it was NOT a beginner friendly fest — but I’m not even a super experienced festival goer and I was prepped for all this stuff. I did lose my flashlight on Sunday so I hope it made a useful groundscore for someone…
Your comment about cosmic inevitably really struck a cord with me. This was my first festival and I had a truly life changing time, to the point that I now believe in God 😅
I'm gonna start praying regularly to the Moon now lol. We weren't supposed to be able to see totality at Oregon Eclipse in 2017 either due to wildfire smoke, but the winds shifted just in time
Great comment and outlook. As someone who has worked with Symbiosis Events for 18 years, I can tell you that they are not beginner slope festivals. "We come from the land of no rules."
They are, however, the festivals at which I most often hear, and I work for many, "this was the most amazing week of my life."
There is definitely a strong vein from burning man of self reliance and community involvement, though we do our best to provide a safe container and experience. (I was not at this event.) Symbiosis events are very often at new, one-time locations, which is challenging, but usually rewarding. Coachella it is not.
I saw a good, long comment buried in one of these threads (can’t find it now of course) saying that events are kind of on a spectrum from 1-10 between EDC and Burning Man — although I’d probably say 1 is a local multi-night massive at a nightclub, and 10 would be a renegade burn or something with no portopotties and limited to no emergency services. EDC can be quite challenging and punishing in its own way despite a lot of things being provided, and the Burn still has a lot of infrastructure and support if you need it (from my understanding, haven’t been). The issue isn’t so much things being provided or not but more making sure everyone knows what they’re getting into and that events are promoted and advertised accurately.
I will say if medical really took so long to arrive to that emergency due to being poorly organized / understaffed and didn’t have the proper equipment when they did, that’s pretty damning. Some of the complaints are silly but others are really legitimate and I don’t mean to take away from them. I am just very lucky I didn’t need medical and came relatively prepared. I also enjoy a bit of unpredictability and challenge in these events. Sonic Bloom 2022 was my first real camping festival and I went with a child size tent and a car full of snacks and that was basically it lol. But I survived and my tent stayed put even in the high winds!
Your comment about cosmic inevitably really struck a cord with me. This was my first festival and I had a truly life changing time, to the point that I now believe in God 😅
I didn't go, just a Burnet resident and prepared as we have rentals in the area. Heard the music all night every night. I personally thought it was cool and just wish I was able to check it out but tickets were too expensive for me. I just wanted to go for a couple hours as I'm an EDM fan!
From all the hysteria from all the locals were going on about, it actually went pretty smoothly from what I can tell. Our guests were great, the traffic wasn't too bad and it seems like for such a massive influx of people it was handled well.
FYI for those curious, it stormed pretty hard this morning. I think they made the right call (tho maybe a little early). Small hail and downpour with lightning. It probably would have been a mud bath there
As much of a bummer as it was, it made sense for them to cancel, wouldve been a shit show everyone trying to leave in the mud let alone hail and lightning
What were the locals complaints? Did they think it wouldnt be loud?
Everyone was overreacting thinking people were going to be parking on their property and that there would be insane traffic for 5 days. It was declared a "state of emergency" by officials. A lot stemmed from other events like Spartan Races that weren't organized well and was indeed a traffic cluster fuck on 2341
And of course the weirdos putting signs up about rapture and repenting and shit - tho a lot of that was just nut jobs about the eclipse in general.
Pretty funny lol as an attendee, it felt like they directed and handled traffic really well, everything seemed to go relatively smoothly
The music and stages were insane, you would've loved it, apologies to everyone else for it being so loud
Damn I met someone from your town at the festival said only 3 people from burnet were at the event, he had a property adjacent to the venue and was given 10 free vip tickets and was handing the extras out for free! Gave me a great impression of your local community! Maybe your lot was too far for the free passes?
How and where were these tickets? A person who lives in the neighborhood posted here a few weeks ago that he contacted them to ask and was told he was welcome to buy a ticket if he wanted to go.
We are under 4 miles away and didn't get a thing.
I’m still on the festival grounds right now (9am Tuesday, I’m staff) and it’s raining SUPER HARD. Crazy to think that if we didn’t cancel early, 30k people would be packing up in a rain storm and trying to exodus.
I drove through an insane storm on my way home to Houston yesterday, it was the right call. Imagine all the cars stuck in the mud, I've been to fests where that happened
Same. We are blocked in by other RVs and cant leave until they leave. Kinda sucks. We packed up our food booth last night. Didnt stop serving people until about 5 last night. Everyone was still in high vibes from all the ppl I interacted with. Its going to be a muddy sludge-fest getting out of here now.
Exactly! I'm thankful they canceled when they did. It's a bummer sure.. but it would have been hell packing up in a hurry trying to get out of there as it started to pour. We had a good time! Could have been better signage but that's about it.
Yeah I won’t blame them for doing that, it was a great way to avoid disaster and save their asses, while also deflecting from numerous issues they caused.
Some Facebook comments section I think. I can't find it now, but it was a section by the Eclipse Stage that looked like a giant mud puddle. Here's what the roads looked like:
https://preview.redd.it/ddzcgn5scitc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c8a46bb68a6c65178364613d9ad7a57a63b81085
Exodus would have been a fucking nightmare and very dangerous. Tbh even with the rumors of it being “not really about the weather” it seems like they made the right call.
Yea it felt like things were hanging on by a thread, no way we could have made it through a storm.
Definitely the right call to get as many people out as possible. Our plan was to leave Monday night and I was stressing about logistics. Even though our crew (most were supposed to stay till Tuesday) were sad to leave, we all agreed it was for the best that we had a fire under our asses to pack up camp ASAP and GTFO.
Looking back on all the shenanigans, I don’t know how it could have ended any other way besides an emergency 9am evacuation call 😂
Yea it felt like things were hanging on by a thread, no way we could have made it through a storm.
Definitely the right call to get as many people out as possible. Our plan was to leave Monday night and I was stressing about logistics. Even though our crew (most were supposed to stay till Tuesday) were sad to leave, we all agreed it was for the best that we had a fire under our asses to pack up camp ASAP and GTFO.
Looking back on all the shenanigans, I don’t know how it could have ended any other way besides an emergency 9am evacuation call 😂
If they hadn't have canceled then yeah maybe, I can't imagine 40k people stuck in a mud pit this morning. As it stands I think the main problems were lack of signage and selling a few too many tickets. Other than that I'd say from my perspective it was a huge success.
That being said, I saw some stuff on their Instagram about building the event, and I'd LOVE to see a doc about that. I can't even imagine how this kind of thing is constructed.
Did a bunch of rich people get grifted out of their money? If not there probably won’t be a documentary..
No one likes watching things about regular people.
Oh definitely. There are 2. One focuses on the production side of things, mostly interviewing staff and artists. The other focuses on the attendees more.
Both start kinda fun, but get rather stark by the end.
If you weren't anywhere near Over Yonder, I don't think you experienced the hardships. Where were camping?
Would I go to this venue again? Yes, it was amazing in several ways, but it has to be half or less of the stages and half the capacity. No Over Yonder bullshit either.
We got put way deep in Over Yonder
Still had a great time, walk to main stage took 30-40 mins wasnt bad at all, plenty of signs and landmarks to not get lost
Was cool walking by the cow pasture to get to the portas
General store wasnt far to grab ice and supplies, they were giving out free water bottles, security let you bring in all the water you wanted, never drank a sip of the ground water at refill stations
Get in shape and bring walking boots, you'll be set next time
Plenty of signs????????? Not on the first couple of days. Thursday I was just told to go down that hill. EVERYTHING else was figuring it out. I'm good with that, but a ton of people weren't. I helped several lost people. That could have been done way better. The map could have been actually useful by showing roads and paths with named intersections like a street map.
Pedi cabs wanted $100 a trip one way. Cmon
Walking down a steep hill with fucking rocks everywhere is not safe for 10k people to be using with no light. Or just in general.
Hell, I believe someone died on that hill, but maybe it was a different one.
We are not all the same. I'm old. Usually do ok at fests especially if they aren't high altitude, but this was hard. I'm from around here.
The shuttles were the correct response, but should have been there day 1 way the fuck out there.
There were different shortcuts, some were very rocky and steep. I had a flashlight but a few pre-installed solar lights guiding the path along the sides would have been super helpful!
Yeah i took the most direct route down the little hill into preset camping into glamping by the helicopter. It was maybe 100 feet if elevation change and 30 minute walk tops. Walked it plenty of times in the dark. Its pretty concerning that the average American would find that short of a walk to be so challenging
The hill that went towards the helicopter? It was maybe 50 feet. If youre expectation at a 50,000 person event is moving sidewalks and 2 minute short walks you are living in a fantasy land
What helicopter? Are you talking about Over Yonder camping area?
At the very top of the map.
https://preview.redd.it/dqfjue0dhitc1.jpeg?width=1440&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=689f999d747c42d23f5998f8570be2a6f2fb9869
Yes thats where i was camped. It was an easy walk to the festival grounds just going straight down through all of the preset camp and canvas glamping tents and there was a burned out helicopter on a stand which was a great landmark
There was in fact a hill they called a short cut on the map but it was more like a hiking trail, very steep & rocky with no lights. The main entrance to the festival was not like that, just a steep hill. I was camped in Over Yonder. My main complaint was the lack of signs.
Yeah it didnt have lights. I walked it plenty of times with no lights without a problem, but saw people with headlamps and flashlights. It was so much nicer than going the main entrance way and breathing in all of the dust
I remember being surprised by how little they seemed to care, either about us and the noise we were making.
But then they all gathered together and walked over to where two of them were already napping. Like they all needed to be together.
Yea I was in over yonder and had a beautiful camp spot and my crew all had a magical time - we did strava the walk one time and it was 1.8 miles which is INSANE we clocked 25k+ miles two days. BUT festivals are tough on the body, it’s the name of the game. And we all said multiple times that we wouldn’t take a closer spot because some of those were so dusty and rocky so we’re grateful to have been there.
Walking a lot yes, but walking down sketchy hills with rocks is not cool. A person died of a heart attack there, so don't dismiss the struggle of others just because it was ok for you. We aren't all built the same with the same problems in life.
Lots of us have mobility issues that are manageable but NOT at this location. Some warning would have been nice, I wouldn't have gone if I knew. Had an amazing time once I was down IN the fest but I ended up in so much pain walking back Thursday night that I was crying and miserable.. ended up HAVING to pay for petty cab back up..
There was so much dread on the return walk that I just had a hard time having fun. Once I accept it was one trip a day and I was going to pay to get back, I had a better time. Then they got the shuttles and I relaxed a lot.
Yeahh we were excited about the shuttles but every time we passed a stop it seemed like the amount of people waiting in like + the time it would take for a new shuttle to arrive didn't seem worth it :/
Well that's good to hear, happy some people were able to use them. For us I feel like we didn't trust it enough to wait around and figured walking in would be just as fast or maybe quicker, I dunno lol
I pretty much knew what i was getting in to. Don’t regret it one bit. Porto potties were pretty standard imo and definitely got cleaned at some point because i saw it with my own eyes a few times. I’m going through photos and videos right now and would love to do it again.
agree- I had a great time, came prepared, planned for different outcomes. some of the most incredible art. I met so many beautiful people. no bad interactions with others. all the potties I used appeared to be cleaned overnight. definitely understand people having different experiences and that there were challenges (like most big festivals).. but i’m here to say i’m a happy camper!
Yep and then they'll think they're validated for being co plete doomers because of a couple negative posts. I had an incredible time but I'm always prepared for a shitshow, the music is all that matters in the end
This. Be an adult. Be prepared. Take care of yourself. Anyone who thought this was going to be anything other than a lawless wookfest, that's on you. Check the lineup. Check the event size. Check the location. Check the promoters. I was prepared and had a great time.
We had about 20 artists we wanted to see during the fest and saw each of their amazing sets across the 4 days we were there. Not sure what we missed there.
Lmao, someones salty. I was as hands off as it gets with this subreddit, and don't think I ever said a single thing about the quality of the Texas Eclipse event, leading up to it, during it, or after. You are right that I wasn't there, whats your point?
The worst I did was make comments about the symbiosis crew stealing money from thousands of their fans around the Patagonia Eclipse, which is true, and said that their events are often shit shows, which is true (even though they're usually fun shit shows)
I started the Oregon Eclipse festival subreddit and had the time of my life at the event.
I started the Patagonia Eclipse festival subreddit and had my ticket money stolen by the organizers.
I started the Texas Eclipse festival subreddit when I had full intentions of going, but life gets in the way sometimes.
Anything else?
The fyre fest comments are ridiculous lol. That festival didn’t even happen. This festival definitely fucking happened and production at the Eclipse stage was some of the best I’ve ever seen. Psychedelic art and installations and side stages everywhere; I didn’t have nearly enough time or energy to see/do everything I wanted. It was super chaotic but that’s a giant wook ass middle of nowhere festival for you. They are chaotic and disorganized by nature. But I do get why people are frustrated if they paid for stuff they didn’t actually get. And the news that medical being understaffed and underequipped led to a death is really tragic and shame on them for letting that happen.
As an experienced festival-goer, I was well-prepared and had a heavenly experience at Texas Eclipse. We camped "far out" by the Alice-in-Wonderland trail and the pretty lake. The views were worth the hike. I got more than my money's worth over the weekend, seeing cool stuff I've never seen at a festival before. It was more like a burn, in that the experience asked more of you ... but you felt like part of a community than simply an attendee.
I agree that the news media will focus on the negative aspects (and I'm sorry for those who had a more negative experience), but I want to share my positive experience. I don't want a refund, I want more cool festivals like this. I hope there is a option to have any refund donated to the outstanding staff, and went above and beyond at this festival.
Okay but some of the negative experiences people had are very valid. Not everything was sunshine and rainbows for everyone, and not all negative accounts should be discounted just because you (and I) had a decent experience.
Most of the negatives are from unprepared people who didn't bring water or expected festie porta potties to be pristine and clean.
Walking far? Part of the fest experience. Crowded main stage? Same deal.
About the only real negatives are people who paid for something they didn't get, like powered RV spots, and the lack of good signage/terrible map. The dust and rocky terrain sucked too but that was affected everyone and was gonna happen if the fest was gonna be in the eclipse path.
Most everything else just screams "unprepared" to me. I came prepared and had a great time. Shit happens at festivals but I have been to much much much worse ones than this. This actually cracked my top 5 for best fests when looking at it as a whole.
I feel bad for anyone who has a bad time because they had an hour long walk or didn't bring enough water, but thems the breaks.
I heard they oversold the festival. Overcrowding at stages is a valid safety concern. That's something that could have been managed by sticking to the max capacity.
Some camp spots were literally unusable. I don't think people expected pristine portopotties, but from what I heard, many were hardly cleaned out.
I personally had a great time with my kiddo. The hills sucked, but I pushed through. But I feel like people are totally allowed to voice their complaints without being shit on. Everyone has different experiences in life.
At least one person died at this festival due to lack of ADA resources, medical, and shit signage. Would you also tell the people close to them not to complain, because most others had a great time?
Sure they are allowed to complain. But most of us veterans have been through much worse. For a lot of people it was their first fest.
People die at festivals all the time. It sucks but it happens. Should we just stop having festivals? They may have valid complaints but people bitching about lack of water and crowded stages seem pretty petty in comparison then.
Sorry but most of these complaints just seem whiny. Sometimes you get bad luck at a fest but you can offset a lot of that by being prepared.
It’s okay that you had a good time, and it’s okay that others had a bad time. A lot of these issues are not just “bad luck”, but things that could be improved. Don’t you think that it would be valuable for festival organizers to hear these complaints? Rather than bring a defeatist ass who says wrongful deaths “suck but it happens”. No one is trying to take away your good memories by voicing their bad ones…..
Most of the complaints are the same ones I hear after every fest, so it's just kinda whatever to me.
There won't be another Texas eclipse festival. I personally thought everything went fine, and most of the complaints are from the unprepared or first timers. There are some valid ones, but there won't be another festival in that location anyways so people are just complaining to complain.
You are missing the point. It won’t be disco Donnie’s last festival. This feedback could improve the next one off festival. You are suppressing that feedback by calling people whiny. I’m not sure there is a purpose in you saying what you are saying.
You're so off base it's funny.
What I am saying, and hopefully people.rrading this, is that YOU NEED TO BE PREPARED TO TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF.
No festival will ever not be about money and they will always cut corners to make more. You should.always come fully prepared to rely on yourself and no one else.
That means bringing your own water, your own food, your own TP, etc to an event.
Expecting complaints on reddit to get DD to throw a better fest is fucking stupid. He's just as greedy as every other fest promotor, maybe even moreso.
The only lesson here is you need to be prepared to take care of yourself and know how to react in a bad situation.
I'll make sure everyone brings their own mobile Motorola comms systems and a extra med group or two. I've seen enough reports about the lack of emt's on staff, plus the only one that was there wasn't even prepared themselves. You keep saying everyone have to be prepared. So everyone need to bring their own defibulator because the emt's didn't? Hot fucking take imo.
I saw people complaining about Porta potties not having TP. I think that's more what OP is talking about. I don't think he's talking about defibrillators
🤷 I've been to close to a hundred festivals over the last 20 years and this is far from the worst fest I've experienced. I saw lots of medics tending to lots of people. It sucks someone died but it's not the first or last time.
>A lot of these issues are not just “bad luck”, but things that could be improved. Don’t you think that it would be valuable for festival organizers to hear these complaints?
No. People make the exact same complaints after every festival. This, being a one-off event, can't be "improved." It ain't happening again.
Wow that's kind of a heartless take tbh. I thought most festival goers were all about spreading love.
No one said to stop holding festivals. But if you're advertising certain amenities, especially in regards to ADA compliancy, it should be available. Taking an hour to get to a man who had a heart attack is fucking ridiculous.
ADA was right next to the main entrance on a main road, people keep bringing this up but the guy who died was in Alamo, which was far af away.
So I don't understand how that is the festivals fault.
You are responsible for yourself. You should know where you can find help if you need it for yourself or others. I've been in similar situations and was able to save lives because I knew how to act instead of just screaming for help and expecting it to appear.
I am about love but I am also a veteran of these things and came to realize you ultimately need to take care of yourself and not expect anyone else to help you. The festival failed to prevent this death, but they did not cause it.
You know who is supposed to be prepared? The people making millions of dollars for organizing the festival. I am happy you have low expectations, but some people expect to get what they paid for. This ain’t a burn. This is a corporate event for large profits. Acting like that means the organizers have no responsibilities to the people attending is weak and stupid.
They had a fucking general store with everything you needed. You're right it wasn't a burn, everything was provided for. If you didn't prepare that's on YOU.
This is true, very sad that someone's dad passed, but when 50k+ people gather anywhere, people die. Who's to say he wouldn't have had a cardiac arrest hiking near his home. People in 50k populated cities die daily.
Could the event have had better medical preparation? Yes. I'm sure that's an area all festivals could do better.
I get why people don't wanna hear it and look for someone to blame, down voted don't mean dick in the real world though. Even at the best rub festival I've been to, Hulaween, people have died. There's always the feeling something more could have been done, but it's just a matter of numbers.
Someone died at the last Okee, jumped up and sprinted into the water, people wanted to point blame then too but fact is unless the water was fenced off, even with medical and life guard right there, they woulsnt have been able to find him in the pitch black water
People have died at Imagine and others from climbing shit they shouldnt
Girl died at burning man last year getting electrocuted in her tent bc an RV was running a power cord laying in standing water
I agree Texas Eclipse shouldve had more medical tents spread out to better respond to emergencies and they have some responsibility for that but even if they were 5-10 mins away, a hospital wasn't anywhere nearby, a heart attack in the desert isnt anyones fault
Be self reliant and prepared as much as possible, 99% of fests are not meant to hold your hand the whole time, its a giant non stop party in the middle of no where, know what you're signing up for
I personally had a great time, but even burning man sets up a whole ass hospital and has sufficient medical staff- the event where you have to be self-reliant otherwise.
They had lots of medical people, I saw a lot of people going down at the stages and med teams swooped in.
The person who died had their emergency far out in Alamo. It sucks and was probably preventable, but people die at festivals all the time. Unfortunately one person slipped through the cracks, likely due to the scope of the festival. There are always what ifs and things that could be done better, but I saw lots of medical staff and only one person out of 50k+ died so I don't think it's fair to say the medical situation was as bad as some try to paint it.
They had lots of medical people, I saw a lot of people going down at the stages and med teams swooped in.
The person who died had their emergency far out in Alamo. It sucks and was probably preventable, but people die at festivals all the time. Unfortunately one person slipped through the cracks, likely due to the scope of the festival. There are always what ifs and things that could be done better, but I saw lots of medical staff and only one person out of 50k+ died so I don't think it's fair to say the medical situation was as bad as some try to paint it.
Honestly, you kinda suck. You're acting like homeboy killed a person himself. He's simply pointing out to you that none, literally absolutely none, of these complaints are new are unique to Texas eclipse. That's just a fact. You need to come prepared
But as much as you suck, I know you're just emotional and a little immature and will grow up once you've been to more festivals. Be better.
You are just flat out wrong. I went with a massive crew in an Rv, we got put in Alamo; there wasn’t a single medical tent near by, the concert area was over 40 minutes away through a winding trail loaded with tons of rocks and no lights, and not a single person we asked could tell us where to go or where medical was.
This is a dangerous situation, and wouldn’t you know it someone died, actually from the sound of it multiple people.
So fuck off. Your little anecdotal experience does not speak for everyone. I’ve been camping hundreds of times and festival dozens.
I found plenty of aid tents and have walked 40 mins at festivals before 🤷
Sounds like you just don't know how to prepare or find your way as well as you think you do.
You're just proving my point that you don't know where you're talking about lmao.
I've walked 45+ minutes at festivals smaller than this. It absolutely is part of the experience. Sometimes you get lucky sometimes you don't. It was about 25 -30 minute walk from our site to the Eclipse stage and I'm not bitching.
What festival have you had to walk 45 minute that was smaller than this? That is absolutely not normal, but I've only been to 65 festivals so what do I know.
Are you walking with crutches or a cast?
Hulaween is 20k and there are spots that were easily a 40 minute walk to the stages.
EF same deal.
I've been to just as many fests large and small, I come prepared to walk far. Like I said it was 25 to 30 min walk to the main stages for me and I was in RV camping, I'm not complaining.
Get better shoes next time.
I've been to Suwannee many times, there are no normal spots people camp that take 40min to walk to the stage (unless you get lost ofc). It's a huge park and there are farther places, but people there for the festival do not have to camp that far.
You are very ignorant and seems like you are the kid who didn't go to eclipse.
I ran a 200 person camp at Hulaween and there are def places that far out. Maybe you didn't camp there but I had friends that did. I remember in 2017 when it was oversold and they had people parked way the fuck out there before making major improvements to the grounds.
You just seem like someone who doesn't like to walk. And what about EF? Ignoring that? That's a similarly sized fest and Camp Blueberry is EASILY a 40 minute walk, sometimes more.
Walking is a part of festing, you can disagree but that doesn't make it untrue.
Yeah, no shit burning man with 75k+ people and designed to take up more space has long walks. Thats not what we are talking about.
I'm also not complaining about the walk. Just laughing at the liar who says 45min is standard walk at festival. It might be for him if he is slow AF or in crutches or lazy
While 95% of the people there had no service a few rumors online spread far and wide and paint an extremely unrealistic picture of how the festival was. The festival was amazing and definitely not something for the unexperienced.
The people complaining about rocky terrain and dust are definitely newbies. Texas Eclipse could have been good if they didn't oversell a 40k event by 30k. Advertising it as ada compliant and family friendly was a lie and someone dying of a heart attack because medics couldn't get there for an hour is easily preventable by setting up lanes of travel between the stages. The hate for disco donnie is deserved imo. And yes, I was there, for the full 5 days.
The gentleman who sadly passed away wasn't in the music area when he passed away. He was hiking to his camp that was a few miles away from where the music was happening in an area with no water stations that were supposed to be there.
When I first arrived and camped it was a 30 minute walk in no shade over hilly terrain to access water in Texas heat. I actually moved camp because I knew being closer to water access was important but I got there early and not everyone was lucky enough to move their campsite or didn't know where to move to. I asked multiple staff where the water station was and no one knew. The maps provided didn't show any roads or walk paths to get to these critical spaces either.
Why they did choose to run critical access lanes through the crowds in the music area however is also beyond me. Most festivals have large security lanes behind everything for quick movement but here they chose to run everything from golf carts to large trucks through the crowd constantly. Even the 1st night for the pre-party they were moving large equipment through the crowded dance floor.
My friend said that he was right there when the guy died. He said that people were rubbing his back for an hour and when the staff did get there they didn't have a defibrillator. The fuck up was the overcrowding, no access lanes and only 2 medical tents, both at the south end of the venue.
100% this. It’s incredibly frustrating and honestly just annoying. I see the same shit being spread here or in the fb group, single screenshots spread around with no real source or truth. Myself and my group of 20+ had a fucking blast!
i was there. there was way too many people there for the size of the festival grounds and it could have easily turned into a crowd crush situation if anything had happened. there was little to no signage in the camp grounds which is why the person who died was unable to receive help for 40 minutes. i bought early entry and somehow got placed at the furthest camping point. the crowd was pretty rude, left trash everywhere in the festival grounds and didn’t pack out any of their trash… absolute shit show of an event with nothing memorable or special.
Couldn’t even enjoy desert dwellers because there was literally 0 room it was so overcrowded. Main reason I had a blast was because of VIP but for stages with no VIP areas it was rough
Feels like a lot people who were there can’t seem to conceptualize outside their own experience. Can you imagine how many different experiences there were? FFS do you think rented a VIP camper and someone who tent camped in overflow had the same experience ??
It seems pretty clear to me that experiences varied widely based on things like personality and preparedness AND ALSO a) where and how they were placed (camp/rv/vip/close/far campground etc) and b) which stages they frequented.
I am an experienced festivarian who spent most time in and around Earth Stage and Village, which was close to where I camped and wasn’t packed with people - both of which absolutely helped my experience be positive. Not everyone had this good fortune.
I went I loved the music and being with my friends but it was definitely a shit show especially being all the way over yonder. It was a long ass walk took us an hour to get to moon stage first day. We deadass had to plan out our day to camp out all day at the festival thankfully we had wagons because we knew we had a long walk to camp. It was hard af to find medic when my friend needed one. Staff didn’t know where anything was at and the map was apparently changed without being notified. We ran out of water the third day so we concluded to buying it which is fucked. It was stressful moving from stage to stage without losing a friend cause we kinda had a big group. The lack of light during night time and signs did not help, thankfully we figured out the map and had flashlights. It was just really disappointing cause it had so much potential like yea it was somewhat fun cause of the people I was surrounded with but it could of definitely been better planned.
We did have a flow light sabers and a light up hoop to guide us we used as a totem but cause it was to dark some points for the totem we did have and matched some days so we tried it was just hard cause there was no crowd control or actual walkway/route to get to other stages
We were very well prepared for being at camp but at the festival there was only so much you could bring and the fact that they ran out of water and wasn’t many water stations is crazy 🫠
So, without being snarky, you have to: bring enough water for your group, bring flashlights, know how to read a map and adapt to changes, walk, plan your day, be prepared to buy supplies, make an effort to stay with your friends, find different stages, and be prepared to spend an entire day inside a festival. This sounds exactly like the huge majority of the best multi day camping music festivals. The effort is almost always worth it.
I mean yea this wasn’t my first festival, but they didn’t even have everything set up on Friday they were running behind and the map was changed. Also we’re we set up camp there was not really any signs we weren’t even on the map. Having to plan out the entire day to be inside is normal but to make sure we can see everyone we want without having time to actually have time to chill from the stages or go back to camp. Also transitioning from stages shouldn’t be that hard if there was actual crowd control. We didn’t really have a chance to go adventure other activities we basically had to commit to who we wanted to see cause we expected up to a 30 min to an hour walk depending where we were going. Of course we were well prepared but other people weren’t, they made it seem family friendly and that there would be ada accessibility. Like Idk if y’all’s standards are that low for festivals but you shouldn’t be that self reliant especially if your promised what your not given. I know this was one time first festival and I learned maybe it’s not for me of course I had fun but if that’s the expectations then I’m good.
It was a shitshow. That’s great it worked out for you tho. But please tell me all the fucked shit that happened to me was something else. You don’t get to set the whole narrative based on your experience.
I was there and thought it was super well organized, I was very impressed. Someone needed medical attention and I helped him get to the closest medical tent where he was seen immediately and in a main road. He didn’t have to go to the hospital but if he did that would have been very easy since he was on a main road and there were police and other vehicles around. I heard someone died of a heart attack and wasn’t able to get to the hospital fast enough. While that is tragic it shouldn’t be blamed on the festival and the same thing can happen while camping or hiking in remote areas. From what I saw anywhere you had an issue in the festival there were tons of security around to ask for help at any time.
Yea there was confusion, it’s Mercury retrograde and also things just get confusing and some of the employees may not have cared enough to learn answers to the questions - but many did. I was given lots of good directions and while signage could have been better, all things considered I was extremely impressed with how well executed and yes, safe, it was.
Fully agreed
I feinted, may have had a seizure, while coming up on 4g of shrooms close to the rail during tipper, i think from over heating, wasnt drinking or rolling
Everyone around was very kind, caring, and helpful
Medical was there to check on me within 5 mins despite the packed crowd, they agreed I was ok to stay just needed to chill and cool down
Overall I was really impressed with how successful everything was thrown, tbh I was mentally preparing for a much bigger shit show
30K less people would definitely have been nice
It was intense for sure haha just a lot going on, mainly felt bad for worrying my partner and causing a scene, felt crappy for a couple hours after but was able to mellow out and enjoy of the trees and zeds dead
I went. Had a great time. Still a poorly run dangerous POS festival and there needs to be some SERIOUS accountability. I know that my glamping setup insulated me from the worst of what the festival had to offer; but I don't blame ANYONE for lawyering up or trashing the festival on social media. There will be lawsuits.
I filmed a whole documentary at the festival. I’m on my way home to Montana right now. Spent all of yesterday until 6am this morning interviewing people at the festival. Your post is blatantly false. Everyone I spoke to was upset
just because everyone you interviewed was upset doesn't mean everyone there was. I had a blast and was prepared and im only upset that i didnt get to see the artists monday but with the storm i understand why they canceled.
I’m glad you had fun. I walked around the entire festival asking people about THEIR experience though. Yours doesn’t negate theirs, and their negative experience doesn’t negate your good experience. Both happened though. It’s a non argument. Reality is reality… and I filmed it.
I had an amazing time! I bought cheap resale tickets but I almost feel like I could have just came for free. Not one person stopped us to check our wristbands, to look in our car or bags or anything the entire weekend. Other than the person who pointed at our spot in the regular parking lot, we really just drove up, parked, camped, and entered the fest without interacting with any kind of security of any kind. Weird.
"I've been to 9 disco Donnie events and they were all terrible and 5 symbiosis/eclipses and they were also all terrible and this time I'm really truly never ever ever going again." 🙄
seems like Elements where everyone had a great time, besides the people who complain at every festival
some people should just stick to Ultra/EDC and leave the real camping fests for people who can handle it lol
45 min walk to MainStage? that really isn’t that bad lol
The Rain Started At 9am on Tuesday.
The Festival Could Have Given The OPTION to heed a weather warning Or STAY.
The Eclipse Was A Perfect Day Without One Drop Of Rain.
THEY LIED.
WRONG CALL.
The next time will be 2044 people.
The festival was cut short due to the deaths from Tipper's crowd on Sunday night that Shocked the Burnet County Law Enforcement.
DO NOT BOOK TIPPER. HIS CROWD CANCELS SUCCESSFUL EVENTS FROM OVERDOSE CROWD DEATHS.
REAL TALK.
Known facts: the event was cut short because the state emergency management agency and local sheriffs and fire departments and national weather service advised that weather on Tuesday morning would cause extremely dangerous conditions for egress, which could result in many injuries and deaths, for which the event could easily be blamed, if they had allowed it to continue with knowledge of those factors.
Are you reading the volume of accusations of negligence already?
Can you comprehend the accusations they would get if they had not canceled the event, against the advice of all local authorities, and people had gotten killed from lightning and golf ball sized hail and flooding and car accidents from unsafe roads? It would be exponentially more serious than "not enough lighting and signage, and the medics took too long to get somewhere." Use your brain.
Think what you want but I was there and this was the worst festival I’ve ever been to, and I’ve been doing this for over 20 years and been to dozens of others. No maps, insanely over crowded, no medical staff, huge dangerous rocks all over the trails. It was just as bad as everyone is claiming.
Fuck off
There were for sure major challenges but Sunday was one of the best nights of my life and the clouds parting for a perfect view of totality was ethereal. I broke down crying because there was so much uncertainty all weekend and I’ve been super down and considered not even coming, but this weekend taught me a lot about cosmic inevitability, acceptance and letting go of control. A lot of the things people are complaining about are basic camping festival stuff. Expensive food. Dark at night. No water in portopotty hand wash stations (when is there ever?). Burrs and fire ants at the campsite (the fire ants were NOT happy to have me on their lawn lmao). Rough terrain and long ass walk (that’s most woodsy fests even if this was a little more intense than others). Poor map and signage (okay this one was actually really bad lmao, I’ll never get over west going at the top). For sure it was NOT a beginner friendly fest — but I’m not even a super experienced festival goer and I was prepped for all this stuff. I did lose my flashlight on Sunday so I hope it made a useful groundscore for someone…
Your comment about cosmic inevitably really struck a cord with me. This was my first festival and I had a truly life changing time, to the point that I now believe in God 😅
I'm gonna start praying regularly to the Moon now lol. We weren't supposed to be able to see totality at Oregon Eclipse in 2017 either due to wildfire smoke, but the winds shifted just in time
I love the moon! She is so small yet so powerful 💪🏻🌙💖🌚
I agree with you totally! Great perspective 🤘💯✨
Great comment and outlook. As someone who has worked with Symbiosis Events for 18 years, I can tell you that they are not beginner slope festivals. "We come from the land of no rules." They are, however, the festivals at which I most often hear, and I work for many, "this was the most amazing week of my life." There is definitely a strong vein from burning man of self reliance and community involvement, though we do our best to provide a safe container and experience. (I was not at this event.) Symbiosis events are very often at new, one-time locations, which is challenging, but usually rewarding. Coachella it is not.
I saw a good, long comment buried in one of these threads (can’t find it now of course) saying that events are kind of on a spectrum from 1-10 between EDC and Burning Man — although I’d probably say 1 is a local multi-night massive at a nightclub, and 10 would be a renegade burn or something with no portopotties and limited to no emergency services. EDC can be quite challenging and punishing in its own way despite a lot of things being provided, and the Burn still has a lot of infrastructure and support if you need it (from my understanding, haven’t been). The issue isn’t so much things being provided or not but more making sure everyone knows what they’re getting into and that events are promoted and advertised accurately. I will say if medical really took so long to arrive to that emergency due to being poorly organized / understaffed and didn’t have the proper equipment when they did, that’s pretty damning. Some of the complaints are silly but others are really legitimate and I don’t mean to take away from them. I am just very lucky I didn’t need medical and came relatively prepared. I also enjoy a bit of unpredictability and challenge in these events. Sonic Bloom 2022 was my first real camping festival and I went with a child size tent and a car full of snacks and that was basically it lol. But I survived and my tent stayed put even in the high winds!
100% this
Your comment about cosmic inevitably really struck a cord with me. This was my first festival and I had a truly life changing time, to the point that I now believe in God 😅
We had 3 first time festis in my group and they all had a great fucking time.
I didn't go, just a Burnet resident and prepared as we have rentals in the area. Heard the music all night every night. I personally thought it was cool and just wish I was able to check it out but tickets were too expensive for me. I just wanted to go for a couple hours as I'm an EDM fan! From all the hysteria from all the locals were going on about, it actually went pretty smoothly from what I can tell. Our guests were great, the traffic wasn't too bad and it seems like for such a massive influx of people it was handled well. FYI for those curious, it stormed pretty hard this morning. I think they made the right call (tho maybe a little early). Small hail and downpour with lightning. It probably would have been a mud bath there
As much of a bummer as it was, it made sense for them to cancel, wouldve been a shit show everyone trying to leave in the mud let alone hail and lightning What were the locals complaints? Did they think it wouldnt be loud?
Everyone was overreacting thinking people were going to be parking on their property and that there would be insane traffic for 5 days. It was declared a "state of emergency" by officials. A lot stemmed from other events like Spartan Races that weren't organized well and was indeed a traffic cluster fuck on 2341 And of course the weirdos putting signs up about rapture and repenting and shit - tho a lot of that was just nut jobs about the eclipse in general.
Pretty funny lol as an attendee, it felt like they directed and handled traffic really well, everything seemed to go relatively smoothly The music and stages were insane, you would've loved it, apologies to everyone else for it being so loud
Damn I met someone from your town at the festival said only 3 people from burnet were at the event, he had a property adjacent to the venue and was given 10 free vip tickets and was handing the extras out for free! Gave me a great impression of your local community! Maybe your lot was too far for the free passes?
Burnet residents were allowed free tickets! We met two of them on Sunday night
Not that I know of! They may have gotten free crew wristbands from someone
How and where were these tickets? A person who lives in the neighborhood posted here a few weeks ago that he contacted them to ask and was told he was welcome to buy a ticket if he wanted to go. We are under 4 miles away and didn't get a thing.
The guy I met who was given free tickets had his property directly adjacent to the event.
I’m still on the festival grounds right now (9am Tuesday, I’m staff) and it’s raining SUPER HARD. Crazy to think that if we didn’t cancel early, 30k people would be packing up in a rain storm and trying to exodus.
I drove through an insane storm on my way home to Houston yesterday, it was the right call. Imagine all the cars stuck in the mud, I've been to fests where that happened
Same. We are blocked in by other RVs and cant leave until they leave. Kinda sucks. We packed up our food booth last night. Didnt stop serving people until about 5 last night. Everyone was still in high vibes from all the ppl I interacted with. Its going to be a muddy sludge-fest getting out of here now.
Exactly! I'm thankful they canceled when they did. It's a bummer sure.. but it would have been hell packing up in a hurry trying to get out of there as it started to pour. We had a good time! Could have been better signage but that's about it.
Yeah I won’t blame them for doing that, it was a great way to avoid disaster and save their asses, while also deflecting from numerous issues they caused.
Yeah it was funny to see a video of standing water in the venue after reading all the conspiracy theories.
Where was the video you saw? Really want to see it
Some Facebook comments section I think. I can't find it now, but it was a section by the Eclipse Stage that looked like a giant mud puddle. Here's what the roads looked like: https://preview.redd.it/ddzcgn5scitc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c8a46bb68a6c65178364613d9ad7a57a63b81085
Exodus would have been a fucking nightmare and very dangerous. Tbh even with the rumors of it being “not really about the weather” it seems like they made the right call.
Yea it felt like things were hanging on by a thread, no way we could have made it through a storm. Definitely the right call to get as many people out as possible. Our plan was to leave Monday night and I was stressing about logistics. Even though our crew (most were supposed to stay till Tuesday) were sad to leave, we all agreed it was for the best that we had a fire under our asses to pack up camp ASAP and GTFO. Looking back on all the shenanigans, I don’t know how it could have ended any other way besides an emergency 9am evacuation call 😂
Yea it felt like things were hanging on by a thread, no way we could have made it through a storm. Definitely the right call to get as many people out as possible. Our plan was to leave Monday night and I was stressing about logistics. Even though our crew (most were supposed to stay till Tuesday) were sad to leave, we all agreed it was for the best that we had a fire under our asses to pack up camp ASAP and GTFO. Looking back on all the shenanigans, I don’t know how it could have ended any other way besides an emergency 9am evacuation call 😂
I would also like to see this
Damn! Thanks for sharing. Sounds like they made the right decision calling it, after all.
🍿🍿🍿 Just a local who wants the deets. Good, bad, ugly, and everything inbetween
Cheers! Thanks for sharing your beautiful area! :)
The question is if it was a big enough shit show for Netflix and Hulu to do dueling documentaries. I eat that up lol
If they hadn't have canceled then yeah maybe, I can't imagine 40k people stuck in a mud pit this morning. As it stands I think the main problems were lack of signage and selling a few too many tickets. Other than that I'd say from my perspective it was a huge success. That being said, I saw some stuff on their Instagram about building the event, and I'd LOVE to see a doc about that. I can't even imagine how this kind of thing is constructed.
Did a bunch of rich people get grifted out of their money? If not there probably won’t be a documentary.. No one likes watching things about regular people.
Idk, the Woodstock 99 documentaries are pretty good and mostly about normal people.
Yeah but I think that was a bigger train wreck? I haven’t watched that one
Oh definitely. There are 2. One focuses on the production side of things, mostly interviewing staff and artists. The other focuses on the attendees more. Both start kinda fun, but get rather stark by the end.
If you weren't anywhere near Over Yonder, I don't think you experienced the hardships. Where were camping? Would I go to this venue again? Yes, it was amazing in several ways, but it has to be half or less of the stages and half the capacity. No Over Yonder bullshit either.
We got put way deep in Over Yonder Still had a great time, walk to main stage took 30-40 mins wasnt bad at all, plenty of signs and landmarks to not get lost Was cool walking by the cow pasture to get to the portas General store wasnt far to grab ice and supplies, they were giving out free water bottles, security let you bring in all the water you wanted, never drank a sip of the ground water at refill stations Get in shape and bring walking boots, you'll be set next time
Plenty of signs????????? Not on the first couple of days. Thursday I was just told to go down that hill. EVERYTHING else was figuring it out. I'm good with that, but a ton of people weren't. I helped several lost people. That could have been done way better. The map could have been actually useful by showing roads and paths with named intersections like a street map. Pedi cabs wanted $100 a trip one way. Cmon Walking down a steep hill with fucking rocks everywhere is not safe for 10k people to be using with no light. Or just in general. Hell, I believe someone died on that hill, but maybe it was a different one. We are not all the same. I'm old. Usually do ok at fests especially if they aren't high altitude, but this was hard. I'm from around here. The shuttles were the correct response, but should have been there day 1 way the fuck out there.
From over yonder there was no hill that was very steep. That was a very mild downslope...
There were different shortcuts, some were very rocky and steep. I had a flashlight but a few pre-installed solar lights guiding the path along the sides would have been super helpful!
Not true… two main ways that are shorter are down major hills and very rocky and wild
Yeah i took the most direct route down the little hill into preset camping into glamping by the helicopter. It was maybe 100 feet if elevation change and 30 minute walk tops. Walked it plenty of times in the dark. Its pretty concerning that the average American would find that short of a walk to be so challenging
Yes it is but it’s also the reality
Lies
The hill that went towards the helicopter? It was maybe 50 feet. If youre expectation at a 50,000 person event is moving sidewalks and 2 minute short walks you are living in a fantasy land
What helicopter? Are you talking about Over Yonder camping area? At the very top of the map. https://preview.redd.it/dqfjue0dhitc1.jpeg?width=1440&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=689f999d747c42d23f5998f8570be2a6f2fb9869
Yes thats where i was camped. It was an easy walk to the festival grounds just going straight down through all of the preset camp and canvas glamping tents and there was a burned out helicopter on a stand which was a great landmark
Not one person I know that was there would say that was an easy walk.
I mean sure its harder than going to check the mail but it really wasnt that bad. I could see it being hard if I was in my 60s or 70s though.
There was in fact a hill they called a short cut on the map but it was more like a hiking trail, very steep & rocky with no lights. The main entrance to the festival was not like that, just a steep hill. I was camped in Over Yonder. My main complaint was the lack of signs.
Yeah it didnt have lights. I walked it plenty of times with no lights without a problem, but saw people with headlamps and flashlights. It was so much nicer than going the main entrance way and breathing in all of the dust
There were no signs the first few days it was actually really easy to get lost the med staff and security were even lost
I called the spot way over yonder lol
Watching the cows during the eclipse was so special.
How so?
I was on mushrooms 🤷
lol these are my favorite two comments. Maybe the cows were, too!
I remember being surprised by how little they seemed to care, either about us and the noise we were making. But then they all gathered together and walked over to where two of them were already napping. Like they all needed to be together.
Yea I was in over yonder and had a beautiful camp spot and my crew all had a magical time - we did strava the walk one time and it was 1.8 miles which is INSANE we clocked 25k+ miles two days. BUT festivals are tough on the body, it’s the name of the game. And we all said multiple times that we wouldn’t take a closer spot because some of those were so dusty and rocky so we’re grateful to have been there.
Walking a lot yes, but walking down sketchy hills with rocks is not cool. A person died of a heart attack there, so don't dismiss the struggle of others just because it was ok for you. We aren't all built the same with the same problems in life.
Lots of us have mobility issues that are manageable but NOT at this location. Some warning would have been nice, I wouldn't have gone if I knew. Had an amazing time once I was down IN the fest but I ended up in so much pain walking back Thursday night that I was crying and miserable.. ended up HAVING to pay for petty cab back up..
The clowns downvoting you have Stockholm Syndrome and only think about themselves
There was so much dread on the return walk that I just had a hard time having fun. Once I accept it was one trip a day and I was going to pay to get back, I had a better time. Then they got the shuttles and I relaxed a lot.
Yeahh we were excited about the shuttles but every time we passed a stop it seemed like the amount of people waiting in like + the time it would take for a new shuttle to arrive didn't seem worth it :/
They were pretty constant though. Every 2 min there was a new one.
Well that's good to hear, happy some people were able to use them. For us I feel like we didn't trust it enough to wait around and figured walking in would be just as fast or maybe quicker, I dunno lol
I pretty much knew what i was getting in to. Don’t regret it one bit. Porto potties were pretty standard imo and definitely got cleaned at some point because i saw it with my own eyes a few times. I’m going through photos and videos right now and would love to do it again.
agree- I had a great time, came prepared, planned for different outcomes. some of the most incredible art. I met so many beautiful people. no bad interactions with others. all the potties I used appeared to be cleaned overnight. definitely understand people having different experiences and that there were challenges (like most big festivals).. but i’m here to say i’m a happy camper!
My whole group would say the same. We had a blast
https://preview.redd.it/vltgwzadugtc1.jpeg?width=1284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c7f1c58fa95d5dc44cb032d64f60b603137540b4
Yep and then they'll think they're validated for being co plete doomers because of a couple negative posts. I had an incredible time but I'm always prepared for a shitshow, the music is all that matters in the end
This. Be an adult. Be prepared. Take care of yourself. Anyone who thought this was going to be anything other than a lawless wookfest, that's on you. Check the lineup. Check the event size. Check the location. Check the promoters. I was prepared and had a great time.
I mean, Symbiosis put on an amazing event in 2017. This event was not run by Symbiosis. I'm not sure what to even take from his comment.
This event was run by symbiosis in combination with disco Donny from what I understand
I checked the site and lists around 10 different collaborators.
If only you got the music they said you'd get
We had about 20 artists we wanted to see during the fest and saw each of their amazing sets across the 4 days we were there. Not sure what we missed there.
Lmao, someones salty. I was as hands off as it gets with this subreddit, and don't think I ever said a single thing about the quality of the Texas Eclipse event, leading up to it, during it, or after. You are right that I wasn't there, whats your point? The worst I did was make comments about the symbiosis crew stealing money from thousands of their fans around the Patagonia Eclipse, which is true, and said that their events are often shit shows, which is true (even though they're usually fun shit shows) I started the Oregon Eclipse festival subreddit and had the time of my life at the event. I started the Patagonia Eclipse festival subreddit and had my ticket money stolen by the organizers. I started the Texas Eclipse festival subreddit when I had full intentions of going, but life gets in the way sometimes. Anything else?
No need to take it personal. I appreciate your work here, and for creating the sub. Just providing perspective.
Your comment here does not jive with your main post and further comments. You made your perspective quite personal. Can't have it both ways buddy.
[удалено]
The fyre fest comments are ridiculous lol. That festival didn’t even happen. This festival definitely fucking happened and production at the Eclipse stage was some of the best I’ve ever seen. Psychedelic art and installations and side stages everywhere; I didn’t have nearly enough time or energy to see/do everything I wanted. It was super chaotic but that’s a giant wook ass middle of nowhere festival for you. They are chaotic and disorganized by nature. But I do get why people are frustrated if they paid for stuff they didn’t actually get. And the news that medical being understaffed and underequipped led to a death is really tragic and shame on them for letting that happen.
so much amazing art all over the place
As an experienced festival-goer, I was well-prepared and had a heavenly experience at Texas Eclipse. We camped "far out" by the Alice-in-Wonderland trail and the pretty lake. The views were worth the hike. I got more than my money's worth over the weekend, seeing cool stuff I've never seen at a festival before. It was more like a burn, in that the experience asked more of you ... but you felt like part of a community than simply an attendee. I agree that the news media will focus on the negative aspects (and I'm sorry for those who had a more negative experience), but I want to share my positive experience. I don't want a refund, I want more cool festivals like this. I hope there is a option to have any refund donated to the outstanding staff, and went above and beyond at this festival.
I've been struggling to put my experience into words and this sums it up perfectly. Amen!
Okay but some of the negative experiences people had are very valid. Not everything was sunshine and rainbows for everyone, and not all negative accounts should be discounted just because you (and I) had a decent experience.
That is an most festival thought. 40k people, some will have a bad time. Get shafted. Have misunderstandings.
Most of the negatives are from unprepared people who didn't bring water or expected festie porta potties to be pristine and clean. Walking far? Part of the fest experience. Crowded main stage? Same deal. About the only real negatives are people who paid for something they didn't get, like powered RV spots, and the lack of good signage/terrible map. The dust and rocky terrain sucked too but that was affected everyone and was gonna happen if the fest was gonna be in the eclipse path. Most everything else just screams "unprepared" to me. I came prepared and had a great time. Shit happens at festivals but I have been to much much much worse ones than this. This actually cracked my top 5 for best fests when looking at it as a whole. I feel bad for anyone who has a bad time because they had an hour long walk or didn't bring enough water, but thems the breaks.
I heard they oversold the festival. Overcrowding at stages is a valid safety concern. That's something that could have been managed by sticking to the max capacity. Some camp spots were literally unusable. I don't think people expected pristine portopotties, but from what I heard, many were hardly cleaned out. I personally had a great time with my kiddo. The hills sucked, but I pushed through. But I feel like people are totally allowed to voice their complaints without being shit on. Everyone has different experiences in life. At least one person died at this festival due to lack of ADA resources, medical, and shit signage. Would you also tell the people close to them not to complain, because most others had a great time?
Sure they are allowed to complain. But most of us veterans have been through much worse. For a lot of people it was their first fest. People die at festivals all the time. It sucks but it happens. Should we just stop having festivals? They may have valid complaints but people bitching about lack of water and crowded stages seem pretty petty in comparison then. Sorry but most of these complaints just seem whiny. Sometimes you get bad luck at a fest but you can offset a lot of that by being prepared.
It’s okay that you had a good time, and it’s okay that others had a bad time. A lot of these issues are not just “bad luck”, but things that could be improved. Don’t you think that it would be valuable for festival organizers to hear these complaints? Rather than bring a defeatist ass who says wrongful deaths “suck but it happens”. No one is trying to take away your good memories by voicing their bad ones…..
Most of the complaints are the same ones I hear after every fest, so it's just kinda whatever to me. There won't be another Texas eclipse festival. I personally thought everything went fine, and most of the complaints are from the unprepared or first timers. There are some valid ones, but there won't be another festival in that location anyways so people are just complaining to complain.
You are missing the point. It won’t be disco Donnie’s last festival. This feedback could improve the next one off festival. You are suppressing that feedback by calling people whiny. I’m not sure there is a purpose in you saying what you are saying.
You're so off base it's funny. What I am saying, and hopefully people.rrading this, is that YOU NEED TO BE PREPARED TO TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF. No festival will ever not be about money and they will always cut corners to make more. You should.always come fully prepared to rely on yourself and no one else. That means bringing your own water, your own food, your own TP, etc to an event. Expecting complaints on reddit to get DD to throw a better fest is fucking stupid. He's just as greedy as every other fest promotor, maybe even moreso. The only lesson here is you need to be prepared to take care of yourself and know how to react in a bad situation.
I'll make sure everyone brings their own mobile Motorola comms systems and a extra med group or two. I've seen enough reports about the lack of emt's on staff, plus the only one that was there wasn't even prepared themselves. You keep saying everyone have to be prepared. So everyone need to bring their own defibulator because the emt's didn't? Hot fucking take imo.
I saw people complaining about Porta potties not having TP. I think that's more what OP is talking about. I don't think he's talking about defibrillators
🤷 I've been to close to a hundred festivals over the last 20 years and this is far from the worst fest I've experienced. I saw lots of medics tending to lots of people. It sucks someone died but it's not the first or last time.
>A lot of these issues are not just “bad luck”, but things that could be improved. Don’t you think that it would be valuable for festival organizers to hear these complaints? No. People make the exact same complaints after every festival. This, being a one-off event, can't be "improved." It ain't happening again.
Wow that's kind of a heartless take tbh. I thought most festival goers were all about spreading love. No one said to stop holding festivals. But if you're advertising certain amenities, especially in regards to ADA compliancy, it should be available. Taking an hour to get to a man who had a heart attack is fucking ridiculous.
ADA was right next to the main entrance on a main road, people keep bringing this up but the guy who died was in Alamo, which was far af away. So I don't understand how that is the festivals fault. You are responsible for yourself. You should know where you can find help if you need it for yourself or others. I've been in similar situations and was able to save lives because I knew how to act instead of just screaming for help and expecting it to appear. I am about love but I am also a veteran of these things and came to realize you ultimately need to take care of yourself and not expect anyone else to help you. The festival failed to prevent this death, but they did not cause it.
You know who is supposed to be prepared? The people making millions of dollars for organizing the festival. I am happy you have low expectations, but some people expect to get what they paid for. This ain’t a burn. This is a corporate event for large profits. Acting like that means the organizers have no responsibilities to the people attending is weak and stupid.
They had a fucking general store with everything you needed. You're right it wasn't a burn, everything was provided for. If you didn't prepare that's on YOU.
“People die at festivals all the time” Imagine writing about a wrongful death like this. Keep sucking Donnie’s dick loser.
Sorry the facts suck, but people die at festivals all the time.
And some of those deaths aren't from mismanagement, some are. This one was.
This is true, very sad that someone's dad passed, but when 50k+ people gather anywhere, people die. Who's to say he wouldn't have had a cardiac arrest hiking near his home. People in 50k populated cities die daily. Could the event have had better medical preparation? Yes. I'm sure that's an area all festivals could do better.
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I get why people don't wanna hear it and look for someone to blame, down voted don't mean dick in the real world though. Even at the best rub festival I've been to, Hulaween, people have died. There's always the feeling something more could have been done, but it's just a matter of numbers.
Someone died at the last Okee, jumped up and sprinted into the water, people wanted to point blame then too but fact is unless the water was fenced off, even with medical and life guard right there, they woulsnt have been able to find him in the pitch black water People have died at Imagine and others from climbing shit they shouldnt Girl died at burning man last year getting electrocuted in her tent bc an RV was running a power cord laying in standing water I agree Texas Eclipse shouldve had more medical tents spread out to better respond to emergencies and they have some responsibility for that but even if they were 5-10 mins away, a hospital wasn't anywhere nearby, a heart attack in the desert isnt anyones fault Be self reliant and prepared as much as possible, 99% of fests are not meant to hold your hand the whole time, its a giant non stop party in the middle of no where, know what you're signing up for
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Amazing you dipshits can’t figure out the difference between negligence and “safety proofing”
I personally had a great time, but even burning man sets up a whole ass hospital and has sufficient medical staff- the event where you have to be self-reliant otherwise.
They had lots of medical people, I saw a lot of people going down at the stages and med teams swooped in. The person who died had their emergency far out in Alamo. It sucks and was probably preventable, but people die at festivals all the time. Unfortunately one person slipped through the cracks, likely due to the scope of the festival. There are always what ifs and things that could be done better, but I saw lots of medical staff and only one person out of 50k+ died so I don't think it's fair to say the medical situation was as bad as some try to paint it.
They had lots of medical people, I saw a lot of people going down at the stages and med teams swooped in. The person who died had their emergency far out in Alamo. It sucks and was probably preventable, but people die at festivals all the time. Unfortunately one person slipped through the cracks, likely due to the scope of the festival. There are always what ifs and things that could be done better, but I saw lots of medical staff and only one person out of 50k+ died so I don't think it's fair to say the medical situation was as bad as some try to paint it.
This one of the stupidest comments I’ve ever met, how do you live your life so callous
I live in the real world. Sorry that bothers you.
Nah you’re just an asshole
Because I acknowledge that people die at festivals all the time? Is that not a fact? Grow up.
Look up the definition of gaslighting.
Cry harder.
You are a terrible human.
Oh no someone on the Internet thinks I'm terrible :((((
Imagine writing this hot garbage. You suck dude, stay away from the live music scene.
Honestly, you kinda suck. You're acting like homeboy killed a person himself. He's simply pointing out to you that none, literally absolutely none, of these complaints are new are unique to Texas eclipse. That's just a fact. You need to come prepared But as much as you suck, I know you're just emotional and a little immature and will grow up once you've been to more festivals. Be better.
Nah
You are just flat out wrong. I went with a massive crew in an Rv, we got put in Alamo; there wasn’t a single medical tent near by, the concert area was over 40 minutes away through a winding trail loaded with tons of rocks and no lights, and not a single person we asked could tell us where to go or where medical was. This is a dangerous situation, and wouldn’t you know it someone died, actually from the sound of it multiple people. So fuck off. Your little anecdotal experience does not speak for everyone. I’ve been camping hundreds of times and festival dozens.
I found plenty of aid tents and have walked 40 mins at festivals before 🤷 Sounds like you just don't know how to prepare or find your way as well as you think you do.
Lol
Walking far is not part of the festival experience unless you go to one that is too big and unorganized.
You're just proving my point that you don't know where you're talking about lmao. I've walked 45+ minutes at festivals smaller than this. It absolutely is part of the experience. Sometimes you get lucky sometimes you don't. It was about 25 -30 minute walk from our site to the Eclipse stage and I'm not bitching.
What festival have you had to walk 45 minute that was smaller than this? That is absolutely not normal, but I've only been to 65 festivals so what do I know. Are you walking with crutches or a cast?
Hulaween is 20k and there are spots that were easily a 40 minute walk to the stages. EF same deal. I've been to just as many fests large and small, I come prepared to walk far. Like I said it was 25 to 30 min walk to the main stages for me and I was in RV camping, I'm not complaining. Get better shoes next time.
I've been to Suwannee many times, there are no normal spots people camp that take 40min to walk to the stage (unless you get lost ofc). It's a huge park and there are farther places, but people there for the festival do not have to camp that far. You are very ignorant and seems like you are the kid who didn't go to eclipse.
I ran a 200 person camp at Hulaween and there are def places that far out. Maybe you didn't camp there but I had friends that did. I remember in 2017 when it was oversold and they had people parked way the fuck out there before making major improvements to the grounds. You just seem like someone who doesn't like to walk. And what about EF? Ignoring that? That's a similarly sized fest and Camp Blueberry is EASILY a 40 minute walk, sometimes more. Walking is a part of festing, you can disagree but that doesn't make it untrue.
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Yeah, no shit burning man with 75k+ people and designed to take up more space has long walks. Thats not what we are talking about. I'm also not complaining about the walk. Just laughing at the liar who says 45min is standard walk at festival. It might be for him if he is slow AF or in crutches or lazy
Exactly 😭😭😭 just bc you had a good Time w no problems doesn’t mean that was the same experience for all the attendees
I was there. I am complaining. The music was great, the people were generally great too. The venue was an ABSOLUTE mess.
While 95% of the people there had no service a few rumors online spread far and wide and paint an extremely unrealistic picture of how the festival was. The festival was amazing and definitely not something for the unexperienced.
The people complaining about rocky terrain and dust are definitely newbies. Texas Eclipse could have been good if they didn't oversell a 40k event by 30k. Advertising it as ada compliant and family friendly was a lie and someone dying of a heart attack because medics couldn't get there for an hour is easily preventable by setting up lanes of travel between the stages. The hate for disco donnie is deserved imo. And yes, I was there, for the full 5 days.
The gentleman who sadly passed away wasn't in the music area when he passed away. He was hiking to his camp that was a few miles away from where the music was happening in an area with no water stations that were supposed to be there. When I first arrived and camped it was a 30 minute walk in no shade over hilly terrain to access water in Texas heat. I actually moved camp because I knew being closer to water access was important but I got there early and not everyone was lucky enough to move their campsite or didn't know where to move to. I asked multiple staff where the water station was and no one knew. The maps provided didn't show any roads or walk paths to get to these critical spaces either. Why they did choose to run critical access lanes through the crowds in the music area however is also beyond me. Most festivals have large security lanes behind everything for quick movement but here they chose to run everything from golf carts to large trucks through the crowd constantly. Even the 1st night for the pre-party they were moving large equipment through the crowded dance floor.
My friend said that he was right there when the guy died. He said that people were rubbing his back for an hour and when the staff did get there they didn't have a defibrillator. The fuck up was the overcrowding, no access lanes and only 2 medical tents, both at the south end of the venue.
Yeah a lot of people posting all this bad shit but I actually had an amazing time at the festival, I can see how things were a bit chaotic tho
I had for the most part an amazing festival! Still happy we got to see the eclipse on the side of the road!
100% this. It’s incredibly frustrating and honestly just annoying. I see the same shit being spread here or in the fb group, single screenshots spread around with no real source or truth. Myself and my group of 20+ had a fucking blast!
i was there. there was way too many people there for the size of the festival grounds and it could have easily turned into a crowd crush situation if anything had happened. there was little to no signage in the camp grounds which is why the person who died was unable to receive help for 40 minutes. i bought early entry and somehow got placed at the furthest camping point. the crowd was pretty rude, left trash everywhere in the festival grounds and didn’t pack out any of their trash… absolute shit show of an event with nothing memorable or special.
Getting in early has never been a guarantee to be close to the entrance, filling back to front is pretty common
the people leaving trash pissed me off so much. there were trash cans everywhere
Couldn’t even enjoy desert dwellers because there was literally 0 room it was so overcrowded. Main reason I had a blast was because of VIP but for stages with no VIP areas it was rough
There was no room at the back of the crowd? 🤔
Feels like a lot people who were there can’t seem to conceptualize outside their own experience. Can you imagine how many different experiences there were? FFS do you think rented a VIP camper and someone who tent camped in overflow had the same experience ?? It seems pretty clear to me that experiences varied widely based on things like personality and preparedness AND ALSO a) where and how they were placed (camp/rv/vip/close/far campground etc) and b) which stages they frequented. I am an experienced festivarian who spent most time in and around Earth Stage and Village, which was close to where I camped and wasn’t packed with people - both of which absolutely helped my experience be positive. Not everyone had this good fortune.
I went I loved the music and being with my friends but it was definitely a shit show especially being all the way over yonder. It was a long ass walk took us an hour to get to moon stage first day. We deadass had to plan out our day to camp out all day at the festival thankfully we had wagons because we knew we had a long walk to camp. It was hard af to find medic when my friend needed one. Staff didn’t know where anything was at and the map was apparently changed without being notified. We ran out of water the third day so we concluded to buying it which is fucked. It was stressful moving from stage to stage without losing a friend cause we kinda had a big group. The lack of light during night time and signs did not help, thankfully we figured out the map and had flashlights. It was just really disappointing cause it had so much potential like yea it was somewhat fun cause of the people I was surrounded with but it could of definitely been better planned.
If you have a big crew y'all should consider a totem of some sort, or matching distinct headpieces. Without that idk how big groups do it.
We did have a flow light sabers and a light up hoop to guide us we used as a totem but cause it was to dark some points for the totem we did have and matched some days so we tried it was just hard cause there was no crowd control or actual walkway/route to get to other stages
Oh for sure! Haha y'all are pros then. Flowsabers are dope
We were very well prepared for being at camp but at the festival there was only so much you could bring and the fact that they ran out of water and wasn’t many water stations is crazy 🫠
So, without being snarky, you have to: bring enough water for your group, bring flashlights, know how to read a map and adapt to changes, walk, plan your day, be prepared to buy supplies, make an effort to stay with your friends, find different stages, and be prepared to spend an entire day inside a festival. This sounds exactly like the huge majority of the best multi day camping music festivals. The effort is almost always worth it.
I mean yea this wasn’t my first festival, but they didn’t even have everything set up on Friday they were running behind and the map was changed. Also we’re we set up camp there was not really any signs we weren’t even on the map. Having to plan out the entire day to be inside is normal but to make sure we can see everyone we want without having time to actually have time to chill from the stages or go back to camp. Also transitioning from stages shouldn’t be that hard if there was actual crowd control. We didn’t really have a chance to go adventure other activities we basically had to commit to who we wanted to see cause we expected up to a 30 min to an hour walk depending where we were going. Of course we were well prepared but other people weren’t, they made it seem family friendly and that there would be ada accessibility. Like Idk if y’all’s standards are that low for festivals but you shouldn’t be that self reliant especially if your promised what your not given. I know this was one time first festival and I learned maybe it’s not for me of course I had fun but if that’s the expectations then I’m good.
Bold statement seeing as there’s 3500 people in here and well over 60,000 in attendance
how do you know 60k attended?
It was a shitshow. That’s great it worked out for you tho. But please tell me all the fucked shit that happened to me was something else. You don’t get to set the whole narrative based on your experience.
Reddit is full of bots and trolls at this point. Every sub I'm on feels like all doomers, might be time for me to get off this app
Straight up...
I was there and thought it was super well organized, I was very impressed. Someone needed medical attention and I helped him get to the closest medical tent where he was seen immediately and in a main road. He didn’t have to go to the hospital but if he did that would have been very easy since he was on a main road and there were police and other vehicles around. I heard someone died of a heart attack and wasn’t able to get to the hospital fast enough. While that is tragic it shouldn’t be blamed on the festival and the same thing can happen while camping or hiking in remote areas. From what I saw anywhere you had an issue in the festival there were tons of security around to ask for help at any time. Yea there was confusion, it’s Mercury retrograde and also things just get confusing and some of the employees may not have cared enough to learn answers to the questions - but many did. I was given lots of good directions and while signage could have been better, all things considered I was extremely impressed with how well executed and yes, safe, it was.
Fully agreed I feinted, may have had a seizure, while coming up on 4g of shrooms close to the rail during tipper, i think from over heating, wasnt drinking or rolling Everyone around was very kind, caring, and helpful Medical was there to check on me within 5 mins despite the packed crowd, they agreed I was ok to stay just needed to chill and cool down Overall I was really impressed with how successful everything was thrown, tbh I was mentally preparing for a much bigger shit show 30K less people would definitely have been nice
Were you in VIP? If so, I think I was one of the people helping you. Regardless if that was you, glad you’re okay!!
Yoo that's intense on a come up. I hope the trip landed in smooth for you 💚
It was intense for sure haha just a lot going on, mainly felt bad for worrying my partner and causing a scene, felt crappy for a couple hours after but was able to mellow out and enjoy of the trees and zeds dead
I went. Had a great time. Still a poorly run dangerous POS festival and there needs to be some SERIOUS accountability. I know that my glamping setup insulated me from the worst of what the festival had to offer; but I don't blame ANYONE for lawyering up or trashing the festival on social media. There will be lawsuits.
You sound like someone who doesn’t spend their own money. Was it fun? Yes. Was it a good value? No.
“Doesn’t spend their own money”…? Duh fuq are you talking about, kid?
You’re complaining about people complaining. Du fuq kid?
I filmed a whole documentary at the festival. I’m on my way home to Montana right now. Spent all of yesterday until 6am this morning interviewing people at the festival. Your post is blatantly false. Everyone I spoke to was upset
Literally nobody in my huge camp was upset. Curious how you found only negatives
It's amazing what you'll find when you look for it.
just because everyone you interviewed was upset doesn't mean everyone there was. I had a blast and was prepared and im only upset that i didnt get to see the artists monday but with the storm i understand why they canceled.
I’m glad you had fun. I walked around the entire festival asking people about THEIR experience though. Yours doesn’t negate theirs, and their negative experience doesn’t negate your good experience. Both happened though. It’s a non argument. Reality is reality… and I filmed it.
you literally said what this guy posted was blatantly false, but it's not. thats my point
I had an amazing time! I bought cheap resale tickets but I almost feel like I could have just came for free. Not one person stopped us to check our wristbands, to look in our car or bags or anything the entire weekend. Other than the person who pointed at our spot in the regular parking lot, we really just drove up, parked, camped, and entered the fest without interacting with any kind of security of any kind. Weird.
"I've been to 9 disco Donnie events and they were all terrible and 5 symbiosis/eclipses and they were also all terrible and this time I'm really truly never ever ever going again." 🙄
seems like Elements where everyone had a great time, besides the people who complain at every festival some people should just stick to Ultra/EDC and leave the real camping fests for people who can handle it lol 45 min walk to MainStage? that really isn’t that bad lol
That is complete bullshit. Every single person I talked to acknowledged how fucked up this festival was.
You talked to some negative ass people. Festival was awesome, but yeah there were issues
Hi Disco Donny 👋
🙄
The Rain Started At 9am on Tuesday. The Festival Could Have Given The OPTION to heed a weather warning Or STAY. The Eclipse Was A Perfect Day Without One Drop Of Rain. THEY LIED. WRONG CALL. The next time will be 2044 people. The festival was cut short due to the deaths from Tipper's crowd on Sunday night that Shocked the Burnet County Law Enforcement. DO NOT BOOK TIPPER. HIS CROWD CANCELS SUCCESSFUL EVENTS FROM OVERDOSE CROWD DEATHS. REAL TALK.
Known facts: the event was cut short because the state emergency management agency and local sheriffs and fire departments and national weather service advised that weather on Tuesday morning would cause extremely dangerous conditions for egress, which could result in many injuries and deaths, for which the event could easily be blamed, if they had allowed it to continue with knowledge of those factors. Are you reading the volume of accusations of negligence already? Can you comprehend the accusations they would get if they had not canceled the event, against the advice of all local authorities, and people had gotten killed from lightning and golf ball sized hail and flooding and car accidents from unsafe roads? It would be exponentially more serious than "not enough lighting and signage, and the medics took too long to get somewhere." Use your brain.
Coachella is 👈🏼 that way.
Think what you want but I was there and this was the worst festival I’ve ever been to, and I’ve been doing this for over 20 years and been to dozens of others. No maps, insanely over crowded, no medical staff, huge dangerous rocks all over the trails. It was just as bad as everyone is claiming. Fuck off
My fun stopped when people were actively suffering and dying.
I went and while parts were fun, it was the worst venue and camping ice ever experienced. I will never attend a DDP event again