FYF Fest, which our own Raymond Flotat covered on Saturday, seemed to embody the best and worst of potential festival conditions. In addition to great performances by bands such as Ariel Pink and !!!, complaints of massive crowds and lack of resources plagued the fest. Now, the head of the festival has responded.
According to Ray, the size of the grounds at Los Angeles State Historic Park, where FYF Fest was held, were simply too small to accommodate the crowd, which reportedly reached 20,000 people. In turn, lines for food, beverages and bathrooms reached massive lengths, and many people left the festival early to escape the conditions.
In an e-mail, festival head Sean Carlson apologized for the conditions and offered discounted tickets for shows last night at the FYF FanFest featuring The Rapture, Panda Bear and Davila 666. Fans who already had tickets were refunded in part at the door.
Check out the full response from Sean below:
Hey All-
Yesterday was FYF Fest. We know all the problems… The lines…
And are addressing them now. In no way are we sleeping on these problems. The
bands were amazing and the turn out was unreal. I’m speechless.Today is the FYF Fan Fest. 3 different shows. The plan was
to charge $10 each for these shows. After yesterday we decided not
to… Sure, we
have bills but would rather eat the costs and make these special for you, the
fans. If it wasn’t for you there
would be no FYF Fest.Tickets for the Rapture show at the EchoPlex are $5 at the
door.Panda Bear at the Glasshouse is $5 at the door.
Davila 666 at the Echo is free.
If you purchased a ticket to either the Rapture or the Panda
Bear show you will be refunded $5 at the door (your name will be on will call).
Doing a free show is a disaster. When there is no cover too many people show up
and always hundreds of people are turned away. That is the last thing
we would want,
hence why two of the
shows are not free.