NSW licencing laws blamed for music festival disaster

The organisers of the Wine Machine festival, held in the Hunter Valley on Saturday, have used NSW licencing laws as one of many excuses for the disastrous event.

Billed as a showcase of the region's best wine and food, supported by live music, many of the 11,000 attendees say it was anything but. 

The festival was hit by wild weather and cancelled before the main act, Hot Dub Time Machine, could take to the stage.

While the organisers had no control over the storm, the bedlam event goers faced before and after has led to the event being dubbed "Frye Festival 2.0".

The infamous Fyre Festival was held in the Bahamas in 2017 - it was billed as a "luxury music festival", however, instead of fancy accommodation and gourmet food, attendees were served prepackaged sandwiches and expected to sleep in tents after paying thousands of dollars for tickets. 

Among the complaints by Wine Machine festival goers - who had paid up to $150 for tickets - were that the sound quality was allegedly so poor that certain musical acts couldn't be heard, while the sound kept cutting out; hour-long queues to purchase drinks; one attendee said the pizza he bought for $15 was frozen in the middle; claims that staff showed no regard for patrons while ushering them out of the event, including one man breaking his leg; a surcharge on all card transactions despite customers not being able to use cash; and no chardonnay wine on offer despite festival marketing boasting about serving "the best chardy ever".

Others joked the festival should have been renamed “line machine” for its excessive queues.

Complaints on social media about the Wine Machine festival included:

"Security were very aggressive, we were mushed out by horses. We were scared and seeking shelter and instead we were forced into the storm."

"You legitimately shoved thousands of people out on to roads in the middle of an electrical storm, when Roche Estate had perfectly fine shelter that we could have used."

"So dangerous and beyond scary watching people trying to huddle down a pitch black road."

'When the storm hit, you guys were not concerned about the safety of your patrons. It was 'how quick can we kick them out into the lightning. A tree came down in front of us and a guy broke his leg. So much for duty of care." 

"This was my worst festival experience, from the layout to the bloody queue that took up to an hour to be served."

"They have no clue how to run a festival... this is dead and buried." 

However, other concert goers were kinder, with one writing: "Despite being evacuated from the festival (before the headlining act) due to an epic lightning storm, it was still such a great night creating new memories and stories to share."

Another said: "“I honestly had the best time. I was super impressed with the police, the paramedics, the bar staff and the patrons. Yes the storm was f**ked but we can’t control the weather. Everyone is acting so spoilt and privileged. I would honestly like to see everyone complaining in a situation like fyre festival. Watch the doco. This was nothing like that.”

Wine Machine festival organisers Prime Collective have since released a statement in response to the complaints:

As those in attendance well know, The Hunter Valley last night experienced an extreme weather system that included torrential rain and a high multitude of lightning strikes within close proximity causing an initial show stop and eventual evacuation of the event. This sucked for every single person on site!

The safety of all patrons, artists, and staff is of absolute priority. Evacuations of this nature are never pleasant. If you have feedback on the method by which police and or security managed this please email the WM team at cellarmaster@wine-machine.com and we will come back to you personally.

We must also address bar lines earlier in the day. Due to the current climate in NSW, severe licensing conditions were placed upon the event limiting drinks to two per person causing unacceptable congestion at the bars. Adding to this were staffing issues from our external bar operators Prime Collective who’ve issued the following statement:

“Whilst licensing restrictions played a significant role in bar congestion at the Wine Machine NSW event, we must unreservedly apologise for our role in this and take full responsibility. Two of our staffing mini-buses carrying 32 staff were reportedly involved in an incident whilst en route from Sydney resulting in bars being under staffed.

We are currently investigating the circumstances of this and following up on the conditions of those staff involved. If you would like further information on this or the licensing restrictions please email us: info@primecollective.com.au and we will come back to you.”

Lastly, stay tuned in the coming days for an announcement from Hot Dub Time Machine who is hoping to throw a complimentary make-up show for those disappointed he didn’t get to play.