Laneway responds to criticism

Mon 2nd Feb, 2009 in Local News

CHECK OUT THE PHOTOS FROM MELBOURNE HERE

The promoters of St Jeromes Laneway Festival have published an official statement addressing the crowd and safety issues which overshadowed the Melbourne event on Sunday.

Punters who attended the festival – which expanded this year to include more stages over Melbourne’s CBD – have been voicing discontent since Sunday about issues regarding crowd control and access to stages.

The statement from the promoters makes it clear that whilst there were areas of the festival which were restricted due to concerns for crowd safety, the event itself was not over-capacity.

“The St Jerome’s Laneway Festival strives to deliver a unique event, closing streets and laneways in the heart of the city to create a truly special show.

This year the festival expanded to meet demand of previous years while retaining the city location. The increased capacity was agreed in consultation with all relevant authorities and determined by the amount of extra space made available to the festival. At no point did the number of people within the overall festival site exceed the designated capacity, however some festival goers have raised some concerns and we would like to address these here.

Public safety was the paramount concern of the organisers at all times and there was constant communication between all areas of festival management throughout the day. Due to the limitations of holding a show in laneways and other restricted spaces, we have always focused on the safety of our patrons and this has been at the forefront of our dedicated team’s planning. This concern led to some areas being restricted at various points throughout the day, with patrons encouraged to utilise other areas of the site.

In addition to this, the unsafe and reckless behavior of a small number of patrons within the Little Lonsdale Precinct led to the decision to limit entry into this area and ensure that our resources were able to focus on the safety of our event attendees after 7:30pm. It was very disappointing that a minority’s reckless behavior spoilt the day for people who wanted to see certain bands and we apologize for this inconvenience, the reasons for which were not possible to communicate to the audience in such a short period of time.

For the past five years, the Laneway Festival has delivered some of the world’s finest music, thanks to the amazing support of music fans, media, sponsors and stakeholders and we look forward to doing so in the years to come”.

Got something to say? Say it in the Laneway forums here.