Splendour in the Grass mayhem as revellers forced to wait six hours for bus home

Splendour in the Grass organisers have come under fire after festival goers were forced to wait a hellish six hours for a bus home.

Splendour in the Grass revellers have been forced to endure six hellish hours crammed in long queues to get a bus out of the festival grounds on Saturday night.

The three-day Byron Bay festival, which returned this year after a two-year Covid hiatus, has been plagued with problems due to wild weather that hit last week.

Festival goers were forced to wait up to 15 hours to get into campgrounds on Thursday night before heavy rain turned the site into a mudpit.

Organisers were forced to cancel all headline acts on Friday.

Festival goers were forced to evacuate the camping ground after they were inundated by rainfall and mud. Picture: Sam Benjamin

Sam Benjamin said the camping ground he was staying at was completely flooded and made their campsite ‘unliveable’.

“I’m not pissed off, it was just crazy in there and we had to leave,” Mr Benjamin said.

“Some people just had to be evacuated where it legit flooded”.

While the weather improved on Saturday, allowing the festival to proceed, organisers were again under fire over the mayhem that unfolded overnight.

Frustrated attendee Tilly took to Tik Tok saying she and her friends had to wait six hours to get a bus home on Saturday night.

“By the time we got home, the sun had risen,” she said.

“We know there were people that had left Splendour before the final act so they had been lining up for a bus from 10.30pm to about 6am because they wanted to miss the rush at the end.

“I’m honestly not sure if we’re going back today because it was seriously not worth the wait.

“There was no food in the line, people were suffering, you couldn't sit down because of how muddy it was … the only water that was there was these little cans that were being passed back so people had to literally take the tiniest sip and pass it along”.

Tilly said they had pre-booked the bus tickets so the organisers knew exactly how many people they would have to transfer out of the festival.

Frustrated festival goer took to Tik Tok to rant about her six hour wait to get on a bus to finally leave Splendour.

Thousands of Splendour goers forced to line up for hours to be able to leave the festival.

Another festival goer Nick Liddy said it was very poor planning on Splendour’s behalf.

“From my eyes, 2000 people crammed together in a small space that couldn’t hold that capacity of people,” Mr Liddy said.

“No sitting, freezing and muddy … A 10 minute walk to the bus stop essentially turned into a 4hr walk.

“In this 4hr walk/wait, I saw 1 splendour worker trying to direct people to the buses.”

Mr Liddy said Ubers weren’t an option due to surging charges, with a 40-minute trip costing up to $600.

“I ended up going home, not worth it in the end,” he said.

“I drove back to Brisbane at 9am.”

Another festival goer claimed there were people in the lines last night who were passing out because of how squished the lines were.

“It was so unorganised,” she said.

Organisers issued an apology for the delays on social media on Sunday, blaming bus driver shortages.

“We hear you and we understand your frustration with our bus services...” the statement posted to Instagram said.

They estimated 1000 people were affected by the issue but claimed 90 per cent of bus patrons were “offsite by 3.30am, like it was in 2019”, with the site having closed at 2am.

Organisers said they were aiming to secure extra services for Sunday night’s exit, which was “challenging in the current climate”.

“Please be patient, be kind and be safe”.