Splendour in the Grass: Flooding, 5hr gridlock, ripped tents as wild weather lashes festival

All main acts for the opening day of Splendour in the Grass have been cancelled, further plunging the festival into chaos as stranded ticket holders battled mud, shredded tents and an inland sea caused by heavy rains and wild winds. SEE THE PHOTOS

Organisers have cancelled acts on the main stages at Splendour in the Grass scheduled for Friday afternoon as wild weather lashes the music festival.

Weather has caused chaos at the famous festival, held in sprawling paddocks north of Byron Bay, with organisers deciding to “err on the side of caution” and cancel performances on the event’s main stages.

That means performances by acts including Baker Boy and Gorillaz won’t go ahead.

Some smaller stages and performance spaces will remain open for punters already drenched in a sea of rain and mud.

Jemma Lawson and Kiarra Lewis make the best of it. Picture by Richard Gosling

“Please relax and enjoy what is open,” organisers said in a statement.

“Please be assured that our event team is working very hard to provide the best experience possible under the current circumstances.”

Statement from Splendour in the Grass organisers pic.twitter.com/zcROtIEKex

— SplendourintheGrass (@SITG) July 22, 2022

It’s been far from splendour, and the grass has turned to mud as the event descended into a wild weather horror show.

The violent weather system lashing the east coast has turned the event into a chaotic struggle as punters battle knee-deep mud, five-hour queues and tents being ripped from pegs at the Byron Parklands on Friday’s opening day of the weekend festival.

Baker Boy is among the featured main acts to be cancelled on Friday.

One TikTokker described the nightmare as “hell in there, it’s horror, you’d have to be a certain type of person to survive”.

Since Thursday afternoon, thousands of revellers have descended on the quiet slice of wilderness north of Byron Bay for the long-awaited return of the iconic festival.

TikTok users have chronicled the horror show inside Splendour.

The arrival of thousands of gig pigs caused traffic chaos on the Pacific Highway, with cars piled back for 10km, while commuters trying to get to Byron Bay and other northern NSW towns reported delays of up to five hours.

People were forced to sleep in their cars overnight as kilometre-long queues choked the entrance while cars got bogged in mud and ran out of petrol while waiting in queues.

“We got here at 3:30pm yesterday and then we got stuck for hours and hours and hours on part of the road coming in,” festivalgoer Abby Hincks told News Corp.

The gridlock of cars on the Pacific Highway.

One user panned to drenched tents and described it as ‘survival of the fittest’

“About 12am, we were still nowhere near the campground and no one has said anything. Not a single worker has come across to us. I walked and found volunteers but they said they don’t really know anything, so we slept in our cars.

“We got into the grounds by 7:30pm and we’ve been stuck in the line into the campground since. It’s so wet that people are getting bogged and some were running out of petrol and there’s just no places to put anybody.”

The grounds have turned to a mud pit. Photo: TikTok

And inland sea formed.

Social media also went into meltdown as the parklands camping precinct descended into a swamp of rain and mud.

“We have progressed to Splendour in the Mud,” wrote one person on a TikTok video panning across an inland sea as miserable hordes trudged past in rain ponchos and gum boots.

“I’m not ashamed to admit it, but it’s hell in there,” said one TikTokker.

“It’s horror, you’d have to be a certain type of person to survive”.

One drenched festivalgoer.

Tents were ripped from pegs in the wild winds.

“Turn around while you still can!” warned one punter to a crowd waiting for a bus to transport people into the campsite.

One festivalgoer bemoaned not being able to buy gum boots in the days leading up to the festival, which was predicted to be smashed by wild weather from early this week, sparking frantic sales on boots at K Mart, Big W and Bunnings outlets across the region.

On Friday, festival organisers made the call to cap campers, announcing that they would “no longer accept any campers or vehicles including day parking at North Byron Parklands”.

All new arrivals are advised to park and camp at the Byron Events Farm at nearby Tyagarah.

In a statement on the Splendour website, organisers thanked festivalgoers for their patience and called for people to “be kind and patient”.

The good, bad and ugly of Splendour in the Grass

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Originally published as Splendour in the Grass: Flooding, 5hr gridlock, ripped tents as wild weather lashes festival