Traffic chaos leaves Beyond the Valley festival-goers sweltering in cars

Festival-goers have been left sweltering in their cars at a music festival in Victoria’s west as traffic banks up with only one road out.

Thomas McPhee, Carla Galvin, Monique Moor, Julia Olson have been queueing in their car to leave Beyond the Valley since 9am. Picture: Supplied

Traffic chaos has left festival-goers stranded in their cars at Beyond the Valley music festival in Barunah Plains.

With only one exit road out of the festival, people have been queuing in their cars for over six hours while temperatures are in the mid-30s.

Festival-goer Monique Moor said this has really “ruined her festival experience”.

Festival-goers wait in the heat to leave.

Nightmare getting out of the Beyond the Valley music festival this arvo at Barunah Plains - 30mins west of Geelong @7NewsMelbournepic.twitter.com/Z3Ux2D3bMk

— Mitch Cleary (@cleary_mitch) January 1, 2023

“There doesn’t seem to be any traffic control, and no one has managed to move in hours,” she said.

“This is every man for himself, people have been cutting wire fences and driving through them, standing on top of cars trying to figure out what’s going on.

“It’s so hot, and we don’t want to use the aircon because we’re scared our battery might go flat.

“We’ve seen about ten cars break down, and most people don’t have reception which makes it even more stressful.

Some festival-goers have been trapped in cars for hours in sweltering heat.

“We left our campsite at 9am and have moved about 20m since then,” Ms Moor said.

In a statement on Instagram, Beyond the Valley said they “sincerely apologise for the delays and inconvenience caused.”

“We are experiencing traffic delays getting out of the festival today due to the influx of cars exiting the festival, as well as general holiday traffic on the roads,” they said.

“Our team have buggies doing water drops at cars, we have ample water tanks around the site to fill up bottles as well.

Cars bank up as festival-goers try to leave. Picture: Supplied

“We understand this process is not pleasant in the heat.

“Our priority is to get everyone home safely,” Beyond the Valley said.

Parent Patrick Griffiths said he was concerned about his daughter and all the other young people attending the festival.

“There’s probably lots of parents in exactly the same boat, worrying about how their kids are stuck in such hot temperatures, not able to move,” he said.

“For my 18-year-old daughter, it’s her first time at a festival like this and it’s pretty troubling.

“You wouldn’t want there to be a fire or something.

“It sounds like it’s easier to get out of prison than it is to escape Beyond the Valley,” Mr Griffiths said.