The Pulling Festival could be in jeopardy if there is a repeat of this year’s traffic problems, Leicestershire County Council’s chief executive has warned.
The festival caused severe congestion on the roads around Donington Park in Leicestershire as fans arrived on June 7 and 8. Some of them said it took them up to seven hours to reach the place.
Nick Rushton, the council’s leader, described the situation as an “absolute disaster” with the worst queues he had seen in Download’s history. However, he remains optimistic that the situation will improve next year “with some control”.
“Donington are pretty good operators, but they really messed it up this time,” Rushton told BBC. “Something needs to change for next year or I’m going to demand the damn thing be cancelled.”
This year Download was held over four days to celebrate its 20th anniversary. However, next year it returns to its usual three-day format.
Reports suggest that the traffic jams also caused problems for motorists not traveling to the festival. Rushton said he knew of 600 people who had missed their flights from East Midlands Airport, opposite Donington Park, because of the traffic.
Live Nation Entertainment, the organizers of the festival, agreed that the congestion was “unprecedented and unacceptable”. per BBCthey have the an investigation was launched what went wrong and how such problems can be prevented.
They said they believe higher attendance, increased vehicle numbers and problems with travel routes to the parking lots are the main factors contributing to the delays. They’re hoping a return to Download’s usual format will help the problem, with the campsite opening two days before bands start “rolling out” the arrival of fans.
Rushton agreed that the return to a three-day format “should be much better next year”.
This year’s Download Festival was headlined by Metallica, who performed two unique sets over the weekend, Bring Me The Horizon and Slipknot.
Bring Me The Horizon announced a new album, ‘Post Human: Nex Gen’, during their debut on Friday night, while Slipknot headlined the festival for the fifth time, equaling Iron Maiden’s record for most download headline appearances .