Lissadell bus fiasco

tuppence

*shadow* wrote: »

Does anyone know who exactly the event organisers were? Was it MCD or POD?

The organisers were POD. We left messages for them on a separate enquiry about bringing our baby to Leonard Cohen and found them unfortunately very unhelpful and didnt return messages left. It was impossible to get to know what there actual policy was.
Re Discovery Sligo I had rang earlier in the week as was thinking about them as an option. The girl was unable to let me know whether the buses (as they were contracted in) had safety belts or not on them. :eek:
We decided to drive. We left before the crowd to avoid any crush. We hadnt any problems tbtg but friends of ours folllowed us on afterwards. It took them an hour to get out of the car park cos it was a free for all......

iamthe43

Moan moan f***ing moan.

This is such a funny thread...Westlife fans complaining about the lack of organisation:) I dont even know where to begin with this.

The stewards were rude and obnoxious...Of course they were. You were at a concert. To had expected otherwise was just naive. And if someone was rude and obnoxious to you, would you be polite? No you woudnt. You would be rude and obnoxious

The Gardai were unhelpful...Of cousre they were. Getting you home before you and your children got too tired and cranky is not a priority. Getting people who were "possibly suffering from a miscarraige due to the distress that was caused" is a priority

The busses coudnt leave the carparks...Of course they coudnt. You were at a concert with 10,000 other people, all of whom, at the time were less important than you.

Go local, go national, go global. Nobody will care. Why? Because nobody wants to listen to a few disgruntled Westlife fans who had to 'god forbid' walk a few miles in the dark to find their busses.

I stood in line for 4 hours waiting for a bus to bring me from Punchestown to Goffs after the ACDC gig last summer. I didnt complain. Why? Because i was at a f***ing concert. These things happen

I cant get over how far some of you people are prepared to take this...

End rant

teddybear73

iamthe43 wrote: »

Moan moan f***ing moan.

This is such a funny thread...Westlife fans complaining about the lack of organisation:) I dont even know where to begin with this.

The stewards were rude and obnoxious...Of course they were. You were at a concert. To had expected otherwise was just naive. And if someone was rude and obnoxious to you, would you be polite? No you woudnt. You would be rude and obnoxious

The Gardai were unhelpful...Of cousre they were. Getting you home before you and your children got too tired and cranky is not a priority. Getting people who were "possibly suffering from a miscarraige due to the distress that was caused" is a priority

The busses coudnt leave the carparks...Of course they coudnt. You were at a concert with 10,000 other people, all of whom, at the time were less important than you.

Go local, go national, go global. Nobody will care. Why? Because nobody wants to listen to a few disgruntled Westlife fans who had to 'god forbid' walk a few miles in the dark to find their busses.

I stood in line for 4 hours waiting for a bus to bring me from Punchestown to Goffs after the ACDC gig last summer. I didnt complain. Why? Because i was at a f***ing concert. These things happen

I cant get over how far some of you people are prepared to take this...

End rant

Thank god for some piece of sanity. People go to concerts and expect it to be similar to going to the cinema and be home in ten minutes. To be honest some people are whinging about getting home at 2.30am. This at is still only 3 hours after the concert ended. It could have been worse. I think the major problem was that the amount of people who it to the last minutes to book buses. Whatever next they will be compalining that the site was mucky or else the toliets were not the standard of a 4 star hotel

teddybear73

tuppence wrote: »

The organisers were POD. We left messages for them on a separate enquiry about bringing our baby to Leonard Cohen and found them unfortunately very unhelpful and didnt return messages left. It was impossible to get to know what there actual policy was.
Re Discovery Sligo I had rang earlier in the week as was thinking about them as an option. The girl was unable to let me know whether the buses (as they were contracted in) had safety belts or not on them. :eek:
We decided to drive. We left before the crowd to avoid any crush. We hadnt any problems tbtg but friends of ours folllowed us on afterwards. It took them an hour to get out of the car park cos it was a free for all......

To be honest anyone that even thinks about bringing a baby to a concert like last nites enough said. Its one thing at Electric Picnic where they openly promote family campsites and kids getting in for free. This doesnt work at an all seater gig.

*shadow*

iamthe43 wrote: »

Moan moan f***ing moan.

This is such a funny thread...Westlife fans complaining about the lack of organisation:) I dont even know where to begin with this.

The stewards were rude and obnoxious...Of course they were. You were at a concert. To had expected otherwise was just naive. And if someone was rude and obnoxious to you, would you be polite? No you woudnt. You would be rude and obnoxious

The Gardai were unhelpful...Of cousre they were. Getting you home before you and your children got too tired and cranky is not a priority. Getting people who were "possibly suffering from a miscarraige due to the distress that was caused" is a priority

The busses coudnt leave the carparks...Of course they coudnt. You were at a concert with 10,000 other people, all of whom, at the time were less important than you.

Go local, go national, go global. Nobody will care. Why? Because nobody wants to listen to a few disgruntled Westlife fans who had to 'god forbid' walk a few miles in the dark to find their busses.

I stood in line for 4 hours waiting for a bus to bring me from Punchestown to Goffs after the ACDC gig last summer. I didnt complain. Why? Because i was at a f***ing concert. These things happen

I cant get over how far some of you people are prepared to take this...

End rant

We're you at the concert? NO..therefore go and rant else where.

How many ACDC fans bring 4 year old to a gig? It's a completely different target market. The Westlife Lissadell gig was suppose to be family friendly.

Also were thousands of you forced to walk miles in the pitch dark to find your bus? I think not.

And had the Gardai been present in the first place at Lissadell then the whole issue of women being taken off in ambulances from collapsing would have been diverted. It was the chaos that followed the gig and being forced to walk miles in the dark that resulted in people collapsing.

I spoke to a guy who goes round helping at gigs around the country and he said he'd never seen anything like this in his life.

teddybear73

*shadow* wrote: »

We're you at the concert? NO..therefore go and rant else where.

How many ACDC fans bring 4 year old to a gig? It's a completely different target market. The Westlife Lissadell gig was suppose to be family friendly.


Again may I add if you brought a four year old to such a gig in the open air such late at night with inclement weather I would have an issue with this. Such a youngster should only be brought to the O2 or TF in Castlebar as you can never be sure about open air gigs in the middle of the countryside. Was at U2 at Slane and it took 4 hours to get a bus back to Dublin. Would it not have made more sense to bring your 4 year old by car and even if you got caught in traffic at least the young un would have been warm and dry away from the elements and crowding.

*shadow*

teddybear73 wrote: »

Thank god for some piece of sanity. People go to concerts and expect it to be similar to going to the cinema and be home in ten minutes. To be honest some people are whinging about getting home at 2.30am. This at is still only 3 hours after the concert ended. It could have been worse. I think the major problem was that the amount of people who it to the last minutes to book buses. Whatever next they will be compalining that the site was mucky or else the toliets were not the standard of a 4 star hotel

Tell me why ever other county can run shuttle buses from gigs but not Sligo. As someone has already mentioned earlier even Discovery Ireland which was prepay, couldn't manage their customers so that is not the reason for the chaos.

And actually the site was amazing, the toilets were to a good standard, the food was lovely, the surroundings were lovely in fact everyone had a really great time till we attempted to get a bus home.

Radar42

I don't know where all this talk about the bus problem being resolved for Leonard Cohen has come from. The previous poster that got away quickly was an exception. I was at the concert last night. The actual concert was excellent, as was the setting, facilities and most of the staff. The bus arrangement afterwards was a total nightmare. The organizers had learned nothing from the previous night. We had parked in Bundoran, taking a pre-paid coach to Lissadell. The bus driver warned us about the previous night but said that, hopefully, the problems would be ironed out this time. When we arrived, he said that he had a bad feeling that things would be the same. He was right. The concert ended at 11.45 and we made our way along poorly-lit paths to a huge queue at the coach park. There were many stewards and Gardai bawling out conflicting instructions and destinations but there didn't appear to be anyone co-ordinating the procedure. When a destination was called out, only the people at the front of the queue could hear. I actually heard a steward mutter to himself 'Whats the f***ing point, nobody can make their way up through the queue anyway!'.

We were were two hours in the queue before being called to come forward. When we did, the bus was already (somehow) full and drove away. Finally, an available bus was reallocated to Bundoran (via Mullaghmore). I was home in Donegal at three. As others have experienced, I have made it home from O2 in Dublin and Odyssey in Belfast earlier than that. An absolute shambles.

I know others have made the comment that we must expect something like that when you have 10,000 people at a concert in the sticks. I don't accept this in this case. With a bit of intelligent forward planning, much better use could have been made of the space and road network available. It had the hallmarks of something that had been 'planned' the day before by a Craggy Island committee. I hope the folks at today's concert fare out a bit better but I wouldn't bet on it...

ge_ch

*shadow* wrote: »

Does anyone know who exactly the event organisers were? Was it MCD or POD?

POD

Mint Sauce

wasn't at the concerts but can sympatise and relate to whats been happening. was at mulaghmore a few years ago when the village hosted the final stage of rally ireland, that night as well took us 3 to 4 hours to get back to sligo town. that did not include the walk back to the meeting point. it was 3 to 4 hours from arriving to the meeting point, waiting on the advertised bus eirrean service, and the journey back to sligo. no stewards to assist, and some of the guards actully left before the buses arrived to collect people.

i too have left concerts in around dublin, walked back to the city centre and got back to donegal/letterkenny/sligo quicker as well.

the main problem with lissadell and mulaghmore is that there is only one road in and one road out, and that road is not designed to hold or cater for that amount of traffic, nor for a fleet of busses to go in or out. unfortunatly regardless of the amount of busses promised, weather they were going to park and rides, sligo, or donegal, they were going to have to meet on narrow and winding country roads, whilst going in to pick up and leave again after filling up and then deal with traffic on the main road back to sligo and donegal.

going home last night my self from sligo to donegal took me over 90 minutes instead of the usual 45, mainly due to buses and private cars trying to get into lissadell. would have imagined it would have been a lot worse afterwards due to everyone leaving around the same time compared to arriving throughout the afternoon over the course of a few hours proir to the event.

whatswhat

A great concert totally ruined by inadequate transport organisation.Totally agree with "Shadow" comments.I was trapped between hundreds of people,was told to move back by a steward so a bus could do a 55 point turn,fell into a chained fence and have a five inch bruise on my leg to prove it! Live in Sligo and got home at 2:25,Joke!!!

Betsy18

*shadow* wrote: »

Thought that this thread should be started to gauge a true idea of how badly organised the event was with regards the buses.

We waited 2 hours in the bus pick up area with thousands of other people. There was complete chaos and no one was controlling the situation. Security were laughing and shrugging their shoulders saying it wasn't there fault and they gave us no direction as to what we should do. The only person that tried to maintain some form of crowd control was a tall guy in a suit who kept trying to reassure people they'd get a bus.

There were no Gardai around for almost an hour and they didn't turn up until we started ringing them to report the situation. When they did turn up they did nothing.

After 2 hours of waiting a few hundred of us set off walking down the small narrow unlit road [about a mile and a half - 2 mile walk] to the crossroads where over 50 buses were lined up. This road was pitch dark and we couldn't even see the ground, a cop car sped past us at one point rather than helping to ensure our safety by perhaps driving in front to light up the way or by dispersing cops throughout the crowd with torches.

Along the way we met a guy who was working at the event who said he was in complete shock at the organisation and that he was going to refuse to work at the event on the Saturday and Sunday. He also said that it was clear the road couldn't cope with such a vast volume of buses and that the event should never have been allowed without this issue being addressed.

We eventually made it to the cross roads were we managed to find a a very very helpful Fury's bus and the driver explained that he had been in the first group that should have drove into the bus pick up area but that the organisers had made him reverse back to allow the hotel buses in first. We waited on the bus to try and fill it and after half an hour thousands of people were walking past. The people that got on our bus said that the stewards had eventually stopped discouraging people from walking and just told them their only way of getting home would be to head off walking to the crossroads.

I have a quote from Ocean fm earlier that day where a woman strongly discouraged people from walking on these roads as they were too dangerous she also said that it was a terribly long walk to do and that you'd have to be in training to do it. Why then were thousands of people including young children, the elderly, pregnant women and the disabled forced to do so? And why did the Gardai completely fail us by not attempting to take control of the situation?

This was the worse run concert I have ever attended, even after the event finished there was no announcement about safety precautions and which exits to use like there has been at every other event I've ever attended. There were even unlit areas at this point as we made our way to the bus pick up area..how hard would it have been to have put a few generator powered lights along the path way leading out to the bus area?

I'm completely disgusted and dismayed over what has happened. It spoilt what should have been a family friendly night and what was a great gig. Sligo had a chance to prove itself and it failed miserably.

I'm definitely making a formal complaint about this and this story is going national. I'm just completely stunned by it all.

The purpose of this thread is not to start an argument. For those driving to and from the event I've been told the traffic management was excellent however for those of us availing of the bus services it was a different story and this event cannot be downplayed.

We didn't get home till after 3am and we live in Sligo. I've gotten home from Gigs in Dublin and Galway earlier than that.

I'm also curious is there anyone out there who attended the Leonard Cohen concerts and was there the same chaos at the bus pick up area for them?

I'm with you on that Shadow!! it was an absolute disgrace and i am definately not letting them away with it!i am shocked that after the recent tragedies in Germany that concert promoters would have acknowledged the safety issues which arose at this event and would have plans of action in place to deal with these issues instead of the adhoc procedure that was in place on Friday nite!:mad:

Betsy18

magnumlady wrote: »

Friday night sounded dreadful. I would let the local media know because from what I gather they think things went very smoothly.

Yes i also have heard that Ocean FM has been praising the organisation of the concert. fair enough the concert itself was excellent and the venue was amazing but the fiasco afterwards completely ruined our nite and left us with bad memories of our nite at Lissadell! i think Ocean FM needs to hear our side of the story on the nites events!!:rolleyes:

Betsy18

IAMTHE43 HOW DARE YOU! Where you actually there that nite??????? did you experience the chaos that arose????where you trapped in a crowd of 2000/3000 people not being let out as the stewards decided to close the gates and let the people miss their buses???? did YOU witness children in distress and people collapsing left, right and centre???? NO!YOU did not! so go rant somewhere else because YOU cannot comment on the chaos that arose after this event! YES WE will go to the media as we paid money for PREBOOKED travel to this event and did not receive the transport we have PREPAID for. Also the safety issues that arose was an absolute disgrace and would have been better organised by a 5 year old child!

unfortunately people like you don't think of issues like this, so go rant at some other thread because it seems that you urself like the odd 'MOAN'!

bobcar61

Ok Guys, if you have problems with posts then please report them, don't reply with a response which could get into a typing war.

I wasn't at any of the concerts so I'm not going to say anything but it's obvious that some people got home without any problems and others had major problems, like you can expect problems at concerts and there is always going to be traffic when a huge amount of people are leaving one venue and most of them are heading in the one direction.

For the moment I'm going to lock this thread, just to let things cool down. And as I said already, we can already see the problems that arose from the previous posts and we can react as we want to them.

I don't think anything more is going to come from this thread for the moment so **LOCK** it is.