Knotfest Iowa Plagued by Two-Hour-Long Lines for Water, Food Shortages
Knotfest Iowa, a festival hosted by Slipknot on their home turf that also served as the kickoff for their North American tour, took place this past weekend roughly 15 miles south of Des Moines. But the triumphant return of live music for so many was marred by massive logistical problems, with reports of extremely long lines for and shortages of water and food flooding social media.
The organizers of the event, which hosted 30,000 concertgoers at the National Balloon Classic Field, clearly did not adequately plan for the influx of patrons. Access to water was the biggest problem, with many folks reporting having to wait two hours or more on line for a bottle of water, if they were able to get any at all (some reported that water ran out entirely).
Many fans witnessed people faint while on line as a result of dehydration, and others resorted to paying other concertgoers up to $25 for a single bottle or can of water for dehydrated friends or children.
Making matters worse, the venue banned refillable water bottles from being brought in, rendering attendees unable to handle the task themselves at refill stations, spigots or even restrooms. One video posted on social media shows a large group of fans surrounding a water tent chanting, “We want water! We want water!” over and over.
Lines for alcohol were also long, and several vendors ran out of food relatively early in the day.
Adding insult to injury, those attempting to leave the event were again met by long lines just to exit the venue, with some reporting waits of over an hour.
A quick search on Twitter for the words “Knotfest” and “water” turns up an endless stream of complaints, some desperate real-time attempts at getting the festival’s attention and others after the fact.
Needless to say, Knotfest has a lot of work to do before their next event.
Water at festivals should be free for everyone. Refillable bottles should be allowed in. Full stop.
Slipknot nor Knotfest have yet to comment on the matter.
Mammoth Productions, a company involved with the event’s production, issued an embarrassingly unapologetic statement to a local news station.
You can have a look at a selection of social media complaints below.
