Bridgeport’s Sound On Sound more organized after day 1 issues

“We and the city aim to make this a marquee for years to come. We will use all the feedback we received and the lessons we learned this weekend and design an even better Sound On Sound 2023,” said Tom Russell, co-founder of Founder’s Entertainment, who organized the festival. by email. “We hope that people will see the changes we’ve made from day one to day two just as a down payment for future improvements.”

On Saturday night, Sound On Sound, which organizers say drew 30,000 visitors a day, took to its social media accounts to address the concerns. “Our team is working overnight to expand and reconfigure the audience area to provide more space for all fans and to define pathways across the performance field for crowd movement,” the festival wrote in the statement on social media .

Russell listed changes that included:

Enlargement of the viewing area.

Expanding and enforcing the No Chair and Blanket Zone.

Creating a defined walkway “to improve pedestrian flow”.

Adding outlets and increasing staff at concession stands.

Adjusting the audio “to ensure the music can be enjoyed throughout the park”.

And when fans arrived at Seaside Park on Sunday, the changes promised by the festival were indeed evident. Standing areas in front of the stages were separated from the chair and towel area, which was pushed to the outer areas of the concert field and enforced by staff. Trails were laid out with white spray paint, with workers actively spraying the trails throughout the festival. Additionally, queues for concessions were shorter than the more than an hour wait many reported on Saturday for concessions and use of the restrooms.

Organizers said changes to the festival’s layout, particularly moving the chair and towel section, were because Sunday’s event felt less crowded than Saturday.

Though inclement weather cut Sunday night’s headliners Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds by 45 minutes, fans generally walked away happy at the end of day two as thousands sang along to Matthews classics like “Satellite” and “Lie In Our Graves.” Over on Facebook, comments ranged from Saturday and Sunday as “day and night” to thanking the festival for its “diligence and efforts to rectify yesterday’s problems.”

“Our goal, the only reason we’re getting into this industry, is to give music fans the best possible experience and access to world-class acts. Every time our attendees feel like we’re not living up to that standard, we want to do better,” said Russell. “So we listened to their feedback about those growing pains and took immediate action to improve the experience for the second to make the day even better.”

However, when I browsed the Sound On Sound music festival Facebook page the night before, that was a different story. Overcrowding, long lines for food and drink, no dedicated walkways and sound issues were just a few of the complaints listed on the festival’s social media accounts by a number of attendees.

“I felt completely disrespected,” festival-goer David Lewis said in a previous interview. “I think (with) the promise of the event, expectations were pretty high – and far from being met.”

There was a shortage of cellphone service, Lewis added, which sent people panicking as they got lost in the crowd. His group arrived at 3 p.m., he said; The venue ran out of hamburgers by 5 p.m. as the concessions quickly disappeared. People waited an hour for water, he said.

Jesse Stone said he traveled with his wife from New London, New Hampshire in anticipation of an exciting weekend. Instead, he said they arrived to find long lines, understaffed food and drink stations and a largely disorganized venue.

Stone said he was primarily drawn to the festival for the opportunity to see Dave Matthews, one of his favorite musicians. But after the experience he and his wife faced on Saturday, the couple decided to head home early and skip Matthews’ performance on Sunday. “It was a miserable experience,” he said. “Had it been pouring rain or had the tapes been a little more intense, it would have fallen apart a la Woodstock [1999].”

Leia Scinto, who has worked in festival check-in and merchandising departments for the past 15 years, was present on Saturday but not Sunday. She said that “there was just so much going wrong that I was so nervous to go back.” However, she added that she had friends who attended the festival on Sunday and enjoyed the experience. “People I know who weren’t there on Saturday gave Sunday a chance and were happy. They had a good time,” said Scinto.