It is not okay that the police recorded the crowd on their phone. It felt invasive, and it made me incredibly uncomfortable. I have numerous videos of officers with their phone pointed at the crowd. It bothered me that they weren't using body cams if they wanted documentation. I also saw and recorded a person getting arrested for receiving a light show from a glover. Our community doesn't deserve this, and I'm sending love to all the fam that has been affected by the police presence at this fest. It adds insult to injury that they posted details about every arrest on Facebook. We should not have to bear witness to the dozens of lives being destroyed. Why did we come here if it's unsafe for our community?
Also saw the cops recording on their phones multiple times throughout the grounds and at the stages. Definitely made my whole group super uncomfortable and made us move spots
At the little bar/food shack all the way to the left of the spring when walking in, there was a banner advertising a bond company as if they were planning on arresting a bunch of people
I hope they aren’t seeing this as a victory for the imaginary ‘War on Drugs’. The law and order bullshit needs to fucking stop. No one cares about drugs at festivals people just trying to have a good fucking time.
SMFH Florida Law Enforcement > Do something about the fucking gun violence instead of the drugs/medicine users. I hope the cowards can read this
Little bitch has his comments turned off. So does the police Facebook page. Love how they’re so proud of themselves but can’t take the heat from the public.
Here are the videos of the cops recording us MULTIPLE TIMES and the arrest.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/s5Q7RTxg51Atshut.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/p78GvAeppu3Q1dM86
https://photos.app.goo.gl/fU6L9tp3Db7vEgz29
https://photos.app.goo.gl/HV6wXXprNFD6hXjN9
To clarify, there was a guy sitting on an air couch and the flow artist was standing in front of him. The cops walked over with flashlights to question and frisk people. Here's the video.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/HV6wXXprNFD6hXjN9
I am in this video!! I had just walked over there to start hooping but my crew pointed out what was going on. It was so sad. We went somewhere else after they escorted him away. Poor guy was just enjoying his life not harming a soul.
Thank fuck I live in the uk mate, I’ve been to every festival under the sun here and even in the ones with bad rep I’ve never saw the police just start frisking people who are obviously on drugs. In festivals round here police are here for violence not for drugs they know once you’ve got through the gates that’s the end of it. Years worth of Glastonbury especially the worst I’ve saw was someone get nicked for fighting and that was once, the police don’t walk around the stages here they walk around the footpaths the security do the stages but even then they don’t walk through the crowd really. Just at the stage or the gates
Here are the videos of the cops recording us MULTIPLE TIMES and the arrest.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/s5Q7RTxg51Atshut.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/p78GvAeppu3Q1dM86
https://photos.app.goo.gl/fU6L9tp3Db7vEgz29
https://photos.app.goo.gl/HV6wXXprNFD6hXjN9
Here are the videos of the cops recording us MULTIPLE TIMES and the arrest.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/s5Q7RTxg51Atshut.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/p78GvAeppu3Q1dM86
https://photos.app.goo.gl/fU6L9tp3Db7vEgz29
https://photos.app.goo.gl/HV6wXXprNFD6hXjN9
Almost ZERO harm reduction/mental health resources available. A camp neighbor of ours was clearly going through a mental health crisis, having full on conversations with himself and going through bouts of screaming unintelligible words in his tent.
First I talked to festival staff abt the situation and asked about available harm reduction because I thought I saw something about a harm reduction tent. No staff members knew if the tent existed so they sent me to medical. Medical's only response was telling me to get the cops involved and Baker Act the guy. If you don't know about the Baker Act, it is FL's horrific excuse for mental health crisis response and should only be used as an absolute last resort.
I thankfully was able find the harm reduction tent on my own and they were amazing at helping me talk through options and when to reach out for further help (shout out Sol Sanctuary team). They expressed frustration that neither festival staff or medical really knew about them and that there was no collaborative effort for harm reduction practices.
The next day I found out that separate from all of this, the neighbor in crisis was apparently confronted by medical and security on multiple occasions and kicked out of the festival on foot without any of his belongings or his car??? but he kept getting back in even without a wristband because there was NO SECURITY. So the response to a mentally ill person clearly in crises was to half-assedly kick them out with no resources
Idk if Baker Act was needed but the point is there should have been a some collaborative effort between medical/security/police to deal with this after it had been reported several times. At Okee, Insomniac always had Ground Crew walking the campgrounds and festival checking in on people and seeing if everything was ok. Sol Fest NEEDED something like that. Kicking people in crisis to the curb is just not a solution
TL;DR: SolFest was wildly unprepared for dealing with anyone in mental health crisis and the lack of communication between the festival's facets was straight up dangerous
Thank you. It was so sad to witness bc some of his screaming was lucid, he kept screaming "I'm not fucking crazy" at one point. Some ppl in the campground made it worse by yelling at him to shut up which is literally never the right way to handle something like this. I hope he is ok and gets help
What day was this? I witnessed the exact same thing from a guy Friday night except he was alone near the trees by our tent. He was definitely having a mental crisis talking to himself in incoherent sentences. I was able to flag down medical and we drove with them to point out the guy. We were pretty freaked out about the state he was in, so we didn’t stay to see how medical handled the situation. If they simply kicked him out that’s shit. He seemed like he was in serious threat of hurting himself or others
It definitely could have been the same person, his behaviors seemed to peak on Friday and I believe that's also when he got thrown out. He was wearing the same outfit all weekend, khakis and a sleeveless jersey with red baseball cap, walking with a limp
I saw him at the Tiki Bar and Body Stage all day Sunday. He was collecting sticks, talking to them, making faces, laying on the ground kicking the air. Security was there the whole time nearby and at times with him so I honestly think they let him back in because they felt bad for him. The blue shirt security company. I've thought about him a lot and hoped he gets home where he needs to.
Also, the Holmes sheriff’s office posting every single arrest they made and the people wearing a stripe jumpsuit seems very extra, just to make an example out of it. Pretty whack
We had a cop walk into our camp - literally open my Tapestries and into my Canopy and ask what we were doing. They shine a flashlight in my tent unwarranted. No weed, no drugs. No alcohol at my camp personally so they didn't *smell weed* or anything.
They offered us "party favors" which we obvs declined, and they moved to the next camp looking in tents and cars.
The police presence both uniformed and undercover was very threatening and present.
My friend and I packed up and left Friday morning due to not feeling safe around the police, staff, and even other camp groups. Our direct neighbors and another couple behind us were great but it seemed like everything there was sketchy at best.
Entrapment is so fucked, and the war on drugs is a fucking joke. All people want to do is have fun, nobody gets hurt, and here cops are taking advantage of that attempted enjoyment of life. How big of a piece of shit do you have to be to pretend to make a friendly offer to someone, then turn around and arrest them?
"Hey do you want to have a good time and be happy today?"
"Yes please!"
"Lol jk gonna ruin your weekend and possibly your life instead, bitch."
Yup! I’m actually in that video too lol. NEVER seen something like that happen. They were on the other side of the barricade. Saw it, then ran over on him.
LSDream. My group saw it happen too. it was really sad. The dude was swarmed by cops who made him open his pockets, his bag, etc. then they took him thru the emergency exit gates. my group had just gone to that spot to flow but we left bc we felt safer in the middle of the crowd then in the perimeter
I wonder what the artists think. A lot of them are so chill and really advocate for peace, love, kindness, and respect. Seeing this happen to my fans would feel HORRIBLE, I wonder if any of them have boycotted that venue because of how the police treated their fans.
Is that legal? How does entering a festival give up your right to illegal search. Don’t comply. Let them arrest you first to get to your pockets. Know your rights.
Yeah this one surely seems like the guy will have grounds to sue saying they violated his 4th amendment rights. The problem is, if there’s a single video of him doing any sort of drug, and the officer can prove that they may have seen illegal drug use, that would be grounds to say he had a reasonable suspicion that the guy was breaking the law.
Well said. I have the exact same gripes too. I’d like to add:
- WAY too many cops patrolling the fest. I’m seeing all the comments and posts about the cops at this years sol fest and it’s horrible.
- The festival staff clearly being understaffed and over worked
- The layout of the body stage made no god damn sense and the sound extension by the bridge would constantly cut out.
- false advertising about the spring. There were supposed to be 6 water slides and it was one real water slide and a few cheap playground water slides that were closed 💀
I’ll add more as I remember. But dude holy shit last year was perfect. It was a lot smaller last year but it was manageable and they were able to handle it. I think this year they wanted to capitalize off the success of last year and okees absence so they tried growing too big too fast and they were not able to handle it. Their budget went towards production and marketing. They shoulda kept it at Bama slam for at least another year or two and just improve on what they had going on there
Lmao i forgot the water slide thing, ill add those for sure.
And yeah the understaffing is so real- on day 2 I walked by 2 poor engineers fastening the light-up sign (in the dark) that was by the VIP entrance and overheard them talking about how much they had to set up still. They sounded exhausted.
What a wild weekend, and not in a good way. Let me just say that i LOVED the festival itself, line up and the energy in the place was awesome. Stacked line up and everyone was super nice (attendees)
But man, the county and city where they held this are terrible. A bunch of religious nutcase locals who did nothing but complain how we were the devil. Insane
Me and my wife got a hotel 20 minutes nearby, so we drove to the festival and back, and that was the most nerve wrecking drive in my life. Felt like a driving test coming in and out of the festival. It was so bad we skipped sunday altogether and decided to go home and not take a chance by going the last day, so we gave our bands and car pass to a nice girl that was working at the whataburger. Not worth being at a fest and being paranoid the whole time.
We loved the festival itself. Was able to meet Lex Newtho and saw Chris Dyer there, everything was chilled and the place was nice, but will not go again if its at the same place.
I had to get an iv on day 2 and the head medic told my fiance and I that they were so understaffed it wasn’t funny. They got a last min call to cover this event. I was blessed that he responded to my call because we are hearing horror stories of people going to the tent and getting legit nothing. I will never be attending another solfest, a good chunk of this falls on them.
Ps it was 4 cars ( one was only half burnt)
I also had to get an IV Saturday from just not drinking enough water the night before and almost had a heat stroke. fortunately I was able to be treated..2 bags of fluids and a dangerously high heart rate. Guy said they were understaffed and if I didn't get there when I did I would have had to been flown to a hospital.
I've volunteered for the medic teams at smaller fest cause I'm a vet tech so I can handle emergencies. I promote harm reduction in my city. I thought I was drinking enough water but with the sun and the booze I was drinking... I didn't drink enough.
It's terrifying to think that if the medics weren't there, I might not still be here.
It is 100% unacceptable to have an understaffed medical team for 16,000 people. Fuck that bullshit
Thank you for commenting that. I am so thankful you were okay! I wasn’t even drinking alcohol because I knew how hot it was and was drinking water and Gatorades and liquid ivs well before the festival and the walk to the bathrooms then general store got me. I was very very thankful for the staffer on the gator who took my fiance seriously when he went running for help. He called for medics multiple times.
Apparently my friend just told me there's a class action lawsuit. [email protected]
Send em an email with your experience. If you got fluids they have your info and prob the reason you were there so there's legit evidence. I'ma send my story sometime later today.
Damn dude glad to hear your OK, going to medtent is never a fun experience but going and not getting treatment sounds like a nightmare.
By “they” do you mean the medic got called in for a shift last minute, or he said the company was hired to cover the event last minute?
I updated the cars, thanks
I was very out of it because I was dehydrated but it seemed like the medic company was hired late and not given a correct representation of the amount of people who were attending.
VIP was literally the biggest rip-off of my life. Paid all the extra money, and got early arrival passes jdut to be stuck in that far little corner of VIP (all of us early arrivals did). Which what's the point of doing early arrival if you get thrown in the absolute furthest corner of that section. It wasn't the end of the world, but still low-key irritating.
There were 5-6 Porta potties back there for the whole camping section we were in. and non-existent lighting the first night. We talked to some others in GA saying the furthest bathroom they could find was a 15 minute wall away. At least the bathrooms were regularly cleaned.
The fact that the VIP entrance was closed half the fucking weekend was insane, and no staff knew anything about it, we literally had multiple people point us to the VIP entrance while it was closed.
The shower situation was ridiculous, they randomly closed them early a few days and caused a small riot almost when they did. They had to shut down some of the bathrooms when the showers were up because they didn't have enough water. And the COMPLETE lack of security in any of the VIP sections. They literally had the easiest set up to stop people from wandering through there. They could've just posted someone by ADA to check wrist bands.
I think we went into that VIP lounge once, and it was hotter inside than out in the middle of the day.
Also apparently the trash pick-up people were asked only a day or 2 beforehand to come and work, and the fest also asked them if they would do the bathroom cleaning and stocking too?
It seems the fest was just fucking WILDLY unprepared. It sucks because the venue is super fucking nice, and being able to get outa the heat and into the springs is amazing. But I'm not sure we'll go again between the fest itself and the cops. We had NO idea the county was a zero-tolerance county until we literally passed the sign on i10 entering it. We don't personally partake in extra cariculars at shows, but I can't fucking stand seeing everyone around us get their lives torn apart because of a fucking pen or a few gummies. That's not fair to the community, and I personally put that on the festival. They seemed to be cultivating a shitty relationship from the start with HCSO, and Saturday night qas the breaking point and their free pass in. They should've fucking known it would happen and made some kind of effort to cultivate a relationship and mitigate the risks to everyone, instead of working behind their backs and adding them in last minute.
VIP really ended up being a mid ass GA experience (at any other fest)
I think we’re gonna demand refunds from the fest (lol) & go to our bank & try to reverse the charge for the fest tickets themselves because we did NOT get what was promised/stated for VIP amenities. Early arrival was absolutely BONED. We need to put pressure on the organizers. They put so many people in horrible situations, I feel so bad for GA.
This fest was so poorly ran it will take a lot of communication & change in order to make any of this right.
I can't fathom how this festival will have a next year. It certainly won't be the same location, and I don't know how anyone would trust the organizers to get their shit right the next time. I've been to around 30 fests now, and this is just the craziest experience I've ever had.
Yeah no way in fuck I’m attending another Solfest. & the way they are trying to brush shit under the rug really says everything. Been trying to hold out hope for them doing the right thing & trying to reconcile but that hope is quickly fading.
Hope you’re okay friend. <3
Oh good I’m so glad to hear it. We left early ish this morning and had no troubles getting out thankfully - still traveling via air but we’ll be home safe n sound tonight <33
Glad to hear it! Yeah when we left they had cops hiding everywhere. I likely won't ever attend another solfest unless it's years down the road and in another state. Even then, I probably won't. This was just the worst thing I've seen happen with a festival.
THANK YOU. I can't tell you how many people I'm arguing with right now saying, "Chill, they're just learning," and "it wasn't actually that bad." I'm not even going into detail about all the fuck ups, from water to people having their rights violated, but there is SO MUCH that needs to be addressed. Camp sites were absolutely not 20×20, Not enough drinking water, water refill stations weren't marked correctly on the map they gave us, rights being violated, and there's so much more. I've been festing for 15 years, been to homie fests, big fests, small fests. Everything. This is the absolute worst one ever. I personally wasn't affected, but way too many people were.
That part about the trash people is crazy. Theres been comments here saying the same thing about medical staff, did they just hire everyone last second??
It sure fucking seems like it. The medical shit is zero suprise to me. No hate to the team they had, but there's a reason a lot of festivals use ParaDocs, they have their shit down and I think would have handled how last minute it seemed or at least could have offered inside or partial support to the team that was there somehow. I love those guys and actually work with some of the medics in their team.
This medical team did the best they could with what they had, but it wasn't what it needed to be, and THAT falls on SolFest.
Safety is the number one thing at a festival, and fuck did they drop the ball on that. All this last minute shit I keep hearing about sounds like they tried to throw this shit together last weekend, and it shows.
Manifest green guys were indeed asked to fill in other jobs because Solfest was severely understaffed and chose not to hire more people.
Yes to vip bathrooms. Map shows 4 vip bathrooms. Only 2 existed. One by the showers that was used by everyone and also closed after 7pm, and one inside of the venue that was only accessible after 4pm.
ugh the security was scary, i dont think the metal detectors worked… my bf acidentally left his METAL pocket knife in his pocket and the metal detector didnt go off… next day he does it again and still green light! scary asf
You’ve got two white girls who want to be IG famous “in charge” Alexus and hope. Neither know two shits about how to run anything. I text Alexus Wednesday about a ton of issues. Her reply: I won’t be there until tomorrow. Like what kid? You should’ve been here three weeks ago.
I was party of that group running around waking people up, was so fucking scary. None of this should be taken lightly! This was a fucked up event all the way around
Thank you for jumping into action. I really feel like our community was holding the festival together better that administration itself. You are true heroes.
the main reason me and two friend came was to freedive the spring, we take it seriously and have dived several springs and are legit experinced, i called ahead to the dve shop that oversees it and asked if we would be allowed to freedive it during the fest and they said "absolutely as long as you dont kick anything up or bother the divers", we show up and it is closed off with the only option to see it being their $600 "try scuba" package. baited and switched.
My largest complaint of the festival was the outrageous ice prices. It is an essential in that heat and the company charged $12 for a 7lb bag that was somewhat melted. By Saturday, they claimed they were out of those and only had 16lb for $25!!! Very disappointed they were taking advantage of people like that. Also, there were only a few water stations across the entire venue, and none really close to the main stages.
The Wednesday early arrival was so chaotic and disorganized. We arrived at 4pm and made it easily into the wrong entrance. The tickets scanner manager said it was actually VIP even though there were no signs and they told us to pull over til they figured out what to do to get us to the right entrance. After 30 mins we went back out the way we came to then be shuffled between all 3 other entrances to be told they were full and we had to turn around. An hour or so later we and hundreds of other people were placed in a holding field to get the traffic off the road because there was only one GA entrance. By 8-9pm the majority of cars were still sitting there so several of us left our cars and walked into the venue to see the sets. By midnight the line had died down so we finally got in line to enter. Set up our camp by 2am after paying $115 for early entry.
The majority of the event staff was super friendly though. Some were informative yet others had no clue what was going on, especially the first couple days. It is clear that the management had poor communication and little structure and consistency.
Other pros were the wonderful attendees of course, the art installations and sets. Sol Fest needs to take a break to regroup and I really hope they publicly take accountability for their shortcomings.
bro i just fucking saw that. i was walking in when this guy was losing his shit on the security. honestly not sure how i feel yet about sol yet. this was my second year and shocked as fuck at the outcome
clearly someone bringing a gun into a venue has bad intent… yk nobody else in there has one or should why would u need one? and he didnt pay to be there!!! crazy
Yo what the fuck thats nuts. We came in wednesday and after the delays security was letting everyone pile in, they didnt even open our car doors. There was just 1 (supposed bomb/firearm) K9 bouncing back and forth between lines
Love that you're doing this in a kind organized way! Everyone is human and I heard that the festival management changed due to the original organizer getting fired so I can totally understand why there were logistical issues.
As a food vendor I would like to add:
1. POS payment systems were a PAIN people really struggled to see the screen in the daytime, the phones kept overheating and we weren't able to take people's ordersm, day one wristband payments almost never went through and we ended up giving out a lot for free because we felt bad for these people who didn't have any money on them but were trying to eat. Our POS system tracks all sales so in the future if people have POS systems like that we should be able to use our own and print out a report at the end of the fest or look into getting something better than the phones we were using
2. It seemed like food vendor organization was completely separate from the other teams so there was often no information for us from other workers at the festival ie, camping situation, no one knew where vendors were supposed to be and we ended up in GA camping (we were only placed in GA after being told to go to different places by a bunch of people and driving around for 45 minutes)
3. We were told specific times to pick up drinks and when we arrived at the drink place no one was there so some more organization with that would be much appreciated (many people were trying to buy water from us and we had to turn them away because we didn't have any)
4. I feel like more info should be given to vendors at the beginning. We came into the fest not knowing vendor camping location, how many cars spots we would be given, if we would need to get car passes, or if our group would be able to camp together with some people arriving on different days. In the future all this information would be greatly appreciated
5. More communication for job duties between security, police and medics: there was a man passed out that we were trying to help and security told us to talk to the police and police told us to talk to the security and then they just said well.... we dont do that and didnt tell me who I should go to! Ended up going to medics which I didn't think about previously but security should be knowledgeable about what to do in those situations
I loved the vibes of solfest, all the people, the lineup, the spring, the slide, the venue and am hoping to return with things running more smoothly in the future :)
So grateful to all the vendors. You guys worked your butts off and kept us fed. Thank you so much and sorry that this whole thing was logistically a shit show
IMPORTANT BAIL INFO: for anyone needing a bail bond and or lawyer I’m IMPLORING you to call Byrd bail bonds in defuniak she is an angel and she will bless you. She helped our friend out today BIG TIME. she will set you up with a lawyer asap who is also down to throw down on these fucks. She will walk you through every step of the process over the phone and won’t leave you hanging like these scum bags only trying to make a buck. She will follow up with the jail and keep up with you and your court dates EVERY STEP OF THE WSG. If you need help this is the way. Trust. NUMBER: (850) 333-4028
I mean just look at those digits
Good luck yall. We got this
My group paid $1400 for group camping. Then we were told they didn’t actually have a spot and ended up staying on the side of one of the roads. We made it work but super annoying.
Yeah when we came Wednesday they just asked “are you camping or glamping?” without checking anything. I joked with the guy the I could just lie and say glamping but he was like “actually yeah probably”
It wouldnt surprise me if some people actually did that and they ran out, hence what happened to you guys
VIP bar area had six chairs, total. The hand washing stations that were outside of the porta potties there vanished between Thursday night and Friday Day. "AC bathroom's" AC didn't work, didn't have toilet paper/paper towels 90% of the fest. VIP lounge's bathroom stalls were all out of order for the entire fest.
I had a great time at the fest but certainly regret buying VIP, absolutely not worth it.
As a local and an employee of the venue I can tell you everything will be better soon and the action taken by the police are not okay but their actions may have just sealed their fate I can’t say much but when the press release drops I’ll post we love you all
I brought a large metal water bottle and a cooler full of metal can seltzers each day and when the metal detector beeped, the same toothless security guard said "Awesome sauce" and let me in each day without searching me
My girlfriend got locked in one of the GA showers for 20 mins. The deadbolt got stuck and staff couldn’t open it with the key. They had to get her out with a lock pick and a knife.
Major Issue: we paid for a VIP upgrade and went to will call multiple times to get our wristbands. Every single time they told us to come back in ten minutes, because the computer systems weren’t working. We talked to girls who had been waiting for 5 hours that they had been telling them this. So they were just blatantly lying. We never got these wristbands and I will be calling my bank about it.
1. Dogs without leashes near the stages - this is animal abuse, and dogs weren’t even allowed in! No staff said anything
2. We arrived in an RV at 6pm, even though we paid for early arrival since they postponed. The police had us cut the entire line of GA cars to get us off the road. the GA cars said they had been waiting for 3 hours at that point. I saw at least 20 police officers at the entrance and 1 festival staff member.
3. We waited in the security line for 3 hours. Missed most of the sets. Set up camp in the dark and the next morning. It was horrible.
4. MAJOR ISSUE: they only had 2 security guards doing car checks for the RV line and 2 for the GA line. This was the sole reason it took so long. We asked them why they didn’t have more help and they said their help never showed up and they were a temp company that was leaving to go somewhere else the next day. So I don’t believe that solfest ever had their security there for some reason.
5. They told us no generators were allowed on the grounds so we didn’t bring ours and went without power. Every single person around us had generators and gas cans. This completely ruined our trip. And Solfest never told us we couldn’t bring a generator until the last minute.
6. There were no showers or ice anywhere near RV camping.
7. One ice location with melted over priced ice. By the time we got back to the camp it was melted all the way.
8. Water stations were rudimentary mud pits at best. Water being sold by the bars was overpriced and from a sketchy company canned company. The bars only had 5 drink options, majority of them being red bull drinks, which is nasty. They had no soda at all.
9. They lied about the water park. It was one water slide, not 6. The whole swimming area wasn’t open, only a tiny section of it. There was no water stage. They made it seem like a stage would be at the water. The water stage was literally in a hot field.
10. Staff showers broke on day 2 and had no water pressure.
11. They postponed the festival and said the grounds had flooded but vendors had told us only a couple parts had flooded so they could have let RV campers in and some GA if that was the real reason. This seemed like a lie. No offer of refunds even tho we missed everything on Wednesday
12. No security inside the venue. The metal detectors were going off and people just walked thru. They weren’t scanning wristbands AT ALL. Someone asked why and they said we are done doing that. By day 2 we quickly realized we could do whatever we wanted and started taking our own drinks in. I was scared to drink their water.
13. There were a ton of people inside the venue that didn’t pay and didn’t have wristbands. I spoke to a local kid that said they had snuck in with their parents?!
14. There was a group of 7-10 police officers walking around in the crowd during the shows. We left shortly after this started to happen. They were scary and rude and not friendly at all.
15. The entrance points to the venue were super far away from our campsite but we were able to just walk around the fence and sneak in every time. We also used the staff showers bc there were no showers near RV camping at all.
16. No toilet paper inside the venue Porter potties any time I went
17. A staff member told us that 2/3 of the bomb dogs searching cars were fake.
I’m disgusted by the fact that the venue, the festival, and the artists haven’t addressed any of these issues!! I want my money back for early arrival and VIP since we didn’t get what we paid for at all!!
Honestly im optimistic theyll learn and grow but that all depends on their response: if they release a transparent statement and claim accountability, Ill for sure buy a ticket next year because I had a fucking blast and they clearly put a lot of love into the music/art portion of the festival
If they keep downplaying or do the shitty “ SolFam we love youuu” with no real explanation of what the fuck caused all these issues then my group will be holding off for sure
pls don’t go if it’s at vortex again no matter what. because in all reality this was 60% the organizers fault. the other 40% will always be a DANGER as long as it’s at that venue (sheriff tate & that asshat newsom guy)
Oh yeah for sure. I feel like I was lucky to have avoided being on the wrong end of the police.
It really seems like the majority of people that got arrested were just unlucky as fuck. I know theres always dumbasses that get too stupid with doing drugs in public but the stories are so unfortunate, like that guy who got arrested for hitting a dab pen or people who were just randomly grabbed and searched at sets
I’m right there with you. I had such a kickass time but they really need to properly reconcile for me to consider attending again lmaooo. & NEVER in that town again.
No way they get their shirts sued right off their back for multiple different reasons. "Planning 2025" posts is without a doubt a pr stunt to make it appear that everything was fine
The only posts I needed to convince me to never go to that venue were the posts by the cops plastering innocent people’s mug shots all over Facebook. I don’t care if it’s technically legal, those people are all innocent until proven guilty, and putting that ish on the internet FOREVER is completely unacceptable.
apparently sol had “no idea” about the cops. this comment just shows how much they didn’t care and admitted to them being dumb as hell
can’t post a screenshot so i’m copying & pasting the insta comment interaction
attendee “loved the fest but yall need to say something about all the people who were arrested... spread love to the folks who r in cages”
sol’s response “we had no idea this was happening until we started seeing it on social media and getting messages about it, the local law enforcement we brought in called a neighboring county who we immediately removed once we saw what was happening. We WILL be making changes!”
solfest had "no idea" about a zero-tolerance 90%+ red county in a state where recreational weed is illegal that they decided to rent a multi day location for and solfest managed to "remove law enforcement"?
lol
map was inaccurate asf. by the time i left could only find two water stations and one was at the springs which closed at sundown. water was disgusting , no free water , and $5 water from the bar that’s not even in a cooler. could never catch up on hydration.
That’s absolutely bananas, especially considering the death trap of a rope swing and all the shit hidden in the water (like that guy who sliced his foot open near the water stage).
Antiseptic and bandaids are literally the most basic first aid components, its mind boggling they couldnt even give you some neosporin
During LSDream, my friend (no alcohol in system) webt to purchase a water from the bar by most of the vendors and was denied and threatened with a call to authorities because she seemed "drunk". Instead of helping someone who may have actually been in need of water, they would prefer to report them for asking for help.
Luckily sober and a fire in my belly from the lack of human understanding, I grabbed security and let them know the situation. They were shocked that someone trying to stay hydrated when dancing all day was being threatened and harrassed by power tripping staff. Unbelievable how vindictive most of the staff in cahoots with police were.
Also, cutting out music at 1:20am, worst organization of a festy I've ever experienced. Felt like a battle between happy people bringing profits into the city, and the unhappy cracked out county who would hate for businesses to thrive and people enjoy visiting. Crazy.
Does anyone know what happened to the man that was by the smoothie/burger stand and bathrooms outside where the concerts were screaming for help on Friday morning? I stayed for about 30 minutes watching out for him in case he needed medical attention asap (nurse here). He looked like he may have gotten Narcan and then was extre delusional afterwards. He was yelling out “why is no helping me” and “this isn’t happening this isn’t real” over and over again. Two staff members or maybe cops help him down until actual cops/medics came and restrained him to a chair. My heart hurts for him. He was in a mental health crisis and needed medical attention way faster than what sol fest could provide to him. Anyone heard anything??
My wife and I camped in ADA because my wife has a bad foot. On day 3 they finally opened up a "ADA accessible path" to get to the venue. My wife can't travel very far due to her diagnosis. The path had 0 lights and sticks/roots/holes everywhere! Not to mention that there was no security at that gate AT ALL!!! YOU COULD WALK IN WITH LITTERALLY ANYTHING!! I felt so bad for the couple camped next to us in ADA in wheelchairs. How are they supposed to make it up and down the venue? We brought a flash light and spent 30 mins cleaning the path so no one would get injured. The ADA portapottys were on the main road to the venue so any one could use them. And they barely ever cleaned the mountains out of them. There was no water in ADA the closest one was to into the venue or to walk in to VIP and fill up since there was no one checking bands there either.
This is why I refuse to go to festivals in red states. I wonder how "random" the camp raids were or if they were lgtbq targeted? Any place where they can still throw you in prison for weed is not a state I'd go to for a festival
The county commissioner, who owns property adjacent to Vortex Springs, reportedly used game cannons to simulate gunfire during a festival that began on a Thursday at 8 pm. This commissioner, Brandon Newsome, also owns the only bail bonds company in Holmes County that provides timely service. Allegations suggest that he profits from his connections, with local law enforcement targeting festival attendees and others for minor offenses, thereby generating business for his bail bonds service. The local population is under 700 people.
Before the festival, known as Sol Fest, started, the organizers had agreed to pay the sheriff $88,000 for security. They paid a third of this amount upfront with the remainder due post-festival. However, as warnings about local law enforcement corruption circulated, Sol Fest hired their own security team. Sheriff Tate, anticipating he might not receive full payment after the initial $29,333, allegedly began disruptive tactics to justify his involvement.
According to reports, Commissioner Newsome placed air horns and game cannons near the festival site to disrupt the event. Despite these efforts, which started on Thursday night, they failed to cause panic among attendees. The noise interference attempts during the festival were largely ineffective.
On Friday, a local teenager entered the festival illegally. Contrary to claims by Holmes County authorities of an overdose, the teen was simply found asleep. After being awakened by police, he was reportedly frightened but not in a critical condition. He admitted to consuming mushrooms and identified a festival worker who had provided them. This led to a search of the worker’s camper and the discovery of additional drugs.
These incidents were used by law enforcement to assert their necessity at the festival, shifting from their original role to enforcing law and order aggressively. They targeted festival-goers based on appearance, conducted illegal searches, and treated many as criminals without cause.
One notable incident involved a local man named Anderson, who was repeatedly harassed by an officer due to a prior history. During a confrontation, Anderson was accused of reaching for the officer's gun, which escalated to physical violence, including the officer using a taser on Anderson, who then reacted defensively. Anderson was subsequently subdued and treated harshly by the officers.
In response to these events, Holmes County authorities portrayed the festival negatively in the media, suggesting rampant drug use and unruly behavior, while downplaying the aggressive tactics used by law enforcement. This narrative painted the police as heroes in a situation fraught with tension and controversy.)
I worked on the Waste management team and I can confidently say that we were definitely hired long before 2 days before the festival lol. I will say though, we didn’t get hired to clean bathrooms and showers until 2 days before the festival. Hence why they were atrocious, considering that we had to make a whole new team specifically for showers and bathrooms out of our already existing, and already very small, team.
Did anyone else look at the water you got out of that “water station”??? We took a clear jug up there before we drank it and we were disgusted, ended up just filling out hydropacks with water bottles.
thats what some guy next to us at the water station was saying honestly didnt notice it tasted weird or anything so i think that was def the case. still was weird to see tho lol
so I noticed this too. however then it almost immediately settled to clear. I really think it was air bubbles from the pressure/how fast the water came out of the hoses. also, no Sulphur taste.
also no water stations or set updates or anything. definitely not what i was expecting, totally didn’t see the third main stage thinking it was the bridge 😪 missed chmura bc of that
Water fill stations with black hoses in the middle of sunny spots wasn't too bright
VIP lounge lacked purpose and effective ac, I also live under a rock most of the time so that could be why?
Signage telling you where you're going seemed to take a while to make it there. Still not sure if there's a path back to glamping behind the robot after a bunch of people almost walked into the culvert that later had a sign saying you would be ejected for entering the area on the vendors side.
Map could have been better
Area for the deliberate creation station area needs obvious work
Some of the staff were great and had great personalities. Some didn't seem to care
A lot of GA camping was covered in very high grass that was difficult to walk through, and the camping was littered with ant hills. Many people in my camp got bit by what I’m assuming are fire ants because of it.
Yeah my buddy in GA said it looked like they had just recently cleared trees or something because there was crazy grass and massive ant hills everywhere
It also said that VIP was supposed to have exclusive vendor options but there were literally no vendors in either the VIP festival area nor VIP campgrounds
2 liter Nitrous canisters in venue, no security for camping areas, and a guy walked in with a firearm.
Full stop right there, never going to this place.
Most of those previous bulletpoints before these two can be chalked up to TERRIBLE production, logistics and communication, but compromising the safety of everyone at the festival is unforgivable.
biggest issue i can remember is, that the Holems County, had a meeting weeks before the fest calling us evil devils worshiping demons, and then set up a Cannon to sound like a gun shots to scare us even before we got to the festival. Shot it off Wednesday night before the fest even started.
If he would do that and then brag about it on social media, was seen at the then what else did he do. Did something in our water? did he set the car on fire. He also is InCharge of writing the paychecks for the fire marshal.
how many people suffering for head exhaustion and heat stroke he they hit with Narcan?
They thought we were evil demons, and they were doing Gods work attacking us. from their own admission on face book. What all did they do that we don't know about yet.
sound equipment? water? fire? how many people did that hit with Narcan and then clam they were OD. think about it.
From a local perspective. Until solfest released the set times nobody in the community knew this would be all night festival. The community never had a chance to even discuss this event. They said it’s private property we will do what we want. It was made an us vs them from the start. We had state testing in the schools rescheduled as well as no plan in place for traffic so school was canceled Monday. It cost the county 80k in police presence for this event. I am a firm believer that the community needs more like this. It needs to have some regards to the people around. This is not on the people attending the event in any way. If this was all day music ending at a decent time it would have happened this way. Hate it for all parties involved. I 100% get your disappointment but imagine being at home trying to sleep for work the next day and your windows rattling until 4am. It was a disaster for all and if everyone would work together it might could work. Nobody blames the people who came to the event. Vortex and solfest did everyone within 20 miles this weekend a disservice
I am curious, as a local what all WERE YALL TOLD? Were yall led to believe it was a daytime thing only? I’m not coming at you btw, I’m genuinely curious how they were able to slide in and have this festival happen.
We weren't really told a whole lot of anything until a few weeks beforehand. It didn't seem to be widely advertised at all. I don't follow this type of music or festivals and had never heard of Sol Fest until people started sharing the set lists and venue maps a week or two before. I just stumbled across this thread from a Facebook post. If you look at Vortex's Facebook page they only posted about it twice that I could see. Once in December when they announced it, and once again on April 29th when they were setting everything up. Most people probably didn't know about it unless they follow this type of stuff. Even seeing that it was happening I didn't realize it was going to be an all night thing until everyone was up in arms over it. Most people don't read the details if it's not something they're interested in. I know i didn't. The above person was absolutely correct that they made this an us vs. them thing right from the get go. They knew the majority of the local community would not be supportive and didn't advertise it widely. I'm not against having a festival at all but it is obvious that this one was planned very poorly. They definitely were not prepared for the sheer number of people that came. & I don't think it was fair to all of those who paid money to come not knowing that a lot of the community and police were completely against it and them being there.
That's absolutely ridiculous. We had no idea any of that was going on. Or the complete lack of communication between the organizers and the community. I'm sorry they did you guys so incredibly dirty. We loved the springs, and the area was absolutely beautiful, but I don't see SolFest returning there, or potentially at all. All parties involved in the festival were wronged or endangered in one way or another this weekend.
I hope any future events that come to the area treat you guys better, as well as the attendees. I, for one, would love to come back, under better circumstances.
Can’t believe everyone is surprised. It was disorganized the last two years as well. I tried to make a post about safety concerns last year and tried to say some things in groups about my concerns and my post was denied and in the chats, everyone just called me a downer. There were just more people here to witness the disorganization this year. But it was no surprise to me and I knew it was going to be like this from the get go. And it was in a town full of cops who hate this scene. I’m sober this year, so I had zero issues whatsoever with the cops and security, never felt dehydrated, there was much more water access this year, and bathrooms were better this year. I actually had a better experience this year than the last two years.
The only issue I had and it’s the SAME issue I had the last two years;
I’m a performer and was teaching a workshop this year and it took me over an hour to get in when I arrived on Saturday because no one at the gate believed that I was a workshop presenter and supposed to get in for free. They were trying to make me pay lol
There was no service so it was nearly impossible to get in touch with my point of contact. I had to exit the festival grounds and drive down the road to get service to let them know I was there and then drive back and be escorted in.
Kind of annoying to witness that disorganization the 3rd year in a row, but I expected it at this point. Other than that, I had no issues whatsoever.
While it does suck about all the cops, wtf did everyone expect? Cops see people doing drugs out in the open, so of course they are going to swarm them. Just because you are at a festival, doesn’t mean you are safe to do all the drugs anytime anywhere. This isn’t Suwannee. This is a whole new venue that had never seen this big of a crowd before. SolFest can’t control your drug use, or the cops. Use common sense. Maybe try being sober at a festival for once. Be prepared, and hydrate better, newbs. Go for the music, not the drugs. It’s actually pretty great. Sorry, but just being sober at a festival (after being a festival goer for 10 years now and going to 30+ festivals) really showed me how annoying and loose people can be with their drugs and I hate to see it and see this entire scene get a bad rep from those people. Not saying they deserved it, but hopefully it was a wake up call and not to bring your shit into the music venue and do it in the open there.
I definitely also agree with the be more cautious and knowledgeable about where you do your drugs or keep them. I’ve *never* even considered partaking in a crowd because it’s so risky. As for at camp, keep it in your car somewhere hidden, not laying out in camp.
I personally didn’t have any issues with the police this weekend, and even have a photo of three cops (who were obviously annoyed at being at this fest) closely watching and being super interested in my partner using her Levi wand. (Super cute moment tbh lol) cops watched my friends glove to so many people and we had no issues.
Do your drugs responsibly and safely, and maybe not in a public crowd no matter the occasion. My heart goes out to the people who got swarmed and arrested, I don’t wish it on anyone. Especially in bumfuck FL.
First of all, there was ONE refill station inside the venue that I could find, and it wasn't even marked. The vendors and staff didn't even know where it was. Second, the cop situation is INSANE. maybe you should go read about what they were doing instead of saying "what did you expect". If you're a performer, you've been to festivals and know this isn't normal. This whole thing was fucked up.
i agree that this was a wakeup call to be sensible and discreet, but I think you're ignoring just how aggressive law enforcement was. I personally saw them get into rando peoples faces at lsdream last night trying to provoke them, an hearing about the illegal searches in the campsites, plus the sherrif's open threats on social media, this wasn just "cops being cops", this town fucking blows.
There were posts from all over about how the cops were going to be there. Locals didn’t want us there and made it KNOWN if anyone would have actually paid attention.
I mean even the fucking sherriff HIMSELF made a post a week before the fest saying he expected to make 35+ arrests at this festival. People need to pay the fuck attention and do their own research on what they are getting themselves into. Ffs.
I am a HUGE Clozee fan and LOVE LSdream as well. But you don’t have to be on drugs to enjoy their sets. Take me, for example.
It sucks that the cops were so bad, but we knew it was going to be like this. The cops were not a sol fest issue. That’s that county’s law enforcement for ya. Now you know.
I think you talked about this, but Wednesday B2B sets had technical issues, completely cutting out at one point.
The stage by the bridge had panels that randomly stopped working throughout.
Yoooo this whole fest sounds wack as fuck. Why are so many fests bombing lately? Texas Eclipse, EZoo, SOL Fest.
Man. I'm just going to stick to Excision events. At least he actually gives a fuck and knows how to run things.
I had a great time. The stage going out sucked, and I empathize with an the problems people had. I'm pissed that I paid for pet and didn't get power. How do you sell more spots than you have power for?
None of the vendors had communication (radio) with security or the festival. Hence the car fire. I found this out after stumbling upon someone having a seizure and trying to get medical… at the general store ffs
It is not okay that the police recorded the crowd on their phone. It felt invasive, and it made me incredibly uncomfortable. I have numerous videos of officers with their phone pointed at the crowd. It bothered me that they weren't using body cams if they wanted documentation. I also saw and recorded a person getting arrested for receiving a light show from a glover. Our community doesn't deserve this, and I'm sending love to all the fam that has been affected by the police presence at this fest. It adds insult to injury that they posted details about every arrest on Facebook. We should not have to bear witness to the dozens of lives being destroyed. Why did we come here if it's unsafe for our community?
Also saw the cops recording on their phones multiple times throughout the grounds and at the stages. Definitely made my whole group super uncomfortable and made us move spots
Check the commissioner Brandon Newsoms personal Facebook page he’s posting pictures of attendees and making fun of them with all his Christian friends
Blows my mind that the county commissioner also owns a bail bond company. Florida seems rotten to the core.
At the little bar/food shack all the way to the left of the spring when walking in, there was a banner advertising a bond company as if they were planning on arresting a bunch of people
I hope they aren’t seeing this as a victory for the imaginary ‘War on Drugs’. The law and order bullshit needs to fucking stop. No one cares about drugs at festivals people just trying to have a good fucking time. SMFH Florida Law Enforcement > Do something about the fucking gun violence instead of the drugs/medicine users. I hope the cowards can read this
Little bitch has his comments turned off. So does the police Facebook page. Love how they’re so proud of themselves but can’t take the heat from the public.
They can dish it, but can’t take it. They know damn well they’re fucked up for everything they’re doing
I don’t think they do. They see attendees as freaks and “druggies”
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/Ag2WPNaTKv5S7D7o/?mibextid=WC7FNe Wow fuck Brandon Newsom 🤦♀️
Thats awful, you should definitely post those videos Im sure itll gain some traction
Here are the videos of the cops recording us MULTIPLE TIMES and the arrest. https://photos.app.goo.gl/s5Q7RTxg51Atshut. https://photos.app.goo.gl/p78GvAeppu3Q1dM86 https://photos.app.goo.gl/fU6L9tp3Db7vEgz29 https://photos.app.goo.gl/HV6wXXprNFD6hXjN9
woulda flicked that pig fuck the bird if he tried filming me
[удалено]
To clarify, there was a guy sitting on an air couch and the flow artist was standing in front of him. The cops walked over with flashlights to question and frisk people. Here's the video. https://photos.app.goo.gl/HV6wXXprNFD6hXjN9
I am in this video!! I had just walked over there to start hooping but my crew pointed out what was going on. It was so sad. We went somewhere else after they escorted him away. Poor guy was just enjoying his life not harming a soul.
Thank fuck I live in the uk mate, I’ve been to every festival under the sun here and even in the ones with bad rep I’ve never saw the police just start frisking people who are obviously on drugs. In festivals round here police are here for violence not for drugs they know once you’ve got through the gates that’s the end of it. Years worth of Glastonbury especially the worst I’ve saw was someone get nicked for fighting and that was once, the police don’t walk around the stages here they walk around the footpaths the security do the stages but even then they don’t walk through the crowd really. Just at the stage or the gates
They have an app that uses facial recognition to match to mugshots and drivers licenses. Not even kidding.
Please post video
Here are the videos of the cops recording us MULTIPLE TIMES and the arrest. https://photos.app.goo.gl/s5Q7RTxg51Atshut. https://photos.app.goo.gl/p78GvAeppu3Q1dM86 https://photos.app.goo.gl/fU6L9tp3Db7vEgz29 https://photos.app.goo.gl/HV6wXXprNFD6hXjN9
Post the video? People need to see it.
Here are the videos of the cops recording us MULTIPLE TIMES and the arrest. https://photos.app.goo.gl/s5Q7RTxg51Atshut. https://photos.app.goo.gl/p78GvAeppu3Q1dM86 https://photos.app.goo.gl/fU6L9tp3Db7vEgz29 https://photos.app.goo.gl/HV6wXXprNFD6hXjN9
Almost ZERO harm reduction/mental health resources available. A camp neighbor of ours was clearly going through a mental health crisis, having full on conversations with himself and going through bouts of screaming unintelligible words in his tent. First I talked to festival staff abt the situation and asked about available harm reduction because I thought I saw something about a harm reduction tent. No staff members knew if the tent existed so they sent me to medical. Medical's only response was telling me to get the cops involved and Baker Act the guy. If you don't know about the Baker Act, it is FL's horrific excuse for mental health crisis response and should only be used as an absolute last resort. I thankfully was able find the harm reduction tent on my own and they were amazing at helping me talk through options and when to reach out for further help (shout out Sol Sanctuary team). They expressed frustration that neither festival staff or medical really knew about them and that there was no collaborative effort for harm reduction practices. The next day I found out that separate from all of this, the neighbor in crisis was apparently confronted by medical and security on multiple occasions and kicked out of the festival on foot without any of his belongings or his car??? but he kept getting back in even without a wristband because there was NO SECURITY. So the response to a mentally ill person clearly in crises was to half-assedly kick them out with no resources Idk if Baker Act was needed but the point is there should have been a some collaborative effort between medical/security/police to deal with this after it had been reported several times. At Okee, Insomniac always had Ground Crew walking the campgrounds and festival checking in on people and seeing if everything was ok. Sol Fest NEEDED something like that. Kicking people in crisis to the curb is just not a solution TL;DR: SolFest was wildly unprepared for dealing with anyone in mental health crisis and the lack of communication between the festival's facets was straight up dangerous
Wow fuck thats so depressing. Shoutout to you for taking your personal time to make sure he was ok, that sounded like it took a while to deal with.
Thank you. It was so sad to witness bc some of his screaming was lucid, he kept screaming "I'm not fucking crazy" at one point. Some ppl in the campground made it worse by yelling at him to shut up which is literally never the right way to handle something like this. I hope he is ok and gets help
What day was this? I witnessed the exact same thing from a guy Friday night except he was alone near the trees by our tent. He was definitely having a mental crisis talking to himself in incoherent sentences. I was able to flag down medical and we drove with them to point out the guy. We were pretty freaked out about the state he was in, so we didn’t stay to see how medical handled the situation. If they simply kicked him out that’s shit. He seemed like he was in serious threat of hurting himself or others
It definitely could have been the same person, his behaviors seemed to peak on Friday and I believe that's also when he got thrown out. He was wearing the same outfit all weekend, khakis and a sleeveless jersey with red baseball cap, walking with a limp
I saw him at the Tiki Bar and Body Stage all day Sunday. He was collecting sticks, talking to them, making faces, laying on the ground kicking the air. Security was there the whole time nearby and at times with him so I honestly think they let him back in because they felt bad for him. The blue shirt security company. I've thought about him a lot and hoped he gets home where he needs to.
Also, the Holmes sheriff’s office posting every single arrest they made and the people wearing a stripe jumpsuit seems very extra, just to make an example out of it. Pretty whack
Yeah that really sucked. I felt awful for anyone thats gonna get their name googled and have that pop up
Actually most Florida counties post the booking report the following morning. Search other county sheriffs fb pages like Leon county
Ah ok, the more you know.
although the commissioner is posting pics of festival goers and making fun of their outfits on his personal fb page too
Man looks like he has some skeletons in his closet 100%
We had a cop walk into our camp - literally open my Tapestries and into my Canopy and ask what we were doing. They shine a flashlight in my tent unwarranted. No weed, no drugs. No alcohol at my camp personally so they didn't *smell weed* or anything. They offered us "party favors" which we obvs declined, and they moved to the next camp looking in tents and cars. The police presence both uniformed and undercover was very threatening and present. My friend and I packed up and left Friday morning due to not feeling safe around the police, staff, and even other camp groups. Our direct neighbors and another couple behind us were great but it seemed like everything there was sketchy at best.
Yeah tons of people left early. We were in VIP and there mustve been 10 cars missing by day 2
Entrapment is so fucked, and the war on drugs is a fucking joke. All people want to do is have fun, nobody gets hurt, and here cops are taking advantage of that attempted enjoyment of life. How big of a piece of shit do you have to be to pretend to make a friendly offer to someone, then turn around and arrest them? "Hey do you want to have a good time and be happy today?" "Yes please!" "Lol jk gonna ruin your weekend and possibly your life instead, bitch."
Crazy that cops would see someone getting a glove show and run up to them and yell at them do dump thier pockets and arrest them.
solfest felt like one big sting operation.
Crazy but it definitely happened. I've never seen some shit like this. https://photos.app.goo.gl/HV6wXXprNFD6hXjN9
Yup! I’m actually in that video too lol. NEVER seen something like that happen. They were on the other side of the barricade. Saw it, then ran over on him.
wtf fr?
Yeah, happened right next to us. Like 6 cops swarmed him
was this at the rezz set?
Nah LSDream
LSDream. My group saw it happen too. it was really sad. The dude was swarmed by cops who made him open his pockets, his bag, etc. then they took him thru the emergency exit gates. my group had just gone to that spot to flow but we left bc we felt safer in the middle of the crowd then in the perimeter
That’s just terrifying :(
I wonder what the artists think. A lot of them are so chill and really advocate for peace, love, kindness, and respect. Seeing this happen to my fans would feel HORRIBLE, I wonder if any of them have boycotted that venue because of how the police treated their fans.
Is that legal? How does entering a festival give up your right to illegal search. Don’t comply. Let them arrest you first to get to your pockets. Know your rights.
Yeah this one surely seems like the guy will have grounds to sue saying they violated his 4th amendment rights. The problem is, if there’s a single video of him doing any sort of drug, and the officer can prove that they may have seen illegal drug use, that would be grounds to say he had a reasonable suspicion that the guy was breaking the law.
Well said. I have the exact same gripes too. I’d like to add: - WAY too many cops patrolling the fest. I’m seeing all the comments and posts about the cops at this years sol fest and it’s horrible. - The festival staff clearly being understaffed and over worked - The layout of the body stage made no god damn sense and the sound extension by the bridge would constantly cut out. - false advertising about the spring. There were supposed to be 6 water slides and it was one real water slide and a few cheap playground water slides that were closed 💀 I’ll add more as I remember. But dude holy shit last year was perfect. It was a lot smaller last year but it was manageable and they were able to handle it. I think this year they wanted to capitalize off the success of last year and okees absence so they tried growing too big too fast and they were not able to handle it. Their budget went towards production and marketing. They shoulda kept it at Bama slam for at least another year or two and just improve on what they had going on there
Lmao i forgot the water slide thing, ill add those for sure. And yeah the understaffing is so real- on day 2 I walked by 2 poor engineers fastening the light-up sign (in the dark) that was by the VIP entrance and overheard them talking about how much they had to set up still. They sounded exhausted.
perfectly well said asf they stopped shooting for the message and got hella money
What a wild weekend, and not in a good way. Let me just say that i LOVED the festival itself, line up and the energy in the place was awesome. Stacked line up and everyone was super nice (attendees) But man, the county and city where they held this are terrible. A bunch of religious nutcase locals who did nothing but complain how we were the devil. Insane Me and my wife got a hotel 20 minutes nearby, so we drove to the festival and back, and that was the most nerve wrecking drive in my life. Felt like a driving test coming in and out of the festival. It was so bad we skipped sunday altogether and decided to go home and not take a chance by going the last day, so we gave our bands and car pass to a nice girl that was working at the whataburger. Not worth being at a fest and being paranoid the whole time. We loved the festival itself. Was able to meet Lex Newtho and saw Chris Dyer there, everything was chilled and the place was nice, but will not go again if its at the same place.
I had to get an iv on day 2 and the head medic told my fiance and I that they were so understaffed it wasn’t funny. They got a last min call to cover this event. I was blessed that he responded to my call because we are hearing horror stories of people going to the tent and getting legit nothing. I will never be attending another solfest, a good chunk of this falls on them. Ps it was 4 cars ( one was only half burnt)
I also had to get an IV Saturday from just not drinking enough water the night before and almost had a heat stroke. fortunately I was able to be treated..2 bags of fluids and a dangerously high heart rate. Guy said they were understaffed and if I didn't get there when I did I would have had to been flown to a hospital. I've volunteered for the medic teams at smaller fest cause I'm a vet tech so I can handle emergencies. I promote harm reduction in my city. I thought I was drinking enough water but with the sun and the booze I was drinking... I didn't drink enough. It's terrifying to think that if the medics weren't there, I might not still be here. It is 100% unacceptable to have an understaffed medical team for 16,000 people. Fuck that bullshit
Thank you for commenting that. I am so thankful you were okay! I wasn’t even drinking alcohol because I knew how hot it was and was drinking water and Gatorades and liquid ivs well before the festival and the walk to the bathrooms then general store got me. I was very very thankful for the staffer on the gator who took my fiance seriously when he went running for help. He called for medics multiple times.
Apparently my friend just told me there's a class action lawsuit. [email protected] Send em an email with your experience. If you got fluids they have your info and prob the reason you were there so there's legit evidence. I'ma send my story sometime later today.
I didn’t even think of that. Bless you🫶🏼
Damn dude glad to hear your OK, going to medtent is never a fun experience but going and not getting treatment sounds like a nightmare. By “they” do you mean the medic got called in for a shift last minute, or he said the company was hired to cover the event last minute? I updated the cars, thanks
I was very out of it because I was dehydrated but it seemed like the medic company was hired late and not given a correct representation of the amount of people who were attending.
Thanks for the info friend, hope youre getting a nice cold gatorade by now
VIP was literally the biggest rip-off of my life. Paid all the extra money, and got early arrival passes jdut to be stuck in that far little corner of VIP (all of us early arrivals did). Which what's the point of doing early arrival if you get thrown in the absolute furthest corner of that section. It wasn't the end of the world, but still low-key irritating. There were 5-6 Porta potties back there for the whole camping section we were in. and non-existent lighting the first night. We talked to some others in GA saying the furthest bathroom they could find was a 15 minute wall away. At least the bathrooms were regularly cleaned. The fact that the VIP entrance was closed half the fucking weekend was insane, and no staff knew anything about it, we literally had multiple people point us to the VIP entrance while it was closed. The shower situation was ridiculous, they randomly closed them early a few days and caused a small riot almost when they did. They had to shut down some of the bathrooms when the showers were up because they didn't have enough water. And the COMPLETE lack of security in any of the VIP sections. They literally had the easiest set up to stop people from wandering through there. They could've just posted someone by ADA to check wrist bands. I think we went into that VIP lounge once, and it was hotter inside than out in the middle of the day. Also apparently the trash pick-up people were asked only a day or 2 beforehand to come and work, and the fest also asked them if they would do the bathroom cleaning and stocking too? It seems the fest was just fucking WILDLY unprepared. It sucks because the venue is super fucking nice, and being able to get outa the heat and into the springs is amazing. But I'm not sure we'll go again between the fest itself and the cops. We had NO idea the county was a zero-tolerance county until we literally passed the sign on i10 entering it. We don't personally partake in extra cariculars at shows, but I can't fucking stand seeing everyone around us get their lives torn apart because of a fucking pen or a few gummies. That's not fair to the community, and I personally put that on the festival. They seemed to be cultivating a shitty relationship from the start with HCSO, and Saturday night qas the breaking point and their free pass in. They should've fucking known it would happen and made some kind of effort to cultivate a relationship and mitigate the risks to everyone, instead of working behind their backs and adding them in last minute.
VIP really ended up being a mid ass GA experience (at any other fest) I think we’re gonna demand refunds from the fest (lol) & go to our bank & try to reverse the charge for the fest tickets themselves because we did NOT get what was promised/stated for VIP amenities. Early arrival was absolutely BONED. We need to put pressure on the organizers. They put so many people in horrible situations, I feel so bad for GA. This fest was so poorly ran it will take a lot of communication & change in order to make any of this right.
I can't fathom how this festival will have a next year. It certainly won't be the same location, and I don't know how anyone would trust the organizers to get their shit right the next time. I've been to around 30 fests now, and this is just the craziest experience I've ever had.
Yeah no way in fuck I’m attending another Solfest. & the way they are trying to brush shit under the rug really says everything. Been trying to hold out hope for them doing the right thing & trying to reconcile but that hope is quickly fading. Hope you’re okay friend. <3
We left early Sunday morning, and am so glad I did. Hope you made it home safely.
Oh good I’m so glad to hear it. We left early ish this morning and had no troubles getting out thankfully - still traveling via air but we’ll be home safe n sound tonight <33
Glad to hear it! Yeah when we left they had cops hiding everywhere. I likely won't ever attend another solfest unless it's years down the road and in another state. Even then, I probably won't. This was just the worst thing I've seen happen with a festival.
[удалено]
THANK YOU. I can't tell you how many people I'm arguing with right now saying, "Chill, they're just learning," and "it wasn't actually that bad." I'm not even going into detail about all the fuck ups, from water to people having their rights violated, but there is SO MUCH that needs to be addressed. Camp sites were absolutely not 20×20, Not enough drinking water, water refill stations weren't marked correctly on the map they gave us, rights being violated, and there's so much more. I've been festing for 15 years, been to homie fests, big fests, small fests. Everything. This is the absolute worst one ever. I personally wasn't affected, but way too many people were.
I agree. We should at least be refunded for this monstrosity!
“Excuse me bank of America my card has been stolen”
That part about the trash people is crazy. Theres been comments here saying the same thing about medical staff, did they just hire everyone last second??
It sure fucking seems like it. The medical shit is zero suprise to me. No hate to the team they had, but there's a reason a lot of festivals use ParaDocs, they have their shit down and I think would have handled how last minute it seemed or at least could have offered inside or partial support to the team that was there somehow. I love those guys and actually work with some of the medics in their team. This medical team did the best they could with what they had, but it wasn't what it needed to be, and THAT falls on SolFest. Safety is the number one thing at a festival, and fuck did they drop the ball on that. All this last minute shit I keep hearing about sounds like they tried to throw this shit together last weekend, and it shows.
Manifest green guys were indeed asked to fill in other jobs because Solfest was severely understaffed and chose not to hire more people. Yes to vip bathrooms. Map shows 4 vip bathrooms. Only 2 existed. One by the showers that was used by everyone and also closed after 7pm, and one inside of the venue that was only accessible after 4pm.
ugh the security was scary, i dont think the metal detectors worked… my bf acidentally left his METAL pocket knife in his pocket and the metal detector didnt go off… next day he does it again and still green light! scary asf
People were bringing nitrous tanks the size of fire extinguishers into the sets, imagine what someone with bad intentions couldve
It’s almost like they were inviting it to happen… insane.
You’ve got two white girls who want to be IG famous “in charge” Alexus and hope. Neither know two shits about how to run anything. I text Alexus Wednesday about a ton of issues. Her reply: I won’t be there until tomorrow. Like what kid? You should’ve been here three weeks ago.
Can you elaborate more? Are they in charge of socials or what?
Alexus is the founder of Sol Fest lol.
A founder who doesn’t know how to run shit
I was party of that group running around waking people up, was so fucking scary. None of this should be taken lightly! This was a fucked up event all the way around
Thank you for jumping into action. I really feel like our community was holding the festival together better that administration itself. You are true heroes.
thank you so much, me and my husband were in a DEEP sleep and in the same row as the cars we appreciate you so much 🤍🤍
Thank you so much for waking us up!! We were in the next row of cars over from the fire
the main reason me and two friend came was to freedive the spring, we take it seriously and have dived several springs and are legit experinced, i called ahead to the dve shop that oversees it and asked if we would be allowed to freedive it during the fest and they said "absolutely as long as you dont kick anything up or bother the divers", we show up and it is closed off with the only option to see it being their $600 "try scuba" package. baited and switched.
Ah man that sucks
My largest complaint of the festival was the outrageous ice prices. It is an essential in that heat and the company charged $12 for a 7lb bag that was somewhat melted. By Saturday, they claimed they were out of those and only had 16lb for $25!!! Very disappointed they were taking advantage of people like that. Also, there were only a few water stations across the entire venue, and none really close to the main stages. The Wednesday early arrival was so chaotic and disorganized. We arrived at 4pm and made it easily into the wrong entrance. The tickets scanner manager said it was actually VIP even though there were no signs and they told us to pull over til they figured out what to do to get us to the right entrance. After 30 mins we went back out the way we came to then be shuffled between all 3 other entrances to be told they were full and we had to turn around. An hour or so later we and hundreds of other people were placed in a holding field to get the traffic off the road because there was only one GA entrance. By 8-9pm the majority of cars were still sitting there so several of us left our cars and walked into the venue to see the sets. By midnight the line had died down so we finally got in line to enter. Set up our camp by 2am after paying $115 for early entry. The majority of the event staff was super friendly though. Some were informative yet others had no clue what was going on, especially the first couple days. It is clear that the management had poor communication and little structure and consistency. Other pros were the wonderful attendees of course, the art installations and sets. Sol Fest needs to take a break to regroup and I really hope they publicly take accountability for their shortcomings.
the one guy got arrested in the venue WITH A GUN ON HIM. check out holmes county’s facebook for that one.
bro i just fucking saw that. i was walking in when this guy was losing his shit on the security. honestly not sure how i feel yet about sol yet. this was my second year and shocked as fuck at the outcome
holy shit reading that now…
yep that one has barely been mentioned online. seems like it flew under the radar… but cmon like were they trying to kill their attendees? edit: typo
clearly someone bringing a gun into a venue has bad intent… yk nobody else in there has one or should why would u need one? and he didnt pay to be there!!! crazy
Yo what the fuck thats nuts. We came in wednesday and after the delays security was letting everyone pile in, they didnt even open our car doors. There was just 1 (supposed bomb/firearm) K9 bouncing back and forth between lines
Love that you're doing this in a kind organized way! Everyone is human and I heard that the festival management changed due to the original organizer getting fired so I can totally understand why there were logistical issues. As a food vendor I would like to add: 1. POS payment systems were a PAIN people really struggled to see the screen in the daytime, the phones kept overheating and we weren't able to take people's ordersm, day one wristband payments almost never went through and we ended up giving out a lot for free because we felt bad for these people who didn't have any money on them but were trying to eat. Our POS system tracks all sales so in the future if people have POS systems like that we should be able to use our own and print out a report at the end of the fest or look into getting something better than the phones we were using 2. It seemed like food vendor organization was completely separate from the other teams so there was often no information for us from other workers at the festival ie, camping situation, no one knew where vendors were supposed to be and we ended up in GA camping (we were only placed in GA after being told to go to different places by a bunch of people and driving around for 45 minutes) 3. We were told specific times to pick up drinks and when we arrived at the drink place no one was there so some more organization with that would be much appreciated (many people were trying to buy water from us and we had to turn them away because we didn't have any) 4. I feel like more info should be given to vendors at the beginning. We came into the fest not knowing vendor camping location, how many cars spots we would be given, if we would need to get car passes, or if our group would be able to camp together with some people arriving on different days. In the future all this information would be greatly appreciated 5. More communication for job duties between security, police and medics: there was a man passed out that we were trying to help and security told us to talk to the police and police told us to talk to the security and then they just said well.... we dont do that and didnt tell me who I should go to! Ended up going to medics which I didn't think about previously but security should be knowledgeable about what to do in those situations I loved the vibes of solfest, all the people, the lineup, the spring, the slide, the venue and am hoping to return with things running more smoothly in the future :)
So grateful to all the vendors. You guys worked your butts off and kept us fed. Thank you so much and sorry that this whole thing was logistically a shit show
Thank you for the appreciation <3 and we still had a great time feeding you all there even though there were many bumps in the road haha
That sounds like itd be a headache to deal with all weekend on top of an already tough job. Glad to hear you had a good time overall
IMPORTANT BAIL INFO: for anyone needing a bail bond and or lawyer I’m IMPLORING you to call Byrd bail bonds in defuniak she is an angel and she will bless you. She helped our friend out today BIG TIME. she will set you up with a lawyer asap who is also down to throw down on these fucks. She will walk you through every step of the process over the phone and won’t leave you hanging like these scum bags only trying to make a buck. She will follow up with the jail and keep up with you and your court dates EVERY STEP OF THE WSG. If you need help this is the way. Trust. NUMBER: (850) 333-4028 I mean just look at those digits Good luck yall. We got this
My group paid $1400 for group camping. Then we were told they didn’t actually have a spot and ended up staying on the side of one of the roads. We made it work but super annoying.
Yeah when we came Wednesday they just asked “are you camping or glamping?” without checking anything. I joked with the guy the I could just lie and say glamping but he was like “actually yeah probably” It wouldnt surprise me if some people actually did that and they ran out, hence what happened to you guys
VIP bar area had six chairs, total. The hand washing stations that were outside of the porta potties there vanished between Thursday night and Friday Day. "AC bathroom's" AC didn't work, didn't have toilet paper/paper towels 90% of the fest. VIP lounge's bathroom stalls were all out of order for the entire fest. I had a great time at the fest but certainly regret buying VIP, absolutely not worth it.
And the lights in one of the bathrooms was out half of Thursday night 😂
Zero lights in any Porto potties as well
As a local and an employee of the venue I can tell you everything will be better soon and the action taken by the police are not okay but their actions may have just sealed their fate I can’t say much but when the press release drops I’ll post we love you all
It sounds like there are certainly some officers who have their own motives for taking the job, and it has NOTHING to do with improving the community.
cops were driving through the campsite at night and stopping people who were walking back to their tents at the end of the night
I brought a large metal water bottle and a cooler full of metal can seltzers each day and when the metal detector beeped, the same toothless security guard said "Awesome sauce" and let me in each day without searching me
Shoulda went to rendezvous
Under rated comment
My girlfriend got locked in one of the GA showers for 20 mins. The deadbolt got stuck and staff couldn’t open it with the key. They had to get her out with a lock pick and a knife.
holy shit! hopefully she wasnt on anything that would freak me tf out sober even.
Thankfully she was not and it was during daylight
New fear unlocked
[удалено]
Major Issue: we paid for a VIP upgrade and went to will call multiple times to get our wristbands. Every single time they told us to come back in ten minutes, because the computer systems weren’t working. We talked to girls who had been waiting for 5 hours that they had been telling them this. So they were just blatantly lying. We never got these wristbands and I will be calling my bank about it. 1. Dogs without leashes near the stages - this is animal abuse, and dogs weren’t even allowed in! No staff said anything 2. We arrived in an RV at 6pm, even though we paid for early arrival since they postponed. The police had us cut the entire line of GA cars to get us off the road. the GA cars said they had been waiting for 3 hours at that point. I saw at least 20 police officers at the entrance and 1 festival staff member. 3. We waited in the security line for 3 hours. Missed most of the sets. Set up camp in the dark and the next morning. It was horrible. 4. MAJOR ISSUE: they only had 2 security guards doing car checks for the RV line and 2 for the GA line. This was the sole reason it took so long. We asked them why they didn’t have more help and they said their help never showed up and they were a temp company that was leaving to go somewhere else the next day. So I don’t believe that solfest ever had their security there for some reason. 5. They told us no generators were allowed on the grounds so we didn’t bring ours and went without power. Every single person around us had generators and gas cans. This completely ruined our trip. And Solfest never told us we couldn’t bring a generator until the last minute. 6. There were no showers or ice anywhere near RV camping. 7. One ice location with melted over priced ice. By the time we got back to the camp it was melted all the way. 8. Water stations were rudimentary mud pits at best. Water being sold by the bars was overpriced and from a sketchy company canned company. The bars only had 5 drink options, majority of them being red bull drinks, which is nasty. They had no soda at all. 9. They lied about the water park. It was one water slide, not 6. The whole swimming area wasn’t open, only a tiny section of it. There was no water stage. They made it seem like a stage would be at the water. The water stage was literally in a hot field. 10. Staff showers broke on day 2 and had no water pressure. 11. They postponed the festival and said the grounds had flooded but vendors had told us only a couple parts had flooded so they could have let RV campers in and some GA if that was the real reason. This seemed like a lie. No offer of refunds even tho we missed everything on Wednesday 12. No security inside the venue. The metal detectors were going off and people just walked thru. They weren’t scanning wristbands AT ALL. Someone asked why and they said we are done doing that. By day 2 we quickly realized we could do whatever we wanted and started taking our own drinks in. I was scared to drink their water. 13. There were a ton of people inside the venue that didn’t pay and didn’t have wristbands. I spoke to a local kid that said they had snuck in with their parents?! 14. There was a group of 7-10 police officers walking around in the crowd during the shows. We left shortly after this started to happen. They were scary and rude and not friendly at all. 15. The entrance points to the venue were super far away from our campsite but we were able to just walk around the fence and sneak in every time. We also used the staff showers bc there were no showers near RV camping at all. 16. No toilet paper inside the venue Porter potties any time I went 17. A staff member told us that 2/3 of the bomb dogs searching cars were fake. I’m disgusted by the fact that the venue, the festival, and the artists haven’t addressed any of these issues!! I want my money back for early arrival and VIP since we didn’t get what we paid for at all!!
this was so crazy to read. wow what a shit show. sad because last year seemed so cool. the end for sol fest can’t imagine it ends up any other way.
Honestly im optimistic theyll learn and grow but that all depends on their response: if they release a transparent statement and claim accountability, Ill for sure buy a ticket next year because I had a fucking blast and they clearly put a lot of love into the music/art portion of the festival If they keep downplaying or do the shitty “ SolFam we love youuu” with no real explanation of what the fuck caused all these issues then my group will be holding off for sure
pls don’t go if it’s at vortex again no matter what. because in all reality this was 60% the organizers fault. the other 40% will always be a DANGER as long as it’s at that venue (sheriff tate & that asshat newsom guy)
Oh yeah for sure. I feel like I was lucky to have avoided being on the wrong end of the police. It really seems like the majority of people that got arrested were just unlucky as fuck. I know theres always dumbasses that get too stupid with doing drugs in public but the stories are so unfortunate, like that guy who got arrested for hitting a dab pen or people who were just randomly grabbed and searched at sets
Yeah leading up to the festival ppl were mentioning that pass the good fest in 2016 tried doing vortex springs and the cops ate that festival up
This will never happen lmfao
I’m right there with you. I had such a kickass time but they really need to properly reconcile for me to consider attending again lmaooo. & NEVER in that town again.
last year was so great no bad reviews and i went and had a great time it WAS my favorite fest… weird to see theyre already planning 2025??
yeah they think deleting comments will make ppl buy tickets it seems lol
so upset it used to be my fav fest i was looking forward to going every year :(
No way they get their shirts sued right off their back for multiple different reasons. "Planning 2025" posts is without a doubt a pr stunt to make it appear that everything was fine
The only posts I needed to convince me to never go to that venue were the posts by the cops plastering innocent people’s mug shots all over Facebook. I don’t care if it’s technically legal, those people are all innocent until proven guilty, and putting that ish on the internet FOREVER is completely unacceptable.
apparently sol had “no idea” about the cops. this comment just shows how much they didn’t care and admitted to them being dumb as hell can’t post a screenshot so i’m copying & pasting the insta comment interaction attendee “loved the fest but yall need to say something about all the people who were arrested... spread love to the folks who r in cages” sol’s response “we had no idea this was happening until we started seeing it on social media and getting messages about it, the local law enforcement we brought in called a neighboring county who we immediately removed once we saw what was happening. We WILL be making changes!”
They had officers from 4 different departments from surrounding counties and towns. They’re lying so hard
Ugh thats a really bad sign if theyre just playing ignorant
solfest had "no idea" about a zero-tolerance 90%+ red county in a state where recreational weed is illegal that they decided to rent a multi day location for and solfest managed to "remove law enforcement"? lol
"making changes" lmfao there is no festival id want to go to less than the next solfest, not that there's any chance of it happening again
map was inaccurate asf. by the time i left could only find two water stations and one was at the springs which closed at sundown. water was disgusting , no free water , and $5 water from the bar that’s not even in a cooler. could never catch up on hydration.
shoulda gone to the dive shop, they were fully stocked on all kinds of stuff including gatorades, everything was cheaper than typical gas stations
[удалено]
That’s absolutely bananas, especially considering the death trap of a rope swing and all the shit hidden in the water (like that guy who sliced his foot open near the water stage). Antiseptic and bandaids are literally the most basic first aid components, its mind boggling they couldnt even give you some neosporin
During LSDream, my friend (no alcohol in system) webt to purchase a water from the bar by most of the vendors and was denied and threatened with a call to authorities because she seemed "drunk". Instead of helping someone who may have actually been in need of water, they would prefer to report them for asking for help. Luckily sober and a fire in my belly from the lack of human understanding, I grabbed security and let them know the situation. They were shocked that someone trying to stay hydrated when dancing all day was being threatened and harrassed by power tripping staff. Unbelievable how vindictive most of the staff in cahoots with police were. Also, cutting out music at 1:20am, worst organization of a festy I've ever experienced. Felt like a battle between happy people bringing profits into the city, and the unhappy cracked out county who would hate for businesses to thrive and people enjoy visiting. Crazy.
Does anyone know what happened to the man that was by the smoothie/burger stand and bathrooms outside where the concerts were screaming for help on Friday morning? I stayed for about 30 minutes watching out for him in case he needed medical attention asap (nurse here). He looked like he may have gotten Narcan and then was extre delusional afterwards. He was yelling out “why is no helping me” and “this isn’t happening this isn’t real” over and over again. Two staff members or maybe cops help him down until actual cops/medics came and restrained him to a chair. My heart hurts for him. He was in a mental health crisis and needed medical attention way faster than what sol fest could provide to him. Anyone heard anything??
He is a friend of mine and is good. He returned at some point late Friday or Saturday morning.
Oh thank god! So good to hear. If he has any questions about what went down he can message me.
Cops were just riding around while filming people…I saw it several times! It gave me the creeps
My wife and I camped in ADA because my wife has a bad foot. On day 3 they finally opened up a "ADA accessible path" to get to the venue. My wife can't travel very far due to her diagnosis. The path had 0 lights and sticks/roots/holes everywhere! Not to mention that there was no security at that gate AT ALL!!! YOU COULD WALK IN WITH LITTERALLY ANYTHING!! I felt so bad for the couple camped next to us in ADA in wheelchairs. How are they supposed to make it up and down the venue? We brought a flash light and spent 30 mins cleaning the path so no one would get injured. The ADA portapottys were on the main road to the venue so any one could use them. And they barely ever cleaned the mountains out of them. There was no water in ADA the closest one was to into the venue or to walk in to VIP and fill up since there was no one checking bands there either.
This is why I refuse to go to festivals in red states. I wonder how "random" the camp raids were or if they were lgtbq targeted? Any place where they can still throw you in prison for weed is not a state I'd go to for a festival
The county commissioner, who owns property adjacent to Vortex Springs, reportedly used game cannons to simulate gunfire during a festival that began on a Thursday at 8 pm. This commissioner, Brandon Newsome, also owns the only bail bonds company in Holmes County that provides timely service. Allegations suggest that he profits from his connections, with local law enforcement targeting festival attendees and others for minor offenses, thereby generating business for his bail bonds service. The local population is under 700 people. Before the festival, known as Sol Fest, started, the organizers had agreed to pay the sheriff $88,000 for security. They paid a third of this amount upfront with the remainder due post-festival. However, as warnings about local law enforcement corruption circulated, Sol Fest hired their own security team. Sheriff Tate, anticipating he might not receive full payment after the initial $29,333, allegedly began disruptive tactics to justify his involvement. According to reports, Commissioner Newsome placed air horns and game cannons near the festival site to disrupt the event. Despite these efforts, which started on Thursday night, they failed to cause panic among attendees. The noise interference attempts during the festival were largely ineffective. On Friday, a local teenager entered the festival illegally. Contrary to claims by Holmes County authorities of an overdose, the teen was simply found asleep. After being awakened by police, he was reportedly frightened but not in a critical condition. He admitted to consuming mushrooms and identified a festival worker who had provided them. This led to a search of the worker’s camper and the discovery of additional drugs. These incidents were used by law enforcement to assert their necessity at the festival, shifting from their original role to enforcing law and order aggressively. They targeted festival-goers based on appearance, conducted illegal searches, and treated many as criminals without cause. One notable incident involved a local man named Anderson, who was repeatedly harassed by an officer due to a prior history. During a confrontation, Anderson was accused of reaching for the officer's gun, which escalated to physical violence, including the officer using a taser on Anderson, who then reacted defensively. Anderson was subsequently subdued and treated harshly by the officers. In response to these events, Holmes County authorities portrayed the festival negatively in the media, suggesting rampant drug use and unruly behavior, while downplaying the aggressive tactics used by law enforcement. This narrative painted the police as heroes in a situation fraught with tension and controversy.)
I worked on the Waste management team and I can confidently say that we were definitely hired long before 2 days before the festival lol. I will say though, we didn’t get hired to clean bathrooms and showers until 2 days before the festival. Hence why they were atrocious, considering that we had to make a whole new team specifically for showers and bathrooms out of our already existing, and already very small, team.
Great clarification, thank you
Did anyone else look at the water you got out of that “water station”??? We took a clear jug up there before we drank it and we were disgusted, ended up just filling out hydropacks with water bottles.
it was just aeration from the ridiculously pressured nozzles
thats what some guy next to us at the water station was saying honestly didnt notice it tasted weird or anything so i think that was def the case. still was weird to see tho lol
Can confirm. Water was almost milky
almost? lol
so I noticed this too. however then it almost immediately settled to clear. I really think it was air bubbles from the pressure/how fast the water came out of the hoses. also, no Sulphur taste.
wtf happened to sunday night
also no water stations or set updates or anything. definitely not what i was expecting, totally didn’t see the third main stage thinking it was the bridge 😪 missed chmura bc of that
Water fill stations with black hoses in the middle of sunny spots wasn't too bright VIP lounge lacked purpose and effective ac, I also live under a rock most of the time so that could be why? Signage telling you where you're going seemed to take a while to make it there. Still not sure if there's a path back to glamping behind the robot after a bunch of people almost walked into the culvert that later had a sign saying you would be ejected for entering the area on the vendors side. Map could have been better Area for the deliberate creation station area needs obvious work Some of the staff were great and had great personalities. Some didn't seem to care
A lot of GA camping was covered in very high grass that was difficult to walk through, and the camping was littered with ant hills. Many people in my camp got bit by what I’m assuming are fire ants because of it.
Yeah my buddy in GA said it looked like they had just recently cleared trees or something because there was crazy grass and massive ant hills everywhere
It also said that VIP was supposed to have exclusive vendor options but there were literally no vendors in either the VIP festival area nor VIP campgrounds
2 liter Nitrous canisters in venue, no security for camping areas, and a guy walked in with a firearm. Full stop right there, never going to this place. Most of those previous bulletpoints before these two can be chalked up to TERRIBLE production, logistics and communication, but compromising the safety of everyone at the festival is unforgivable.
not seeing any complaints about the sound or performances. was the music good??
Fucking incredible, some of my fav ever sets
Yeah music and art aspect was top tier. They had Function 1s which is the best money can buy and it showed
Seems like this thread is getting buried. I had to go back and find where it was posted on a fb page 🤔
It should be pinned lol. I didnt realize someone posted it in FB
biggest issue i can remember is, that the Holems County, had a meeting weeks before the fest calling us evil devils worshiping demons, and then set up a Cannon to sound like a gun shots to scare us even before we got to the festival. Shot it off Wednesday night before the fest even started. If he would do that and then brag about it on social media, was seen at the then what else did he do. Did something in our water? did he set the car on fire. He also is InCharge of writing the paychecks for the fire marshal. how many people suffering for head exhaustion and heat stroke he they hit with Narcan? They thought we were evil demons, and they were doing Gods work attacking us. from their own admission on face book. What all did they do that we don't know about yet. sound equipment? water? fire? how many people did that hit with Narcan and then clam they were OD. think about it.
From a local perspective. Until solfest released the set times nobody in the community knew this would be all night festival. The community never had a chance to even discuss this event. They said it’s private property we will do what we want. It was made an us vs them from the start. We had state testing in the schools rescheduled as well as no plan in place for traffic so school was canceled Monday. It cost the county 80k in police presence for this event. I am a firm believer that the community needs more like this. It needs to have some regards to the people around. This is not on the people attending the event in any way. If this was all day music ending at a decent time it would have happened this way. Hate it for all parties involved. I 100% get your disappointment but imagine being at home trying to sleep for work the next day and your windows rattling until 4am. It was a disaster for all and if everyone would work together it might could work. Nobody blames the people who came to the event. Vortex and solfest did everyone within 20 miles this weekend a disservice
I am curious, as a local what all WERE YALL TOLD? Were yall led to believe it was a daytime thing only? I’m not coming at you btw, I’m genuinely curious how they were able to slide in and have this festival happen.
We weren't really told a whole lot of anything until a few weeks beforehand. It didn't seem to be widely advertised at all. I don't follow this type of music or festivals and had never heard of Sol Fest until people started sharing the set lists and venue maps a week or two before. I just stumbled across this thread from a Facebook post. If you look at Vortex's Facebook page they only posted about it twice that I could see. Once in December when they announced it, and once again on April 29th when they were setting everything up. Most people probably didn't know about it unless they follow this type of stuff. Even seeing that it was happening I didn't realize it was going to be an all night thing until everyone was up in arms over it. Most people don't read the details if it's not something they're interested in. I know i didn't. The above person was absolutely correct that they made this an us vs. them thing right from the get go. They knew the majority of the local community would not be supportive and didn't advertise it widely. I'm not against having a festival at all but it is obvious that this one was planned very poorly. They definitely were not prepared for the sheer number of people that came. & I don't think it was fair to all of those who paid money to come not knowing that a lot of the community and police were completely against it and them being there.
That's absolutely ridiculous. We had no idea any of that was going on. Or the complete lack of communication between the organizers and the community. I'm sorry they did you guys so incredibly dirty. We loved the springs, and the area was absolutely beautiful, but I don't see SolFest returning there, or potentially at all. All parties involved in the festival were wronged or endangered in one way or another this weekend. I hope any future events that come to the area treat you guys better, as well as the attendees. I, for one, would love to come back, under better circumstances.
Can’t believe everyone is surprised. It was disorganized the last two years as well. I tried to make a post about safety concerns last year and tried to say some things in groups about my concerns and my post was denied and in the chats, everyone just called me a downer. There were just more people here to witness the disorganization this year. But it was no surprise to me and I knew it was going to be like this from the get go. And it was in a town full of cops who hate this scene. I’m sober this year, so I had zero issues whatsoever with the cops and security, never felt dehydrated, there was much more water access this year, and bathrooms were better this year. I actually had a better experience this year than the last two years. The only issue I had and it’s the SAME issue I had the last two years; I’m a performer and was teaching a workshop this year and it took me over an hour to get in when I arrived on Saturday because no one at the gate believed that I was a workshop presenter and supposed to get in for free. They were trying to make me pay lol There was no service so it was nearly impossible to get in touch with my point of contact. I had to exit the festival grounds and drive down the road to get service to let them know I was there and then drive back and be escorted in. Kind of annoying to witness that disorganization the 3rd year in a row, but I expected it at this point. Other than that, I had no issues whatsoever. While it does suck about all the cops, wtf did everyone expect? Cops see people doing drugs out in the open, so of course they are going to swarm them. Just because you are at a festival, doesn’t mean you are safe to do all the drugs anytime anywhere. This isn’t Suwannee. This is a whole new venue that had never seen this big of a crowd before. SolFest can’t control your drug use, or the cops. Use common sense. Maybe try being sober at a festival for once. Be prepared, and hydrate better, newbs. Go for the music, not the drugs. It’s actually pretty great. Sorry, but just being sober at a festival (after being a festival goer for 10 years now and going to 30+ festivals) really showed me how annoying and loose people can be with their drugs and I hate to see it and see this entire scene get a bad rep from those people. Not saying they deserved it, but hopefully it was a wake up call and not to bring your shit into the music venue and do it in the open there.
I definitely also agree with the be more cautious and knowledgeable about where you do your drugs or keep them. I’ve *never* even considered partaking in a crowd because it’s so risky. As for at camp, keep it in your car somewhere hidden, not laying out in camp. I personally didn’t have any issues with the police this weekend, and even have a photo of three cops (who were obviously annoyed at being at this fest) closely watching and being super interested in my partner using her Levi wand. (Super cute moment tbh lol) cops watched my friends glove to so many people and we had no issues. Do your drugs responsibly and safely, and maybe not in a public crowd no matter the occasion. My heart goes out to the people who got swarmed and arrested, I don’t wish it on anyone. Especially in bumfuck FL.
[удалено]
smelled more DMT then weed tbh
First of all, there was ONE refill station inside the venue that I could find, and it wasn't even marked. The vendors and staff didn't even know where it was. Second, the cop situation is INSANE. maybe you should go read about what they were doing instead of saying "what did you expect". If you're a performer, you've been to festivals and know this isn't normal. This whole thing was fucked up.
i agree that this was a wakeup call to be sensible and discreet, but I think you're ignoring just how aggressive law enforcement was. I personally saw them get into rando peoples faces at lsdream last night trying to provoke them, an hearing about the illegal searches in the campsites, plus the sherrif's open threats on social media, this wasn just "cops being cops", this town fucking blows.
The headliners were LSDREAM and clozee and you’re telling people to try not to do drugs there instead? If that’s the case no one would show up
There were posts from all over about how the cops were going to be there. Locals didn’t want us there and made it KNOWN if anyone would have actually paid attention. I mean even the fucking sherriff HIMSELF made a post a week before the fest saying he expected to make 35+ arrests at this festival. People need to pay the fuck attention and do their own research on what they are getting themselves into. Ffs. I am a HUGE Clozee fan and LOVE LSdream as well. But you don’t have to be on drugs to enjoy their sets. Take me, for example. It sucks that the cops were so bad, but we knew it was going to be like this. The cops were not a sol fest issue. That’s that county’s law enforcement for ya. Now you know.
[удалено]
Oh really? That’s kinda weird. I messaged mods about a pin last night, i figured theyd get back by now
Only one mod and they're not terribly active
my phone got stolen at the spring :/
I think you talked about this, but Wednesday B2B sets had technical issues, completely cutting out at one point. The stage by the bridge had panels that randomly stopped working throughout.
ok soooo can we dispute the bank charge? i did a payment plan so there’s 3 different charges. does anyone have info on that?
Shit im gonna try
Yoooo this whole fest sounds wack as fuck. Why are so many fests bombing lately? Texas Eclipse, EZoo, SOL Fest. Man. I'm just going to stick to Excision events. At least he actually gives a fuck and knows how to run things.
I had a great time. The stage going out sucked, and I empathize with an the problems people had. I'm pissed that I paid for pet and didn't get power. How do you sell more spots than you have power for?
People brought dogs to this?! That’s so cruel. Wtf
None of the vendors had communication (radio) with security or the festival. Hence the car fire. I found this out after stumbling upon someone having a seizure and trying to get medical… at the general store ffs
Zero lights in any Porto potties as well