Is it Fyber Fest?
Angry diners in New York’s Vegandale are comparing the much-hyped plant-based bash to Fyre Festival because of hours-long lines, shortages of water and toilet paper and other issues.
“People are miserable and very strange,” Rocco Marrongelli, 46, a graphic designer from Queens, told The Post about the failed event, for which he stood in line for an hour before giving up and going home. .
The NYC leg of Vegandale, part of an eight-city conglomerate estate spanning the U.S. and Canada, took place last Saturday at Citi Field, the New York Times first reported.
The festival attracted thousands of attendees who were eager to visit over 200 vendors and watch a thrilling performance by GloRilla.
Instead, they encountered a massive line at the entrance caused by too few metal detectors and a lengthy process to purchase tickets, which ranged from $15 for general admission to $90 for VIP access.
“Those four lines just became a massive crowd,” Marrongelli griped. “There was just no one to help.”
One participant complained in a Reddit thread that there were only “two staff” to control a crowd that had “grown to include the entire exterior of Citi Field.”
And that was just the tip of the iceberg salad. Guests who managed to get in — and must have thought they were on greener pastures — struggled to find shade or seats amid the 84-degree heat. Others reported that there was a shortage of toilet paper, as well as drinking water and water in the bathrooms for washing hands.
Brooklyn social media manager Sanirena Denerville, 30, who came in after waiting an hour, told the New York Times there were only a few stalls of water and she was dizzy from dehydration.
On the line, she reportedly heard that at least one person had passed out and been taken to the hospital — a claim made by other Vegandale visitors in the aforementioned Reddit thread.
Denerville said she couldn’t even wash her hands after going to the bathroom because the sinks ran out of water.
“Security came out a little bit and offered people water bottles, and they were just grabbed within seconds,” Marrongelli told The Post, adding that people were treating the “old” water bottles like they were “gold.”
Online, some are now demanding refunds and claiming that the recent Chicago event was just as bad. Meanwhile, Vegandale has turned off comments on its Instagram page.
Many critics compared the fiasco to Fyre Festival, the ill-fated 2017 luxury music festival that infamously stranded thousands of revelers on an island with nothing but poor food and makeshift tents.
Detractors on Reddit even asked visitors to report the “NYC Department of Consumer Protection and the NY Attorney General” for the rant. The Times reported that the NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) received two complaints, as did the state Attorney General’s office.
It wasn’t just the attendees who objected to the event, which began in Toronto in 2015.
Erica Muñoz, who owns Pinche Vegana and has had a booth at Vegandale in New York for several years now, claimed that organizers changed their fee structure so they collected a 30% commission on all sales instead of paying a fee fixed for the cabin.
She estimated it cost her $3,000 — triple what she had paid during previous events, according to The Times.
Despite the stomach ache, many attendees tweeted positively about the evening, with Denerville admitting to enjoying tasty vegan offerings like jackfruit empanadas.
“We faced some logistical challenges, which are part of working with a new location,” Jenna Lindsay, Vegandale’s vice president of communications and entertainment, said in a statement. “It was our first year at Citi Field, but the overall experience was really positive.”
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Image Source : nypost.com