Right on queue

Festival season has been underway for some time now, so it's a bit of a surprise that there haven't been (to my knowledge, at least) any of the usual horrorshows. That seems to have changed over the weekend, though, with a lot of very negative reports from those who went to the Liam Gallagher and Queens Of The Stone Age gigs in Finsbury Park.

Organisers Festival Republic have pointed the finger squarely at the Workers Beer Company for the horrendous bar queues. The bar management firm - who, it has to be said, have years of experience, including at Glastonbury - have in turn blamed "unprecedented failure of up to 40% of our staff to turn up" and offered an apology to fans who had to wait for hours in the baking heat, often missing acts they'd paid to see in the process. (Personally, I'd happily stand in a stationary bar queue rather than watch Gallagher and some of those on the bill with him - but each to their own.)

I'm assuming that there was the standard ban on taking in your own drinks into the site, which no doubt contributed to the problem. However, as has been pointed out by a number of disgruntled fans, the shortage of bar staff is of no significance with respect to some of the other reported issues, such as overcrowding, poor sound quality, security problems and bottlenecks at the exit and by the toilets. Festival Republic clearly have some explaining to do.