Vegandale visitors were left ‘cranky and miserable’ after the festival struggled to keep up with tickets and resources.
The popular traveling food and music event, which is expected to attract 100,000 people across North American cities this year, sparked widespread backlash from thousands of attendees who showed up at Citi Field in Queens on Saturday.
Attendees had paid from $15 for general admission to $90 for V.I.P. access, eager to sample some vegan delicacies and listen to New York rapper GloRilla’s set. However, the festival was woefully underprepared for the crowds.
“We were starving and cranky and miserable,” Queens graphic designer Rocco Marrongelli told the New York Times . “I don’t think they had the manpower to face the waves of vegans that were trying to crash those gates.”
Marrongelli had waited in line for over an hour before giving up and going home, much like many who had hoped to get in but were instead met with a lengthy ticketing process caused by too few metal detectors and festival organizers forgoing crowd control.