Everyone already knows about Saturday night at TomorrowWorld, the night certainly hasn’t come without it’s fair share of consequences for SFX, (negative viral videos and photos, refunds, artist cancellations, ect.,) all points that have now been uniformly thrown around on other blogs.

This review isn’t going to thrive on negative stories nor list only reasons why TomorrowWorld was amazing. SFX put in a ton of effort to create an epic experience, but messed up in very crucial areas simultaneously.

The Good

Mind-Boggling Stages

 

I’ve been attending festivals for 7 years, never in my life have I experienced anything that came close to the production value TomorrowWorld delivered.

We’re talking beyond amazing stages, 9 of them including The Gathering stage. Each equipped with everything, EVERYTHING. Highly detailed artwork on the stage itself, fireworks, lasers, strobes, stage lights, video, and there was no holding back.

Dozens of firework shows were taking place, on almost all stages, all weekend, at any point in the day. It wasn’t just the fireworks that made the stage experience dope, but this example gauges just how generous SFX was with production goodies.

Representative Lineup

 

Photo Marcus Ingram/Getty

With that said, the caliber of the artists was on par with the quality of the stages. My favorite aspect was TW’s choice to dedicate stages by genre or record label, giving attendees a clear reference of what to musically expect beforehand. Undoubtedly, TomorrowWorld represented the dance music scene well, pulling together many popular dance sub-genres with decent-sized communities/followings. Also, Shaq was a beautiful addition. 😉

Great Food

When almost every vendor stall has its own flat-screen TV to show their menu, you can’t help but be impressed. Vendor stands were properly branded, lit, and equipped. Besides the fancy menus, the food within DreamVille and TomorrowWorld was delicious and versatile. Typical vendor names you’d expect to se, such as “Hamburgers” and “Funnel Cake” were replaced with names like “Vietnamese Food” and “Vegetarian Breakfast Burritos.” Personally, everything I had was surprisingly filling and delicious, but people are picky.

Amazing People

The crowd was phenomenal. I know some people are annoyed with people giving out high fives, but there were high-five trains wherever you went, sometimes by the hundreds. People were so, so stoked to be there and be together. Within the festival, people were feeling great, turning up, showing off their totem or home-country flag, and most importantly seeing artists important to them. The 21+ age limit significantly scraped out younger personality types that commonly go overboard at massively-hyped events like this. Not saying all 21 and below-ers are crazy ragers, but the age limit definitely enhanced a harmonious festival environment.

Immersive Atmosphere

The fantasy- mystery, “Alice In Wonderland” themed environment TomorrowWorld goes for was a perfect match to sleepy pine forests of Georgia backdrop. I felt fully immersed in the story, philosophy, and aesthetics  that TomorrowWorld strategically placed around me. It felt far from gimmicky.

An important aspect of what made this possible was the intuitive, flowing festival layout. It was just easy to get everywhere. Each stage had its own set of vendors and bathrooms very close by. I never felt lost, rushed, or confused, in fact quite the opposite. Sunday was different, but Sunday was different for alot of reasons.

DreamVille Marketplace

The Marketplace in DreamVille was beautiful! Haircuts, general store, camping gear, lockers, food trucks: all quaintly neighboring one another for the 3 day rodeo. All was good except the $15 ice, (do you really gotta sting people there?) an essential for making sure food/drinks don’t spoil and sicken you or your group. Which leads me to my next subject:

The Bad

Mud

So yes the mud was bad, but it didn’t have to be quite as bad as it was.

One area that seemed ignored accept for trash pick-up, was DreamVille. While the festival grounds were getting hay, woodchips, and temporary flooring thrown down by the truckload, DreamVille got little. This made it especially difficult to get to the showers and bathrooms without mushing your foot into 6-inch deep muck. This, in turn, incentivized attendees not to shower (not so bad) and to piss wherever someone wouldn’t yell at them (very bad.) If you have the capacity to improve paths in the festival, improve them in DreamVille too.

Photo credit: Thump.com

Some fans were getting frustrated about mud in the pathways to the point of ripping thin-bamboo fence decor off the fences, throwing then atop mud, and using it as a walk way. While destroying festival prosperity is never right, the action sends a message. Again, the main slap in the face comes from the festival grounds getting repairs that DreamVille needs too.

Photo credit: Emily Smart

When tens of thousands of people get together to party and camp, it’s extremely important that some type of hygiene relief points, like clean showers and bathrooms, be present and accessible. No one wants to leave sick.

It’s one thing to charge $5 for showers, but when the inside showers are muddy af – as well as the outside of the showers, and the walk to the showers – then whats the point. There was also no pressurized water where people could wash off mud/dirt/piss from personal belongings. The combination of muddy showers and no water hose or water spickets to clean in DreamVille really took the unhygienic vibe to an unwanted level.

The Ugly

Thieves

After noticing a lot of talk in online groups about thieves being a possibility, I was cautious and weary. What festival goer would do that to another?

Welp, the good news is it wasn’t festival-goers, it was almost unanimously the event management team present at TomorrowWorld.

Reports of bus drivers demanding money (or else the bus driver wouldn’t drive) from desperate deserted Saturday-nighters after they were allowed on board, to packs of them ransacking tents, to selling drugs, to flaunting pictures of stolen goods on Twitter after TW. Accusations are flying, but it’s pretty clear background checks were not apart of the event management teams hiring process.

 

Hudson Project Weather Upset Not A Lesson Learned?

SFX put on the Hudson Project, SFX put on TomorrowWorld, very similar weather issues happened at both events and both events landed bad PR for SFX and a bad experience for many fans. Yet, why didn’t SFX take Hudson as a lesson to focus more resources on some type of extensive “rainy day” plan, a plan to make sure customer satisfaction and quality of experience would hold up. Well they didn’t and guess what? The result was, again, a similar bad PR blast from unhappy bloggers and attendees.

I had a ton of fun at TomorrowWorld and was amazed at this temporary music city that technology has allowed me to experience, but repeating mistakes like this is just sad for those it harms.

Photo credit: tonedeaf.com.au

In all, TomorrowWorld was the best and most insane experience I’ve ever had, yet a few miscalculations on SFX’s part resulted in catastrophic consequences. A dark cloud had been cast over the philosophy of unity TomorrowWorld pushes fans to embrace.

Were we all united? Were we all one? Were we all treated as one?

Many were forgotten, yet they will be the ones never forgetting what happened on Saturday night. This break in the chain of TW loyalist will be hard to repair as SFX simultaneously tries to balance their budgets moving forward.

TomorrowWorld, I really, really hope to see you next year – you have so much right –  but please don’t repeat the handful of accidents/incidents that occurred in the very recent past, or it will be your demise.

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