Fury as fans caught up in huge queues for drinks at Finsbury Park for Liam Gallagher and Queens of the Stone Age gigs

Fans travelled to see Queens of the Stone Age, Liam Gallagher and Iggy Pop
Anna Kealey
Olivia Tobin2 July 2018

Fans have expressed their fury after being caught up in huge queues for drinks at Finsbury Park gigs on one of the hottest weekends of the year.

The gigs, organised by Festival Republic, saw thousands of people attend on Friday and Saturday to see Liam Gallagher , Queens of the Stone Age and Iggy Pop .

Festival Republic issued a statement on behalf of the Workers Beer Company, which was responsible for the drinks stalls, apologising to festival-goers and saying they “deserved better service”.

It said that there was an "unprecedented failure of up to 40 per cent of staff" not turning up for their shifts.

One fan claimed the event was “possibly the worst organised festival ever”.

Stephen Bremner said: “A friend queued for one hour 40 [minutes] for drinks. The sound was also rubbish unless you were right at the front. Only saved by performance of Iggy and Queens of the Stone Age.”

Kat Pollendine said: “£70 for a ticket and the queues for a beer are two hours minimum. The hot weather can’t be an excuse, this is just pure exploitation.”

On Sunday evening, after receiving a high number of complaints, Festival Republic issued a statement on behalf of Workers Beer Company, apologising to attendees.

It read: “Here in Finsbury Park on Friday and Saturday there was unprecedented failure of up to 40% of our staff to turn up. As a consequence people had to wait an unnecessarily long time to be served. For this we unreservedly apologise to the audience.

“So that it’s clear neither Liam Gallagher nor Queens Of The Stone Age should bear responsibility. They both delivered awesome gigs to awesome fans, that deserved better service from our bar operation.

“This is also the case for Festival Republic who have no responsibility for us letting down the audience and we have already apologised to them.”

Fans have however accused the festival organisers of passing the buck.

Joseph Rimell said: “Festival Republic don’t even have the decent to hold their hands up and say they f****ed up massively, instead passing the blame on to others.”

While another fan said: “It wasn’t just a bar issue, not organised, too many people, dangerous."

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