JerkFest brought flavour to Toronto this past weekend, but the event left a bad taste in the mouths of some attendees who were disappointed with the long lines, power outages, and technical issues.
The annual 23-year-old festival ran from Aug. 8 to 10 at Centennial Park, featuring a number of vendors specializing in jerk cuisine, cooking demonstrations, and marketplaces for artisan goods. The event also saw major Caribbean entertainers take the stage like Valiant, Tarrus Riley, V’ghn and Agent Sasco. But what was intended to be a sweet dive into island culture quickly soured for a lot of Torontonians.
Reports of lengthy entry lines quickly surfaced online by attendees, including one TikToker who called the event a “real time nightmare.” Pledging to never return to JerkFest, the user complained about hundreds of people lined up at one admission gate, no matter what tier level of ticket they purchased, and a choppy sound system.
Other users echoed a similar experience, one saying that it took about an hour and a half to enter the festival.
Meanwhile, another TikTok user said no music was heard for more than two hours.
On Sunday, JerkFest Toronto organizers issued an online apology for the technical disruptions that occurred throughout the weekend, citing extreme weather conditions leading to its on-site generators overheating and causing power outages.
“We understand that this caused a disruption to your experience, and we are deeply sorry for the inconvenience and disappointment this may have caused,” JerkFest’s statement on Instagram read.
“Overnight, our team replaced the affected generators to ensure a smooth and uninterrupted experience for the remainder of the festival. We worked diligently to address the problem as quickly as possible, and we are grateful for your patience and understanding,” the organization added.
The festival also pointed to the construction adjacent to the grounds in preparation for the City of Toronto hosting the FIFA World Cup as reasons to why gate logistics were affected.
“The safety and security of our attendees is our prime concern and we tried to set up the best pathway into the grounds that would be the safest,” the festival told Now Toronto in an email on Monday.
Due to the delays and adhering to noise bylaw requirements, JerkFest said Saturday’s performances were cut short. But after further reflection and as gesture of appreciation, the festival extended its discounted ticket hours for patrons on the following day, as well as offered complimentary water stations for a smoother Sunday event without incidents.
“We posted this information to all of our social media platforms on Sunday morning so that our patrons received an explanation of what happened on Saturday and to let them know that they were welcome to come back on Sunday to experience the show in its entirety,” JerkFest said.
All was not lost for every attendee, however. Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow was seen taking the stage and busting a move to popular song, “Shake It to the Max.”