More than 55,000 people attended, the organisers said.<\/p>\n
While social media feedback shows many attendees seemed to enjoy themselves earlier in the night, welcoming the return to the university and the entertainment in the lead-up to the Nightglow, numerous people also raised concerns about leaving the event.<\/p>\n
In a post on the Balloons Over Waikato page, one person said while he appreciated the effort that went into putting on a free event like the Nightglow, the bus organisation had been \u201cshocking and unsafe\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Waikato Herald contacted the person for further comment but was directed back to the post.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere didn\u2019t seem to be enough space for queuing, which led to people spilling on to the road and into the bus lane,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce we got onto the bus, grown adults were pushing others on from the outside onto the already packed bus, so much that elderly and children were getting crushed. Kids were crying and screaming from the panic, one kid even got separated from their mother as the door shut. It felt like there wasn\u2019t any crowd management or safety plans.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce on board, buses were then caught in traffic due to no dedicated exit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Several people commented they had left the event grounds as soon as the Nightglow ended about 8.30pm but weren\u2019t able to catch a bus until after 10pm.<\/p>\n
Another person commented that the event \u201cdidn\u2019t seem organised at all\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we got into the event there [was] no signage, no people in control, no one to give direction.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe parking was a nightmare, exits not being utilised, no one directing traffic efficiently. It took us two hours to get out.\u201d<\/p>\n
There were also several comments from people who had paid for parking in advance, but were reportedly turned away because the parking area was already full.<\/p>\n
Another person said while she had a \u201cwonderful\u201d time with her family, there were issues with the quality of the stage and the sound system.<\/p>\n
The Balloons Over Waikato Nightglow went back to the University of Waikato this year. Photo \/ Stephen Barker for Shot360 Photography<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were sitting towards the back of the crowd in front of the stage and all we could hear was the bass, the music was quiet and couldn\u2019t hear the singing or talking at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some people also complained that many of the balloons deflated after only being up for a few minutes.<\/p>\n
While police said \u201cno incidents of note\u201d relating to the Nightglow were reported to them, Hato Hone St John was notified of a fall incident on May St \/ Knighton Rd at 8.42pm and transported one patient in moderate condition to Waikato Hospital.<\/p>\n
The annual hot air balloon festival is owned and governed by the Balloons Over Waikato Trust, which contracts Wellington-based Lightning Events to deliver the event.<\/p>\n
Balloons Over Waikato chairman Steve Gow said they were aware of the \u201cfrustration\u201d and apologised on behalf of the event.<\/p>\n
\u201cBalloons Over Waikato apologises to those who were inconvenienced.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re sorry to those who experienced delays or disruption.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s not the experience we want for our community, and we take responsibility for that.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know how important this event is to our community and we are committed to improving the experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gow said while plans were in place for parking and transport, the delivery on the night did not operate as planned, which contributed to congestion and confusion.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were four exit points in operation on the evening, with total egress capacity exceeding New Zealand requirements for an event of this size and nature.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the full site was cleared within the \u201cexpected\u201d timeframe of one hour and 40 minutes.<\/p>\n
Regarding the bus and park-and-ride services, Gow said Balloons Over Waikato partnered with Waikato Regional Council, which co-ordinated and delivered the free services through its providers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIssues were experienced on the night, and these are being reviewed with the relevant transport partners.\u201d<\/p>\n
A council spokesperson also recognised there had been issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cWaikato Regional Council acknowledges there were delays experienced on the night, which will have been frustrating for some bus passengers,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs this was the first event under new arrangements at the University of Waikato. We are working with event organisers and the transport provider to identify opportunities for improvements.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny further questions relating to the event will be best answered by the organisers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gow said the issues with the prepaid parking areas being full had been because of vehicles parked in designated event spaces earlier in the day, before event operations were in place.<\/p>\n
Those affected will be offered a full refund on parking and are asked to contact Balloons Over Waikato directly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than 55,000 people attended, the organisers said. While social media feedback shows many attendees seemed to enjoy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":349094,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[95,20212,1522,1558,118173,12413,8615,17515,5131,2079,92147,305,111,43,139,1526,69,86269,1523,30205,8480,2687,13109,1961,3946,8238,1524,102,1530],"class_list":["post-349093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-and","tag-awful","tag-balloons","tag-been","tag-buses","tag-chaos","tag-come","tag-experience","tag-festival","tag-fire","tag-fury","tag-have","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nightglow","tag-nz","tag-organisers","tag-over","tag-parking","tag-punters","tag-saying","tag-several","tag-this","tag-traffic","tag-under","tag-waikato","tag-with","tag-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}