It was a tough weekend for the fifth annual Beach Goth Festival in Los Angeles. After rainstorms wreaked havoc on the second day, pissed off fans took to social media to express their displeasure, including this online petition to refund tickets.
This is the second weekend in a row that downpours have had a major impact on California fests. Treasure Island in San Francisco saw cancelled performances and shortened sets during a massive deluge during Saturday.
The Growlers, who host the Beach Goth Festival, have posted a response on their Facebook page. According to the comments, there’s still a lot of angry fans, like Marco Minniti who says, “Next time I’ll just wire you 180$ if you need the money that bad, don’t bother putting together this death trap of a festival ever again.”
Then again, some of the attendees took advantage to do some dancing in the rain.
Here is the official statement:
To all who attended Beach Goth this weekend, We saw it in your eyes. We hear you. We feel you. We want to sincerely thank you for supporting us – and each other – at this year’s festival.
We started Beach Goth in 2012 and have watched it grow into a strange and beautiful party larger than we could have ever imagined. After last year’s Beach Goth, we reflected on some of the challenges we experienced, and we set out to create a better festival for our fans in 2016. We wanted low ticket prices, a peaceful space for fans to hang out, quality food and drink options, and creative and thoughtful art and vendors. We settled on the beautiful Oak Canyon Park: we toured the space, planned the festival of our dreams and got beyond excited to share a new venue for Beach Goth with you. In the months that followed, as we recorded our new album and continued to tour, the plans shifted, due to various reasons, many of which were beyond our control. Eventually Beach Goth was moved back to the Observatory grounds.
We witnessed so many amazing things at this year’s fest. The spontaneous dance party that broke out during Future Islands’ set, right after the rain stopped. The guys who carried their ladies over the puddles. Meeting those of you in person who traveled wild distances to be a part of the adventure. Hearing Patti Smith say the words “Beach Goth!” to a crowd of thousands. In the past 48 hours, we’ve listened to your comments on email and social media, and we’re taking your words to heart. If we invite you to a show or party again, it will be for the fans first and foremost. We want you to feel the love that we have for you.
In the words of Saturday night’s legendary headliner Patti Smith, “People have the power / the power to dream, to rule / to wrestle the earth from fools.” Let’s stand up for what we believe and make a future experience that we can all be proud of.
With love and respect, The Growlers