A ST HELENS dad has described the stressful experience of living close to Reminisce Festival on Saturday, with his wife reduced to tears after enduring hours of anti-social behaviour and verbal abuse.
The resident, who lives opposite Sherdley Park on Eaves Lane, explained that stewards were intended to manage traffic, stop people from parking in residential areas and allow residents in and out of their street.
However, the two stewards on Eaves Lane are said to have allowed cars to park wherever they pleased, and left their post at around 2pm.
The man, who wishes not to be identified, said this left his street looking like a ‘taxi rank’ - with multiple cars left in front of drives, and taxis and minibuses using the street as a drop-off point.
As the day progressed, the dad-of-three explained how the problems intensified as news travelled that the festival was experiencing issues with long queues and internet access.
With delayed access into the festival, numerous people were said to use Eaves Lane to urinate in the street, where there was also visible drug taking and litter thrown into front gardens.
Additionally, the dad explained how he was verbally abused after he refused people entry to his house to use his toilet and Wi-Fi.
Although he asked for more help from stewards and police, none was forthcoming.
The man said: “It was just nonsense. There was no one there to help us and there were people urinating in the street, throwing empty beer cans and gas canisters into gardens.
“I was verbally abused and told I would get my head kicked in from lads around 25, after they knocked at my house to use my toilet and use my Wi-Fi to download their tickets.”
To make matters worse, their eldest son couldn’t get a lift home from Parklife festival in Manchester as the family couldn’t get the car out of their drive.
The man added: “It was all just heart-breaking. My wife was left in tears, saying she doesn’t want to live here anymore.”
Although the family have experienced problems from previous Reminisce Festivals, it was said to be nothing compared to this year.
The family explained they are in the process of writing to the council, festival organisers and their local MP to ensure these issues are resolved if the festival takes place next year.
Ideally, they would like the festival to take place in a different park, but emphasised that a better security presence is imperative to re-build relationships with residents.
A statement from Reminisce read:
"The event organisers work extensively with local authorities to ensure that all safety measures and protocols are in place for the protection of our festival goers. Whilst Covid restrictions have been officially lifted there are many things that still need to be in place for running festivals this year. Covid advice was issued prolifically in advance of the festival by both the festival organisers and the local authorities.
"At this year’s festival network lines were found to be damaged upon the opening of the festival, which wiped out the site's entire internet connection for the a considerable duration of the event, and severely overloaded the backup 4G systems. This meant card payment systems were failing.
"This also meant that the ticketing system on the entrance was running slowly when connecting to the backup 4G system. 4G networks are known to become unavailable at crowded events, and thousands of customers were unable to download their e-tickets at the last minute. This, coupled with additional police and security on arrival this year for the prevention of drug misuse, meant that access to the site was unavoidably slower than usual – resulting in considerable queues when large volumes of people were arriving at the same time.
"Reminisce are saddened that a relatively small percentage of this year's attendees were unhappy with their experience and ticket holders will be contacted in due course. In addition, as is the usual procedure, a de-brief of the event will take place between event organisers and all local authorities.
"Reminisce will strive to implement anything necessary for 2022 to stop this happening again."
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