Zoo Thousand and Eight plagued by problems

United Kingdom | | 07 July 2008

The first ever Zoo Thousand and Eight Festival, held at Port Lympne Wild Animal Park, has suffered act cancellations, health and safety problems and organisational chaos that left many fans disgruntled.

Festival organisers have, so far, declined to comment on allegations that some acts had not been paid for their appearances.

On Friday, the opening day’s events started two hours later than scheduled and one of the main headliners, Dizzee Rascal, failed to show up for his 9pm performance.

Hip hop artist Lethal Bizzle, due to perform in the Tap’n’Tin tent, went on in his place, and was well received by the fans.

A spokesman for the three day festival said on Friday: “There was a breakdown in communication with Dizzee. He is still in London and is not answering his phone.

“We are very disappointed, but there are no other problems with any other acts scheduled this weekend that we know of.”

Friday’s main headline act Mark Ronson and the Version Players quickly calmed any upset with a show-stopping set that he branded "the best live show he had ever played."

But problems emerged again on day two, Saturday, when the Tap’n’Tin tent – the second biggest stage – was closed for health and safety reasons because of an unsecured tent pole.

This led to many of the acts due to perform there being moved and rescheduled and as a result many fans missed their sets.

One of the day’s main attractions, Chas’n’Dave, were moved into the VIP area – which was inaccessible to many ticket holders.

Speaking about the festival over the weekend, director Bob O'Connor had told local radio station KMFM: "This is our first year, East Kent has never seen anything like this before. The buzz outside is absolutely fantastic at the moment. We've got a few things wrong but we are working to rectify it."

Check back for further developments as well as our full review.