Concert Cringe And Festival Fails That Left Us Wanting To Go Home

Ask any youngster about a music festival or EDM night, and they will go head-over-heels talking about it. On top of the large outdoor venues, the fun and relaxed vibe of the event appeals to the young crowd. The freedom to chug down as many beverages as they want and the option to do crazy things with strangers make them obsessed with these parties. But the only thing crazier than Gen-Z’s obsession with fests like Coachella and Tomorrowland is what happens at these events. With too many spirits, out-of-control strangers, and mishaps at every step, we bring you a collection of the most terrible moments from festivals around the world. You will never look at festivals the same way again!

So, What Exactly Happens at These Festivals?

The most common sight is intoxicated strangers doing foolish actions or simply passing out in the weirdest places possible. Next, you’re most likely to see extravagantly dressed-up people who want all eyes on them. From banana costumes to dog-house-inspired headgear, we have curated a list of the worst fashion moments caught on camera at festivals.

Another common disaster at concerts and fests is uncontrollable rains that lead to floods. The only thing more ridiculous than people’s behavior at these events is their conduct when there’s flooding. From boating to swimming, you can see everything that is to see right here!   

No Place to Go

People were literally stranded at the TomorrowWorld festival and could be seen sleeping on top of cars under the dark sky. This was an outcome of sudden cancellation of the event due to bad weather, announced by the organisers on Twitter.

Festival attendees were left with no assistance on getting back home. The worst affected were those who didn’t even have any accommodation to crash at. That’s right, only the people who didn’t book an on-site stay were not allowed entry. Talk about equality!

Environ-MENTAL

The damage caused by festivals to the Earth is just crazy. In addition to the noise pollution, the grounds of almost all festivals are left full of trash. It’s partly the mistake of the organisers because there aren’t enough trash cans and partly the careless attendees. But it’s always nature who has to pay.

One such moment of a festival’s aftermath is shown here. The ground and the festival-goers both look equally tired, so we would like to ask – are festivals really an excellent option for letting go of our worries? A trek on the mountains would be a better stress-buster.

Appreciation or Appropriation?

When someone from a dominant culture tries to copy or dress up as a person from an ethnic minority, it is called cultural appropriation. Most festivals around the world are guilty of enabling (and definitely not prohibiting) attendees to do so.

People who participate in this activity often say that they’re dressing up exotic because it makes them look cool. But we think that cultural attires must not be worn as party accessories. They are a symbol of tradition and deserve to be worn with respect.

Another Fyre Fail

The Fyre Festival duped the attendees in a significantly wrong way. Every single promise of luxury fell through, and what was supposed to be the most lit event of the year became a joke. The whole event was a failure, including the food served there.

Imagine being served this dry and dismantled sandwich after somehow surviving a whole day of shock and disappointment at the Fyre Festival. Also, is it just us, or can you feel how difficult it would be to swallow this sandwich?

Bubble Wrapped

So far, we’ve only seen moments where crazy fans and concert-goers were at the receiving end of weird things. Does that mean celebrities go unescaped from festival fails? This image of famous R&B singer Akon proves that the answer is NO!

At the Peace One Day festival in 2014, Akon was performing in Congo – inside a plastic bubble to avoid catching the disease Ebola. He couldn’t balance amidst the audience and tumbled around like clothes in the dryer at the laundry. Although the fans seem to be having fun, our sympathy is with Akon.

Coach-Hell-A

The most-hyped music and art festival in the world was no less than hell for this girl who had one drink too many. Every year, Coachella is visited by hundreds of millennials and Gen-Z youngsters who’re just looking to have a good time.

But all that glitters is not gold and chugging more than you can digest is reckless, not bold! It is hard not to be # Over’n’Out with disgust after seeing this puking action. Perhaps, Coachella isn’t precisely “HAPPY” for all, even if you write the word big and bold on your car!

Intruder Alert

In yet another moment gone wrong at Coachella, a man was captured trying to run up to the stage. Of course, the security intervened, and he was tackled on his way. Given that most people are at Coachella to witness drams, they definitely got to see what they paid for.

But if you are just like us – somebody who likes to chill and peace out – then these festivals are probably not for you. Not to mention, out-of-control fans are a grave danger to celebrities and everyone around.

Party Police

Festivals bring out the most incredible vibes of our personality and make it easy to let loose. So why should security guards feel any different? They’re also easily influenced by the atmosphere at festivals, as we can see in the image below.

In the spirit of yoga, the woman on the ground is carrying the total weight of the law, quite literally! If getting buried under a weight of security isn’t the weirdest thing ever, we don’t know what is. But surely, this is a strange way to party indeed.

Flood Festival

Set in Glastonbury town of the ever-beautiful England, the Glastonbury Festival is a celebration of music, dance, comedy, and many other artforms. But things quickly took a turn for worse when in 2005, unexpected and uncontrollable rain showers came upon the event.

Before anyone could respond, floods emerged, and soon all the tents were immersed under water. People had to rush to elevated areas and this is as close as they could get to being high! There were no injuries, but the fun indeed was dead.

Fyre and Failure

Just like one should never judge a book by its cover, never judge a festival by its hype. Celebrities promoted the Fyre Festival all over social media as an upscale outdoor party that would be as hot as fire. The only thing it ended up being was a failure.

Far from the promised luxury and fine dining, Fyre Festival had half-built tents and dry sandwiches in plastic boxes for its guests. It was one of the biggest scams that ever happened in the entertainment industry and its founder is currently serving time in jail for the falsehood.

The Shoe-shank Redemption

When you’re out to party, you’re always on your feet. Comfortable shoes are your best friends in this situation. Imagine if your soles get roughed up, and your feet pierce through the bottom. This is exactly what went wrong with this festival-goer.

The foot seems to have escaped from the shoes just as precisely as Tim Robbins escapes from prison in the movie The Shawshank Redemption. Only one of these two deserved to escape, and we hope you know who it should be!

Ketchup Personified

Have you ever wondered what it would look like if your tomato ketchup bottle were a person? We’ll stop your imagination right there because we have an answer for you, and it’s worse than you could ever have pictured.

American rapper, singer, and songwriter Tierra Whack made heads turn with her outfit at Coachella but for only the wrong reasons. People blindly follow celebrities, so we’re scared to see what getups she might unintentionally inspire her fans to wear!

Ban the Banana!

We’ve seen quite a few outfit disasters at music festivals around the world. Little did we know that a banana would outdo them all. This festival raver was spotted wearing the yellowest outfit ever, and it wasn’t half as delicious as a banana is.

And let’s be honest, the yellow cap, boxers, and sneakers aren’t doing him a favor. We could have accepted the banana outfit if it was an overall or a dungaree, but this guy got it wrong. His confidence is the only good thing about how he’s carrying himself.

Ride-On

No matter what happens, they say that the show must go on. So even if your tents and belongings are drenched in knee-deep rainwater, why must partying ever stop? No one is more optimistic than festival-goers in any situation.

When the entire venue was flooded with unexpected showers, these men took it as an opportunity to have a boat ride. With their drinks in the air, they seem proud of themselves too. But we simply can’t get the image of the trashy background out of our heads.

Parcel in the Dark

When we’re talking about festival fails, it’s impossible not to mention the Fyre Festival multiple times. Here is yet another shocking moment from this over-promising and under-delivering retreat – luggage being thrown off a shipping container in the wee hours of the night.

If you thought collecting your baggage at the airport was vexing, and your stuff ended up lost, then this situation would have left you exasperated. Not only is it dark and dingy, but imagine having to fight strangers to get back what’s yours, or worse, having your bags stolen.

Face Camping

Music festivals are a place where you go all out – literally! People are sleeping in their cars and tents (although most party animals do not sleep at all). But this freak chose a different path, opting to pass out in a tent just enough for his face.

Well, if your eyes and ears are not affected by the outside world, perhaps the purpose of a tent is fulfilled? Although the more interesting question would be this – where did he even find a tent so tiny? A shrinking machine ought to have done it!

Woof Woof

Out-of-the-box costumes are always a great idea for festivals but this is the first time someone took the ‘box’ seriously. Dressed like a dalmatian, this festival freak should have never left his home, or should we say kennel? This costume is next level.

Although this person deserves kudos for the efforts put into the ensemble, it’s hard to accept this outfit as ‘normal.’ Gone are the days where being chic and peppy was the dressing norm for festivals. We hope no one made the mistake of playing fetch with this canine!

Horse on a Horse

We’ve seen security guards blending into the festival environment before, but this image is just too much. A guard riding a horse like a knight in shining armor is undoubtedly a grand thing to look at, but it’s the mask that changes everything.

Although the people around him seem to be having a good laugh, it’s a festival fail for us if the guards are more entertaining than the celebrity performing. But if the security is here being a horse, who is keeping the people safe?

Washed Away

If you were shocked at the Glastonbury flood fiasco, you’d be even more amazed to know that more such festivals failed due to heavy rains. We can see a glimpse of this in this image, and what a ghastly sight it is!

All the trash flowing in the water makes our stomachs weak! The more nerve-wracking thing is the passion with which this festival-goer is swimming in the flooded venue. These enthusiasts never give up, never accept defeat – even from the Gods!

Clash Concert

Most youngsters would go crazy for a ticket to any concert and will record every second of it. Not everyone, though. This Clash of Clans gamer was not afraid to show his priorities (or should we say addiction?) to the entire crowd behind him.

We have to give him credit for his dedication because he’s really making an effort to act like he’s filming the performer. But we cannot praise his intelligence because he has clearly forgotten that there are people behind him, too, catching him in the act.

An Unwelcome Transformation

The feeling of wearing your brand new, crisp white sneakers to an outdoor event is just surreal. These shoes amp up your entire look. Wouldn’t they be just perfect to wear to a music festival? We’ll stop you right there – don’t say yes!

This choice ended up ruining the experience for the person in this image. They are sure never to forget this festival where their flawless white sneakers ended up getting an unpleasant transformation. Looking at these shoes just makes us sad!

Boo!

Unexpected things happen at festivals. Some people wear camouflaged clothes and dress up like soldiers. Others like to play with mud and have fun in puddles. But if you combine them both, you will meet your lifetime quota of weirdness.

This is exactly what one man tried to do at a festival where it had recently rained. Wearing a camo, he hid in the mud on the ground. As people passed him by, he jumped up to scare them and caught them by surprise. Getting yelled at by strangers is valid at festivals, and this is what scares us!

Collapsed

When you are so intoxicated by the excitement, exhilaration, and glee of any outdoor festival, it is natural to not feel a thing. This party-goer has taken the concept literally, passing out on a collapsed mess of a tent and looking quite comfortable too.

If the sun shines too bright, one can barely keep their eyes open any other day. But when you’re high on God knows what, even the most radiant sun rays won’t wake you up. Mix this up with the pokey iron rods in the picture, and you will get the worst sleep imaginable.

Giant Jurassic Mishap

Dinosaurs went extinct because their bodies simply couldn’t survive on the Earth anymore. A party-goer dressed as a T-Rex faced similar survival issues when he couldn’t fit into a bathroom and had to spill his guts into a large red can.

While his waterproof outfit protected him from the damp weather and all other external irritants, who knew that his insides would wreak havoc much worse. The moral of the story, dress according to the era and make sure you have the necessary holes in your costume!

Mudding Delight

Festival-goers are the most optimistic people out there. Whatever the situation is, they always find a way to have fun, however icky it might be. When these fun seekers stumbled upon a puddle of mud, they decided to go all in.

One might say that they are drenched in fun, but someone needs to remind them that even though it’s a mud’ bath’, it will not make them clean. Plus, they could have done this anywhere – why visit an overpriced festival for some puddles?

Taped to Trees

Hugging trees and connecting with nature is always a great idea. There’s nothing better than being able to attend a music festival in the lap of nature. Though, as expected, it got a little extreme at this particular event. Barefoot and duct-taped to a tree, this man’s life is hanging.

He must have come to the event having such high expectations of fun and freedom. Instead, all he got was this hanging moment. How did he even end up stuck here? What’s worse is that no one around him seems to be helping him, especially the person casually clicking his photograph.

Over Before it Began

The trend of natural elements and unexpected rains ruining festivals is not limited to the European continent. An American festival called TomorrowWorld was also shut down due to the same reasons in the year 2015. What a disaster for the attendees, bands, and organizers.

Being organized in Georgia, the festival had top EDM artists like Martin Garrix on the performance roster and over 190,000 attendees scheduled to be there. It was a sorry sight when people had to head back home after reading signs like “CLOSED too much mud.”

Paintball Gone Wrong

There are hundreds of maniacs cramped into a tight space at any concert. Getting drenched in your sweat (and probably other people’s too!) is something that is expected. Getting attacked by paint is just disgusting. We wonder how someone caught this photo at the exact perfect moment.

No, it’s not even a tiny dash of paint. It is an incredibly gory version of extreme paintball we see in the moment captured here. Nobody would like to be drenched in so much paint that even the eyes cannot open later. And we doubt that paint is skin-friendly!

The Mudson Project

In 2014, a festival named the Hudson Project was canceled on the last day due to rain, leaving the attendees angry that the show didn’t go on as planned. But unlike any other festival affected by rain, floods were not the issue here – it was the mud.

People had to reportedly get their cars towed because they were stuck in the mud. Some festival attendees were stranded there for days, waiting for vehicle assistance to arrive. Soon, social media began calling it the Mudson Project, and we’re definitely not arguing with this name!

Patience Pays

We have often wondered what the check-in process of any music festival looks like. Most events are crowded with hundreds of people, but where do they enter, and who checks their tickets? We finally got an answer, and it left us shuddering.

Here is a picture of some fans waiting for a U2 concert to begin, crowded with people. People have set up camp as if it were their second home. After such wait times, are festivals even worth the hype? We’d rather sit at home and relax in bed, listening to music on our headphones.

Breaking Wind

In any outdoor festival, the bathroom situation is always messed up. Portable toilets are small and smelly, which means that you could breathe in some nasty stuff if you are going in right after someone leaves. Even the best air freshener would fail.

This person’s decision to wear an air-purifying mask before entering the porta-potty seems smart. But if one needs so much protection only to answer nature’s call, it’s worth rethinking whether festivals truly are as fun as people claim them to be.

Best Out of Waste

Reusing things from the trash is a great habit to have. But who knew that actual pieces of garbage could be used as a comforter to keep warm while sleeping? Not only is the image of this person an ugly sight to look at but also it shows how unclean a festival can be.

It’s hard to say how he ended up in this situation – maybe he willfully covered himself up to keep warm, or perhaps he was too passed out to notice that his friends were pulling a prank on him. Partying in such a messy venue and then falling asleep under trash is undoubtedly a significant festival fail.

Cheap Puns and No Fun

Nothing is a bigger turn-off than an unintelligent pun. This festival tried a little too hard to make the ‘tree’ and ‘free’ rhyme sound cool, but it simply became a big flop. Having to see a dead tree the moment you walk in isn’t attractive either.

We feel bad for the loss that nature had to bear for this senseless party prop. Besides, music festivals are always full of tipsy people, and this tree log kept in the middle of nowhere is clearly a hazard. Here’s hoping that no one trips and falls!

Cramped for Space

In one of the most shocking moments of concert history, the desire to watch Travis Scott’s live performance at the Astroworld turned fatal for eight youngsters. With absolutely no space to move around, this crowded venue was a disaster from the start.

Some fans said that if you raised your hands up, they would stay there – zero space to bring them back down. Fights were also breaking out amongst attendees. Reportedly, many people even lost their mobile phones, making the concert an expensive and damaging affair.

DIY Disaster

We all know that one person who is super into DIY but their projects are almost never successful. The festival-goer whose tent is shown in the image is probably that person. The asymmetry of the tent is making us laugh so bad!

Perhaps the tent did not come with a how-to guide, but anyone who has eyes can see something wrong with it. There is zero lumbar support, and honestly, the tent looks like an oversized ghost. If you ever come across such a structure at a festival, we suggest that it’s best to keep your distance.

Concert for One

Concerts always occur in an extreme state. Either the whole place is jam-packed with sweaty people, or there’s exactly one person in the audience. To be able to have fun, one needs to be either a complete extrovert or a total introvert. There is no in-between.

But more than the attendees, the credit goes to the performers, especially in this image. It’s hard to be in a band and make it a huge success. We’ve heard struggle stories of every top crew in their early days. They say dedication is critical, and now we’ve seen it happen with our own eyes!