Late ticket confirmations, lack of communication from official sources and rumour-mongering has set the stage for a cacophony of online troubles for the organisers of Ultra Singapore 2019.
The rumour mill first began to rear its ugly head as comments on Ultra Singapore’s Facebook and Instagram pages the past week or so, when the major EDM festival, slated to happen Jun 8-9 at its usual spot right outside Marina Bay Sands, saw almost no stage construction work happening despite the looming crunch time. Festival set-up and testing usually happens about a month in advance.
But rumours soon turned into serious concerns when a lack of updates from Ultra officials amidst the online outrage made some believe the worse has happened, signalling ticket buyers to lash out on social media. Despite this, tickets continued to sell via ticketing agent AirAsiaRedTix.
To make matters worse, a festival schedule and set times were sorely missing on Ultra Singapore’s website, sparking cries for answers that continued to fall on deaf ears.
Now, in a bittersweet move, the festival organisers have moved the venue indoors a stone’s throw away to B2 of the Marina Bay Sands Expo & Convention Centre, instead of having it at its usual outdoor space. Now we know what they’re busy with. This seems like a logical plan B, seeing as the set-up time required for an outdoor venue is no longer viable at this juncture.
People finally began getting their tickets late into Monday (Jun 3), and for some, that means it’s time to rave on. The absence of fireworks and an indoor venue couldn’t kill the good vibes.
With how things have transpired, it’s mostly a sigh of relief that the worst-case scenario has not happened for Ultra Singapore 2019. But for many festival-goers, it still just ain’t the same.
UPDATE (Jun 6)
Ultra Singapore organisers finally made the official announcement via Instagram that the festival will be heading indoors on Wednesday, Jun 5 evening, after the upteenth call from ticket holders for a confirmation on their end. They are citing inclement weather as the reason for this, but only after their initial few drafts went through obvious text edits. An announcement on their Facebook then came much later.
To make matters worse, headliner Martin Garrix made the untimely decision to pull out of his set at Ultra Singapore 2019, due to a serious ankle injury he suffered earlier. While his cancellation has nothing to do with the way Ultra’s local management has handled things, the timing couldn’t have come at a worse time.
