Letter: Is Java Jazz successful?

I would like to comment on article titled “Festival ends with room for improvement”, (The Jakarta Post, March 8).

If you judge success only by the large number of visitors and the visit by the President, then, sorry, you’re wrong. The success of a festival isn’t only measured by the tickets being sold out. There are many aspects. More than 40,000 people flocked to the festival each day, I see, but how many of them were satisfied, huh?

I myself was far from satisfied, nor were my friends. The sound systems used in many of the performances were really bad. It was horrible! The John Legend show was proof about the poor sound systems! In the performance, the screen was also out of order.
The parking was another problem. For God’s sake, that was the most frustrating part! On the first day, no one from the organizing team cared enough to manage it.

We were stuck for more than two damn hours waiting to get our car parked! My driver even had to get out from the car to manage the traffic. Then when we had to line up to get into the venue it was another disaster.

There were only four security posts being operated. If only they had more, people wouldn’t have had to spend such a long time queuing.  There were so many flaws that I think I’d rather write them in my blog than put them here. The thing is, you shouldn’t be proud because you can attract thousands of people. Have a heart for your audience, please.
We spent money, we didn’t watch your event for free.

Armand Koentjoro
Jakarta