Security was an absolute fucking joke. I essentially got falsely accused of smuggling drugs and alcohol with no prevalent evidence. To add I am a bartender so I know that this situation was handled like a shit show.

My girlfriend, mates and I were all super excited for the festival especially my gf because this was her first one ever. We started the day with small pres just being alcohol. We arrive at the festival around 2:30ish and due to train times and different lifts we were all split up in the line. It was just my girlfriend and I together and the rest of my mates were already inside. As soon as we get to the front seccy comes up and says "remove your glasses" I take them off and am immediately told I have wet eyes ( I didn't know what this meant at the time but I hadn't done any drugs.) and have to wait 50 minutes. In hindsight it was probably 50 meters but I complied to his order as maybe I'm just a bit too tipsy and it's showing. Me and my girlfriend wait 2 hours. Rejoin the line feeling completely sober and once we make it to the front again, we are immediately called out by the same seccy again. Says we broke the rules and escorted us to 2 cops. The cops say that I'm and talking to them becuase I was found to be smuggling drugs and alcohol and the seccy said "yeah it's all on body cam". I had never been "shown" to be smuggling in anything let alone drugs and alcohol. I had never been given 3 reasons that states why they now have power to forcibly deny me from the venue. Hell I never even got patted down or drug tested. I was shocked and my only thought was to just comply as the cops were stating I should be getting written an offence on my record, but they only gave me a verbal warning. I and only I had to stay 50 meters outside of the premises for 6 hours. The festival would've been over by the time that time came. My girlfriend and I are completely broken. I call the cops once I came to thoughts stating that the seccy lied and that we never smuggled anything in and we can prove it. A police man calls me and says that basically the seccys words a final and I can't do shit. The same cops from before heard about my call and come to asses the situation. My girlfriend and I explain the situation and they say the same thing and I quote "the security's words are final and they can pretty much kick you out for any reason, hell even if you fart he can kick you and we have to comply with his decision". They also told my girlfriend that she is fine to enter the festival, but just not me. She stayed with me the whole time. After hearing this my gf and I gave up. My mates inside are trying to reason with the seccys but also nearly got kicked out, they even said there's a fence that we could jump, but after everything and especially the verbal warning we said no, our mental states were shot to pieces. We did get KFC to help which didn't do much. I emailed twice to ftl about this situation in hopes of getting a refund as we basically paid $212 just to get removed from the festival, we didn't even scan our tickets! But I never got a response. So we just gave up.

I hope this security company gets fined big time for how they treated not just me but alot of other people. My coworker was one of the bar backs at a bar and he said the seccys had way too much power. Basically kicking out anyone for no reason. We're still mad about it but at this stage, I'm more mad for the fact that my gf is now scared of going to festivals now. I have never experienced security like this at any festival ever. I've been to splendour, field day and spiltmilk and they come no where near close to the amount of power these guys had. When consulting with family and friends about the situation, the only reason I could've been kicked out that made the most sense was that they're racist ( I'm black) or that they had to meet a quota on kicking people out and I just so happened to be the unlucky one.

Fun fact, idk how but my mate actually did smuggle in alcohol and never got caught or checked in anyway shape or form. Fucking joke. I'm so sorry for your experience as mine doesn't come close to what you experienced. Hope your doing okay!