Photo by Kim Welsh.

Jazz Fest may need to work on its communication skills

Mother Nature brought the rain, wind, and lightning, but the official Twitter account of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival brought the confusion. With darkening skies and rolling thunder leading to a tornado watch Sunday morning, it quickly became obvious that Jazz Fest would not start at its originally scheduled time.

However, that was the only thing that was obvious on Sunday.

At 09:23 Sunday morning, the Jazz Fest Twitter handle (@jazzfest) tweeted “Jazz Fest opening is delayed until this afternoon. For updates, continue to follow us.” The replies were generally supportive. People posted pictures of the inclement weather near the Fairgrounds and shared the hope that the skies would clear in time to see headliner Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, although there were a few who hoped for a cancellation and ensuing refund. Overall, people seemed to hunker down and patiently await updates.

And then…nothing. One hour became two and then three. Finally, at 01:50 PM — over four hours after the original tweet — @jazzfest tweeted “Please standby for an update on this afternoon’s opening of Jazz Fest.” With the rain slacking and the wind subsiding, anxious Jazz Festers were refreshing their Twitter feeds hoping for the official status of the day’s schedule. Instead, they were met with an announcement announcing that there would be an impending announcement.

This time, @jazzfest’s followers were less patient.

The first reply reads “this was handled shockingly bad.” Users’ responses do not get much kinder after that. Between accusations that Jazz Fest did not have a clear plan, requisite eye roll gif’s, and more than a couple Tom Petty song title puns (“the Waiting is the hardest part…”), frustration was on full display as festival goers awaited word on whether they should head to the Fairgrounds.

At 02:58 PM, @jazzfest finally tweeted that the gates would open at 03:00 PM…two minutes later. While the account began tweeting concrete information afterwards with Pitbull’s cancellation and updated cubes, the replies showed a growing number of followers demanding refunds for the half day and botched rollout of the truncated schedule.

The festival went on, and most of the headliners played their scheduled sets to wet, muddy fans, so the wounds of this incident should only be 140 characters deep. But this mishap shows that while a direct connection between large organizations and the people who support them is one of the best things about Twitter, it can also be one of the worst.