First the line up was amazing Beres Hammond was the best thing about that night, it started with the queuing up we had to wait in a long line however email stated we get a queue jump the security had no idea but heard from others they got through with ease, as a first timer me and a friend booked Vip hoping for the best first experience Nothing was Vip about it. Tickets was definitely over sold we had no space to move it was better outside that section, We was so far away from the maine stage I couldnt believe the distance your better of being in general for the view and Space it was hell at the bar to get water wich we couldnt get for free like the email requested and at the food stalls it was at least 1 and a half hour waitVIP is not worth the money unfortunately I expect so much better
NI
Nicola
The only highlight was Beres Hammond only!!!
Well to start off the obvious highlight and the BEST part of 2026 City-Splash was Beres Hammond.
He was absolutely amazing! Sounded wonderful and really did bring back the old classics for the older and younger generation. Was grateful to have had the opportunity to see him live on stage and he did not disappoint at all!
NOW - City-Splash itself, for the price we paid for VIP - NEVER again. They clearly oversold the amount of VIP tickets they could account for. The disorganisation from the very beginning was abismal. We arrived at 4pm, we queued for over 2 hours to finally get to the front to be told that the gate was closed due to full capacity for VIP even though we had tickets!! The queuing system was a joke, you had non vip jumping in the queues which made the queue itself over a mile long if not longer. - not one member of staff corrected the queue jumpers nor dealt with it, no one checked tickets to confirm if the people were in the right queue. It was a complete and utter MESS!
2 hour queue time, was told the gate has closed, wasn't letting anyone in. It was only until most people started to kick off and rightly so and ask for refunds, common sense kicked in and they reopened the gate and started checking tickets.
By the time we got in, we just about saw Elephant man. The VIP section, not worth the price paid fot over £170 each, it was rammed, not enough adequate seating, not a lot of choice of food stalls
A jerk hut, vegan place and a fried chicken place (£35 for two chicken burgers and chips, joke!!!) After que8nf for two hours to get in you reallt don't want to queue for another hour or so to get food and drink. Take note you are better of getting food after the festival, there are plentyoff jerk stalls outaide the park near Herne Hill Station. Porbalt slightly cheaper too.
We were meant to get access to the viewing stage, well forget it! Not a chance. It was so rammed you couldn't really see the stage clearly and when you did mange to get a view, you always managed to get some ignorant fool come and stand right in front of you with either a big hat or holding up thier phone. There was no clear signage of how to get to the other stages. All in all it was sh*t NOT worth the money paid for VIP - dont bother with that. We would have been better off with standard tickets instead.
City-Splash needs to do better! It seems that Reggae Land seems the better one out of the two. The only best thing about 2026 fest WAS Beres and nothing else!
