Traffic jam at the music festival “Beyond the Valley”: In Victoria, cars were backed up for nine hours

New Year’s guests trying to leave an open-air music festival were stuck in scorching heat and traffic for up to nine hours because of a major traffic jam on the only road.

Some even cut holes through wire fences to escape the mayhem at the Beyond the Valley Music Festival, held on Barunah Plains in rural Victoria – where the likes of Nelly Furtado and Kaytranada performed on New Year’s Eve.

Organizers have since crouched for “the delays and inconvenience caused” after some attendees collapsed from dehydration and heat stroke.

People trying to exit an open-air music festival have been stranded in searing heat for the past nine hours. Pictured are revelers at the Beyond the Valley Music Festival

Pictured is the scene where thousands of cars tried to enter a street

Festival-goer Monique Moor said the massive traffic jam ruined her festival experience.

“There doesn’t seem to be any traffic control and no one has managed to move for hours,” she told the Herald Sun.

“Everyone is on their own here, people have been cutting through wire fences and driving through them, standing on cars trying to figure out what’s going on.”

Ms Moor said despite the sweltering heat, which stretches into the mid-30s, she and her three fellow passengers do not want to use the air conditioning for fear the car battery could run out.

“We saw about ten cars break down and most people don’t have (cellular) signal, which makes it even more stressful,” she said.

People have been stranded in their cars (pictured) for up to nine hours trying to exit the Beyond the Valley festival site

One woman was so frustrated with the traffic situation that she copied Victoria Police into her tweet (pictured)

They left their campsite at 9am and hours later they had only managed to move 20 meters.

Contestant Jack Morgan vented his anger at the situation on social media.

“About 50 lanes trying to merge into a single lane. Have been waiting almost 9 hours now,” he wrote on Twitter.

Another man told channel 9 He had seen a woman who had “suffered from heat stroke, just delirious, she was unconscious for a while”.

Pictured are Beyond the Valley Festival headliners Nelly Furtado (left) and Denzel Curry (right)

Three young women are pictured at the Beyond the Valley Festival in Barunah Plains, Victoria

A man named Jim (pictured) tweeted his frustration at what was happening at the festival

A man named Jim said it took his daughter nine hours to leave the site.

He tweeted at 5.30pm: “My daughter is finally leaving Beyond the Valley after queuing in her car since 8.30am.

“She said people were collapsing from dehydration and organizers had to give out free water. Apparently there is no traffic management so security has that job now.”

Another parent, Patrick Griffiths, said it was his 18-year-old daughter’s first time at a festival like this and it was quite disturbing.

“You wouldn’t want it to burn or anything. It sounds like getting out of prison would be easier than escaping Beyond the Valley,” he said.

A Twitter user (pictured) tweeted about having to wait seven hours in the 36 degree heat

Two young women are pictured at the Beyond the Valley Festival in Barunah Plains, Victoria

A woman is pictured at the Beyond the Valley festival taking place over New Year’s weekend in Victoria

Organizers said the influx of cars leaving the festival, as well as general holiday traffic on the roads, caused the congestion.

“We are experiencing traffic delays exiting the festival today due to the influx of cars exiting the festival as well as general holiday traffic on the roads,” the festival said on Instagram amid a spate of complaints.

“Our team has buggies that put water drops on cars, we have plenty of water tanks on site to fill up bottles too.

“We are aware that this process is not comfortable in the heat.

“Our priority is to get everyone home safely.”