San Antonio Coffee Festival organizers address online roasting of event

Rogelio Gomez: This event was poorly planned. I was only able to use one ticket for the coffee tasting that was only half a cup. 1 hour wait to get this much coffee. Never again.. Rogelio Gomez: This event was poorly planned. I was only able to use one ticket for the coffee tasting that was only half a cup. 1 hour wait to get this much coffee. Never again.. Photo: Facebook.com Photo: Facebook.com Image 1 of / 98 Caption Close San Antonio Coffee Festival organizers address online roasting of event 1 / 98 Back to Gallery

San Antonio Coffee Festival organizers are reading and listening to scathing customer complaints of long lines, dried up vendors and cramped spaces after the event brought in an unprecedented amount of visitors on Saturday.

The free event, hosted at La Villita, celebrated its 6th year with 25 vendors — an increase from last year's 14 — and more space, but founder Linda Brewster said that still wasn't enough to accommodate the three-fold increase in visitors.

"We were astonished," Brewster added. "This was year 6, we've never had that outpouring. We thought were were going to be kind of empty, honestly."

RELATED: San Antonio Coffee Festival heading to La Villita

Posts on the event's Facebook page roasted the festival for being "poorly planned," "disastrous" and "disappointing."

The festival, which was scheduled to last from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., had to stop accepting $5 coffee flight purchases around 1:30, according to Facebook posts and Brewster.

Brewster said the organizers collectively made the "sad decision" to stop accepting new attendees to "preserve" the experience for guests who were already on the grounds.

Brewster said she didn't change much of her marketing plan this year, so she's unsure what caused the sharp uptick in attendance, especially after seeing a "slow growth" over the past five years.

"We just thought we were totally covered," she said.

Still, she does see a positive. Brewster said the increased interest is a sign San Antonio is quickly growing its coffee culture and matching that of places like Austin and Houston.

RELATED: Photos: San Antonio Coffee Festival delights La Villita with local brews, entertainment

And though the founder and her team has not made any "firm decisions" on what will happen next year — whether that means limiting tickets or changing venues —they are aware of the discontent.

"We are dedicated and committed to listening to people and we have a list of problems, we know what we want to improve," she said. "We understand that it's time to grow it up and that's a good place to be at."

Read some of the reactions in the gallery above.

Madalyn Mendoza is a digital reporter for MySA.com. Read more of her stories here.| mmendoza@mysa.com | Twitter: @MaddySkye