"The number of times I had to tell girls not to put their hands into our prepared toppings." Remé Burkama said of punters at the Rhythm and Vines 2018 festival. (File photo Rhythm and Vines 2018.)

OPINION: Whilst many were celebrating the onset of the new year with family, friends and a few too many bevies with the boys, myself and a team of six others travelled north to feed the masses from a food truck at the infamous festival in Gisborne that is Rhythm and Vines.

A three-day event, we felt optimistic to be on the road knowing that our food perfectly caters to the appetite of drunken youths.



We opened shop on the morning of December 28 to a line that was already growing. By 11am the dockets for food orders started at one end of the truck and finished at the other. We were three people working in the truck. One at the fryer, one taking orders and another completing the orders off with toppings and handing them out.

At 2.30pm the dockets had decreased enough for us to have a bathroom break, one at a time only to get straight back to work afterwards so that the next person could go.

READ MORE:

* Street food vendor shut out of Auckland CBD due to council mistake

* Palmerston North's food truck Thursdays have burned out

* Food truck, cafe turf war in Wellington may mean more regulation

Separate loos had not been provided for vendors and this meant popping a squat in the same portaloos as twenty thousand festival-goers. Waiting in (not a line) amongst the crowd for a chance to catch a door opening. Little did we know it was about to get worse.

At 7pm the alcohol kicked in. We thought we were busy in the morning but nothing could have prepared us for the night shift. The crowd started leaning into the food truck screaming and yelling at each other to the point where nobody could hear their order number being called out.

Asking them to shut up was not an option. Some truly inebriated ordered food and never came to pick it up.

TAYLA OMEARA/STUFF Thousands gathered at the main stage at Rhythm and Vines as 2018 came to an end.

The number of times I had to tell girls not to put their hands into our prepared toppings ... I don't know how or why they became offended when I did this even though they know it is wrong to behave like that.

Then there were the boys. The boys who pissed around the back where we kept our chillers and boxes of extra stuff within easy access for us to quickly run out and grab whatever we ran out of.

This area, our working area had not been cordoned off. On the same day we asked 'security' if there was anything they could do to help keep the drunk people out and keep our working area safe and hygienic.

Security passed the problem on to someone else who then, supposedly passed the information on to someone else. Needless to say it became quite clear that the hired security was inept in finding a solution. Perhaps it was not in their job description to provide protection to the vendors? We took matters into our own hands by scavenging two steel barrier panels cordoning the area off ourselves with no help from security.

We pushed through the abuse of rude drunk customers and closed at 2am. This was to be the build up of the s...storm that was New Year's Eve. We worked through the night and celebrated the first day of 2019 with exhaustion and the pop of another Red Bull opening.

BROOK SABIN Here are seven reasons to put the East Cape on your new year bucket list.

Closing shop at 5am, we were ready to leave. Still, we had to clean and collect our things together so that we could load up our transit, hook up the food caravan and hit the road back to our accommodation to get a few hours sleep before checking out. This however was not to be.

Security had made a rule that no vendor was to tow their trucks out until after 12 in the afternoon. We had talked with the organiser about making an exception as there was a four hour drive ahead of us to another festival on the 2nd [of January] in Tauranga.

Having had no sleep we wanted to be there to drop the caravan off by mid-afternoon in order to get some rest before working again. An exception was made in the form of promises but when the time came for us to hook the truck we were cut-off by security. No exception was to be made.

TAYLA OMEARA/STUFF 'We worked through the night and celebrated the first day of 2019 with exhaustion and the pop of another Red Bull opening.': Remé Barkema. (File photo from Rhythm and Vines 2018.)

Broken and tired, we left the caravan there to return to our accommodation where we had a strict check out time of 10am. Only to return after twelve to do what we could have done earlier had bureaucracy not stuck it's finger in our business.

Nobody can control a mass of drunk, drugged up, rude and immoral customers but as event organisers there are simple measures that can be put into place that would provide a glimmer of comfort to the sober people working at these events.

Providing separate loos for us to use even if we have to share with other vendors. Blocking off the back of the food trucks where extra stock is kept in freezers, chilly bins and boxes, ensuring the staff and their belongings as well as the partygoers are kept safe.

More than just one person needs to have the brain power and be allowed the responsibility of making a decision that contributes to the safety of the vendors. Talking back and forth over a walkie-talkie does very little to even come close to solving a problem. Finally on the last day after an event such as this, at the bare minimum. Let us leave when we are ready to go.

Remé Barkema sent this piece to Stuff saying she hoped to give some perspective to organisers and festival-goers about what it's like to work at this event.

Stuff approached Rhythm and Vines event manager Dan Turner, who told us:

"We do take the security of our vendors seriously and our site design accounts for this with portaloos readily available to vendors. We put up fencing between vendors and punters to secure their back of house areas.

"As for egress, we have a strict midday leaving policy for vendors in order to allow the 13.5 thousand campers to leave easily. We're not doing it to be difficult, we're doing it keep people safe.

"The vendors in questions were on site for four days and they never made contact with event management to say that they were unhappy."

Rhythm and Vines also provided Stuff with three supportive statements from other vendors that worked at the event, including the following, which we verified:

"Security was all good, around whenever needed. Felt pretty safe and secure. Easy and good relationship with people involved. I thought that everyone we dealt with was really helpful and the vendor team were available whenever we needed them. A really great team." Ben Harris, Kingpin East Coast.