Cheesesteak Festival co-organizer addresses event complaints, says they will ‘do this right’ next year

The first Philadelphia Cheesesteak Festival came and went this past weekend, leaving some of its attendees with a bad taste in their mouths as they claim to have been faced with long lines, too few samples, and poor planning.

Held Saturday in Lincoln Financial Field's parking lot, the festival reportedly drew upwards of 25,000 guests, with tickets running between $20 and $60. However, attendees indicate that the crowd was simply too large for the event, which featured nearly 50 vendors dishing out samples.

"Waited over two hours in a line," tweeted one festival-goer. "Now that's ridiculous. And only had time for three samples after waiting to park."

Now, folks are organizing Facebook protest groups, alleging fraud and demanding refunds. But while Cheesesteak Festival co-organizer and marketer Kevin Baxter apologizes for the apparent issues, he does see that response as somewhat of an overreaction, especially considering he's received three death threats since Saturday.

"If this was year three and this happened," he says, "I could understand people lambasting us like this. It's unfortunate that people did have to wait. Nobody did this to hurt anybody."

The festival's Facebook page also addressed the complaints in a similar fashion over the weekend, writing that "first year events are never easy" and that plans to "alleviate wait issues in the future" are already underway.

Since Saturday's festival, Baxter says he has fielded more than 200 complaint calls personally and responded with handwritten notes in order to smooth things over. Additionally, Baxter says he invited many of those jilted customers to attend next year's Cheesesteak Festival as his guest, free of charge.

The root of the problem, Baxter says, is that attendees faced no less than three substantial wait times: parking, waiting in line to get in, and waiting in line to get food. Add expensive beer and other stadium-related issues to that mix, and you have a recipe for disaster.

But that, as the attendees have let Baxter know, is unacceptable, and he hopes to correct the issue next year. After all, as he says, the Cheesesteak Festival is something of a pet project of his.

"Obviously, creating the idea, I feel bad that anybody had a bad time," he says.

Some folks online, though, aren't willing to wait that long. Various social media circles, like the aforementioned Facebook groups, have suggested folks demand a refund from Ticketmaster or report the situation to the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office.

Ticketmaster, a representative says, is handling the refund requests on a case-by-case basis but still employs its standard refund policy. The District Attorney's Office declined to comment on the situation.

But Baxter, for his part, prefers to keep an eye on the next Philadelphia Cheesesteak Festival.

"We're going to try and do this right for Philadelphia," he says. "I'm not placing blame on anybody, but hopefully people will come and try it next year."