Wagga spectators at the Festival of Fire took to social media to unleash their fury after what they deemed to be a disappointing event.
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Anticipation surrounded the festival but a tragic accident hindered the performance and spectators said the show did not recover from there.
Clive Featherby, owner of Outback Thunder, said he was disappointed with the way people reacted.
"It was a good crowd, there was 5800 people there," he said. "One of the monster truck driver's landed wrong and broke his back so the ambulance came in that time and he was airlifted to Sydney last night. We don't know if he is paralysed or not yet."
Mr Featherby said he did not believe the online backlash was warranted.
"People started to send us nasty messages on social media," he said. "I don't apologise for one thing. We said over the PA we had to rearrange the program while the ambulance was on site and we ran what we could."
Mr Featherby said those complaining about the show needed to realise it was out of the organisers' control.
"After 30 years of doing this, if it's a bad show then I am the first to acknowledge that," he said.
"It was only $30 for adults and $20 for kids so it wasn't too expensive and it was almost the same price as going to the movies. We have a guy here who could be paralysed for life and I don't care what anybody says."
Mr Featherby said the show was not advertised as just a Monster Truck show either and the second half was "spectacular".
"The fireworks were incredible," he said.
The 25-year-old injured driver was airlifted to Sydney and his current condition is unknown.
Spectator Damon Schmetzer said the accident occurred in the first half-hour of the show, but even after the ambulances cleared out, the performance failed to impress.
"We left around 7pm and it started at 5pm and was meant to finish at 8pm," he said. "There was no real excitement. It seemed disorganised because they would do one thing and it would take five minutes to set up the next one. People were leaving and a lot of the people I chatted to today said they didn't stick it out."
Mr Schmetzer said the company may have marketed it wrong because it didn't match the perception people had in their head.
"I hope it doesn't jeopardise future events coming to Wagga," he said.
In the hours following the event, people took to social media to express their frustration. One spectator wrote on The Daily Advertiser's Facebook page "tonnes of people were there to support something coming to Wagga and it was so awful".
"My children played in the stones most of the time and I know so many other people that have the same thoughts," the post read.
Another person agreed with the statement saying they have never wanted to leave an event so early before that they had paid so much to attend.
"Such a disappointment, there should have been a cutoff point for the audience instead of being money-hungry and disappointing those who thought they were going to be seeing a show, but sadly never saw," one attendee commented.
Not all the commentary was negative. One person asked those who attended to spare a thought for the injured driver.
"One driver suspected of a broken back early in proceedings," the reply said.
"Have a thought for him and his family. No wonder events don't come to Wagga when we have a town full of whiners. I enjoyed the show and so did everyone around me."
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