NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — The first day of Jazz Fest brought thousands to the fairground to see big headliners, but it also brought long lines and headaches for visitors.

When festival goers aren’t waiting to hear tunes they are standing in long lines for food!

The big crowds combined with the first ever cashless transaction for food and drinks meant that the lines were at least 20 deep at several of the vendor sites. In fact, the long lines and the process of using cards only was all that most people wanted to talk about.

“All day they’ve been much longer than expected. I think it has to do with the credit card only thing because it definitely slows things down considerably,” stated festival goer Amy Yacorzynski.

“It is crowded for a Friday but this one single strawberry lemonade. I had to run my card 3 times for it to accept so you take these long lines and multiply it by 3 and its just incredible,” commented Mike Sipos, another festival goer.

Earlier this week the festival assured everyone that the new cashless system would work fine, but obviously that wasn’t the case for the first day of Jazz Fest.

Festival goers say the lines were frustrating, but it wouldn’t stop them from coming back.

We reached out to the festival but we have not heard back at this time.

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