Massively Edited: Tiesto Event Planning - October 10, 2009 = EPIC FAIL
Massive re-edit to include loads more information uncovered, lots of it even more horrifying than before:
I was worried from the instant I got out of my car. A couple of scalpers passed in front of my car, asking people if they needed tickets. I overheard one of the scalpers telling someone "I think something's going on in there."
I tracked that scalper down and said, "Excuse me, but I heard you say something about something going on in there?"
He said, "Yeah... because that line hasn't moved for two hours."
Outside the North Atlanta Trade Center during Liquified's Tiesto show, a massive crowd anxiously waits in a sluggish line for over two hours. Suddenly, several police cars and emergency vehicles converge on the entrance to shut down the party. Sorry for the poor video quality, as it doesn't accurately convey the size of the crowd or the ensuing chaos and outrage, though you can hear loud complaints from a Miami resident who drove eight hours (and waited several hours in line) only to be turned away from the show by a police officers holding riot shields, threatening pepper spray and disorderly conduct charges for those who did not disperse.
Facebook images of the lines:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30378200&id=1123980151&l=31814dac69#/photo.php?pid=30378200&id=1123980151&l=31814dac69
The story is the same according to everyone I've asked. The event was sold out... but the people in charge of the event, for some strange reason, assumed a lot of the ticket holders were not going to show up. They then sold 500 tickets at a 250% markup.
Mind you, these people know how the Atlanta party scene works. Most of the time, parties take place at a bar, usually Primal in midtown, Opera in Buckhead, or Dreams off Buford Highway. Georgia state law requires all these bars to shut down at 03:00 every morning. Chances are, that's stated in a law applying to venues who make 60% or more of their revenue off alcohol sales. So parties at these venues work like this: The opening act comes on at 10, gets off at 12. The main act comes on right then, and stops at 3. The North Atlanta Trade Center is not subject to these same rules. But since they know how parties work, they normally start them at 10 as usual.
Not this time, and there's no notification anywhere about the fact that the party started at 9. I've looked at my receipt for the show and all the Liquified Atlanta mailing list notifications, and there is NOTHING to show a different starting time.
There were chants of "BULLSHIT! BULLSHIT! BULLSHIT!" and "LET US IN! LET US IN!", mass banging on the entrance doors, and crowd tension suggestive of a riot brewing. There were no signs to indicate where anyone needed to go. There were no ropes or corral gates to arrange an orderly line, so there was just a huge semi-lined mess outside.
Many people who had already purchased tickets, some of which had done so up to two months ago, were not permitted entrance to the show. People who arrived before 23:00 were charged $10 for parking. People who arrived after that were charged $20. None of the people who left got their money for parking back.
Texts between a friend and myself:
friend (00:50): I am inside. They made me throw away my lights. :(
me: What the fuck?? Are they letting anyone else in??
friend (00:59): Umm, I see that they are, but not sure
friend (01:05): I think they stopped letting people in :(
friend (01:07): They stopped letting people in
me: I just got passed by 14 cop cars as I left. I think 1 was a SWAT.
me: Make that 17 cop cars.
Said friend has not only very nice LED glow sticks, but he always brings 10 of them to every show. How much money does anyone want to bet that some fucker banned all glow toys from the event on the grounds that "they're drug paraphernalia?"
I don't do drugs, and neither does that friend. I'm heavily involved in a movement arts scene, and people who match that description usually hardly even drink, because they need all their motor skills functioning at full capacity to be able to practise their art. How deranged is it that practising something so positive and skill-oriented is verboten at some such events?
Considering the instruments I was armed with are as follows:
Single Flowlights, quantity: 2, price of each, $20
Single case for flowlights, quantity: 2, price of each, $5
Pair of Cole Cords, quantity: 1, price of each: $10.49
Set of rainbow fade LED glow poi with tails, quantity: 1, price of each: $41.16
That's about $102 worth of spinning instruments, and I'll be goddamned if anyone would tell me to throw them out to see any DJ, whether or not I'd spent hours in line, or if that guy had played to 250,000 people on the beach in Ipanema. It is outrageous.
Anyway, said friend with the lights did get his lights back... after paying $40 to get them back. The only "good" news I've heard about this is from him, that this was the most boring party I'd ever been to, and that I didn't really miss anything. I pointed out that even a boring party beats standing in line for hours. He said that not only did they stop letting people in at 21:30 (YES, 9:30 at night, when most people don't even show up to parties until 11 or 12!!), but a lot of people were let in for free. That is, some people were coming in saying "I have a ticket," and employees just waved them into the show without checking any credentials. To add insult to injury, the mark to get in was just an X scrawled out on hands with a black marker.
Messages between a different friend and myself (qgayles):
qgayles says:
So, you made it to the show on Sat?
打って付けの麻薬 says:
About that. I wasn't allowed in, even with a ticket.
qgayles says:
what time did you arrive?
打って付けの麻薬 says:
11:45
qgayles says:
Wow, I should've texted you. I ended up going and got there around 12. I posted my iPhone pics. I was able to walk right-in to the show.
打って付けの麻薬 says:
............. What. The. Fuck.
qgayles says:
I saw the lines and walked to the door...I was like f standing in this line
We followed up on the phone. Qgayles hadn't bought a ticket because he thought he was going to be out of town that weekend. Apparently Devin Walkley himself sold him a ticket for $40. He said Tiesto had been having a hissy fit over something like the stage curtain not working properly, and that he didn't get on stage until 01:15. When he did, you could tell he didn't want to be there. He played a lot of tracks straight from CDs, and didn't change them up or mix them. What's more, both qgayles and my friend with lights tell me the venue was not even half-full.
I showed up at 23:45 and met up with lothar_, who'd been standing in line since 22:30. We stayed there, barely moving an inch, until 01:00. That's when they saw a woman walking away from the entrance with blood on her face. Turns out that woman is lastfm user corvolio's wife. He says:
"we were right at the front doors after waiting for 4 hours in that chaos. My wife got hit very bad, she started to bleed instantly and pass out, NO ONE from the what called "security staff" moved a finger, we spent the night at the emergency room. Please, if anyone has any videos or photos, please contact me asap, we will go with a lawsuit and I encourage everyone to do so, what happened last night is unacceptable. my email is corvolio AT yahoo dot com. Thanks very much"
lothar_, catwho, and I took that poor woman as a sign that we might need to leave, to avoid a riot. Apparently a lot of people left around midnight, as my friend qgayles drove past them, and wondered why so many people were leaving. He said he wanted to ask why, but obviously couldn't.
So fans present (or not!) at the chaos (which may or may not have descended into a riot), let us band together and sue the motherfucking pants off whoever is responsible for this mess. Granted, word out at the venue was that Tiesto himself was 3 or 4 hours late in coming. It could be the Atlanta Trade Center. It could be Liquified Atlanta. It could be a bit of someone setting up bogus sales sites for the tickets. Either way, it's suspiciously looking like someone sold entirely too many at-the-door tickets (which ran $80, btw - $100 if you paid a scalper), so that people who had already bought tickets long ago couldn't get in. Including myself, lothar_, and catwho, the last two who waited in line for three (yes, three) hours with their tickets they'd bought in August, only to find no way in. (Early buyers paid $35 for tickets; the price went up to $40 after a month.) Join us for the ligitation shitstorm, 'cause it's gonna come down hard.
Comments received so far:
BHoops:
I am OUTRAGED by Liquified's actions last night! $100 for will call tickets, $10 rip off for parking, $200 for my performance costume- arrival 8:30 pm, time spent in line 4 1/2 hours +, number of times I feared my safety from a riot countless, number of bloody noses I saw and injuries 15 from Liquified refusing to open the door for Will Call just so they could get more $$ from people and scam as many people as possible with their bullshit $20 cutline rip off tickets, number of cops that showed up when people were so fed up they started calling the news crews and complaining to the cops 64, give or take a few guys in blue. 1000's stood in line for hours and were beat, burnt, and injuried. Your security was a joke and did not do a damn thing , but run around like a bunch of morons refusing to let people in. You knew Tiesto's show was going to be big, duh you sold out tickets, yet you still managed to find tickets to sale at the door, WTF? I was denied entry 24 times because I had will call tickets and you refused to let Will Call tickets in. The cops told us they were shutting you down at that point, yet you still found a way to keep them from doing so, wonder what magic tricks you use. Liquified your actions last night were appaling, I have attended several of your shows at the North Atlanta Trade Center with no problems, I will never be attending one of your shady shows again. I want a refund on my tickets, a refund on my $10 rip off parking bull shit pass, & a refund on the gas it took me to get there from Birmingham. An apology is in order as well to the 1000's of people who wasted their time and money to stand in line for hours, to be treated like animals, and risked their life's to see your show.
dzandman:
I'm right there with all of you! I hope Devin Walkley and whoever else was responsible for this disaster take some responsibility and explain to the fans exactly what happened. I bought my tickets months in advance, and was very excited about my first time seeing Tiesto.
I've never seen such poor organization at a concert, especially for an artist of Tiesto's stature. There's absolutely no reason why thousands of people should have to stand in line for hours when they ALREADY HAVE TICKETS. The venue should have made sure they had personnel who understood the size of the event and were prepared to help let the crowd in smoothly.
The only reason things got a little wild was because people were justifiably angry at being smashed together for hours in a line that went nowhere. But things could have gotten much worse than yelling profanities and banging on the glass. The police should have tried to get the crowd under control before summarily shutting the doors and sending everyone away.
Refunds and apologies had better be forthcoming.
martchrist:
Yo dude, sorry to hear about your wife. that is terrrible.
I was somehow lucky enought to get inside. While in there I saw a girl next to me start gagging then inhaled and found myself coughing uncontrollably. Apparantly someone released some sort of tear gas or mace. Anyone know what that was all about? Was that the lame crowd control's attempt to break up a fight?
ALTien1:
The only reason that I was able to get in is because we paid some guy standing next to the waiting line $20 for each of us to purchase one of those Cut Line tickets. That was $20 on top of the original tickets we purchased online... and on top of the $20 parking! It's ridiculous that it even had to come to that. It makes this entire situation appear to be a planned scam.
I agree that the crowd control was terrible. There were no signs indicating which line was on which side of the building. There were no ropes or anything else to keep the line organized. The security staff was very slow. After I went through will call, I looked back to see that they had stopped people from coming in for no apparent reason. The people who were checking off will-call names were just sitting there waiting for security to let more people in. I stayed until almost the end of the party and I can say that there was plenty of room for a LOT more people. I was wondering why the place didn't get as packed as I had seen it before and found out today about what had happened.
I really do feel back for those who came from other areas and had expenses more that just the cost of the tickets. I believe that the security staff was dragging their @$$es for no reason, which caused the crowd to become upset... someone needs to be held accountable for these people who paid, but were not allowed in.
gravion17:
I want to apologize to all the fans that were trying to get in to this concert...this makes Atlanta look really bad! I wanted to go to this concert but some thing told me not to, and know I know why! I know that a lot of people want to blame Liquified for the debacle that this turned out to be, but honestly it wasn't their fault! All the problems mostly stems from the owner operators of The North Atlanta Trade Center! They hired this well known shady security firm (Black Sheild) and from all accounts, those guys were just out to fleece the fans....I have been to countless Liquifide event's put on on by Devin and they all have been a damn good time! This is why I prefer small venues....
snapp123:
Hmmmmm I've been to a few Tiesto Shows in Europe and a couple of places in South America with 5 times of the crowd from last night. The event was organized horribly. I was able to get in luckily after tipping the security guy in the front a 100 bucks to just let me and my friends in. I truely felt bad for others. We waited about 2 hours before taking that action.
The cut line passes for $20 total bullshit word has it not only Liquified ran the event but Club Opera was the partner in it with the Promotional group name of "Social Study". I'm not sure if people noticed but the promoters from opera and the management was running the show selling the tickets and all that good stuff. They truely ran it like opera. Holding the line up cut line passes changing the parking fee's.
So the support to Tiesto shouldn't be changed The promoters are who to blame a lot of my Friends that drove from macon and other surrounding cities leaving their kids with sitters and taking the day off of work to make it and noone was happy.
You also can't blame the cops if the if its not organized then they are doing their job before things get out of hand. It was a disaster I think I would rather fly out or drive down to like Tampa to see a big DJ then go to Opera or any Liquified events.
pianolinist:
I was there last night, and after most of the madness died down, we got in line around 2 am again and were finally let in. They weren't even scanning bar codes by then; we just tossed our will-call tickets into a box. Luckily, Tiesto hadn't started until almost 2, so we only missed about 3 tunes- and he played till nearly 5 am, so it was a good amount of music. The show was incredible, but the debacle and waiting for 4 hours really put a damper on the whole night. The venue was far from being at capacity. It looks to me like the debacle was caused mainly by the sketchy security personnel trying to fleece us out of as much money as possible (with the cut-line passes, holding up the line on purpose, extra parking fee, etc- isn't this some kind of breach of contract on their part??)... in which case Liquified (or was it the N.A. Trade Center) or whomever hired them needs to pay more attention to who they hire for their events if they want to avoid things like this. There's really no excuse, seeing how they had Tiesto at the very same venue 2 years ago and things ran smoothly without a hitch. I went to Together as One in LA for New Year's (with Armin van Buuren playing) with over 50,000 people attending, and their security was efficient well-equipped to handle it. There's no reason they couldn't get adequate security to run things better last night for a crowd of 5,000 or so.
Liquified shouldn't have tried to oversell tickets at the door. Security shouldn't have tried to scam people out of extra bucks & should have provided more direction and efficiency at moving people through. And the police shouldn't have said they were shutting it down & sending people home when they knew they were going to let people in again once they subdued the crowd a bit. Whomever hired this security co. should have hired a better one to begin with. A lot of bad planning caused this, and the mess could definitely have been avoided.
I feel terrible for the people who traveled long distances for this event and had to miss out. No paying customer should have had to deal with what we all went through last night. I also feel bad for Liquified. Last night's mess wasn't entirely their fault, but they will definitely take the hit for this, for they did screw up if only by not coordinating things better and being more vigilant of who they hired to run this event. I've been to several other Liquified events, where everything went smoothly- and I had a blast every single time. They've done so much for Atlanta, bringing in great artists like Armin van Buuren, ATB, David Guetta, Above & Beyond, etc...people we may not have had a chance to hear live in Atlanta otherwise. I've never heard of anything near this bad happening at their previous events. Whomever does their PR has their work cut out for them, and I sincerely hope that these inevitable lawsuits are settled quickly and fairly. They may have messed up last night, but I still support Liquified all the way and hope they continue bringing amazing acts to Atlanta. (However, I too prefer smaller venues!).
sr171:
Liquified is a supposedly mature promotion company, these were beginner mistakes, and it is the responsibility of said promotion company to have more THOUGHTFULNESS and prior planning to prevent and deal with these problems as they arise. In my 9 years from L.A. to NY I have never seen a more poorly run event in my life than what I witnessed last night. These guys SEVERELY faulted on this one and they know it, and everyone else knows it. They can consult their lawyers and get legal advice about how to cover their ass, but there is no legal protection from stupidity and there is no apology they could make to appease their lack of critical thinking. Liquified should be run out of town and never allowed back in Atlanta ever again. At 1:15 after most people had been standing in line for 4 hours and the thousands of people still waiting in line were becoming angry, and rightfully so. Liquified already had made your money through "Will-Call", they should have just done a "Michael Lang" (Woodstock 69') and let everyone just walk in the doors at that point, they had already paid for their tickets. But no, these guys are like the greedy bankers and insurance companies who have milked our economy dry, and you had one person working Will-Call and started charging an extra 20$ to cut the line to get in right a way. It was only when police came to turnt he 1000's of people away with riot gear at 2 a.m. did they start letting people just walk in. It is evidently clear, now, they are about the money, not the music, nor the people, or the experience in which these gatherings bring. Liquified's behavior is unacceptable, I will never attend another Liquified event ever again, and there are thousands more who share this decision with me. Liquified and Devin Walkely are no longer welcome or viable in this scene. I know that they are going to prepare a well scripted and eloquent statement but that is what people who have screwed up do with their lawyers, because they can't do it themselves, if they did they wouldn't need to prepare one in the first place. There is no excuse or reason for this, OR was this whole thing done on purpose?
tic-toc, tic-toc, tic-toc....
ash211:
Supposedly Liquified is preparing an official statement for what happened. Hopefully that statement will include information about refunds. If not, you can dispute the charges with your credit card company, as I plan to do.
involver19:
I was also present for last night's show and thankfully I didn't get the shit end of the stick, but i am terribly sorry for those who did and can't IMAGINE being in the line for that long.... My friend and I luckily got there early but still waited at least an hour and a half before getting in. Even then the door guys had their whole setup going with the $20 cut line tickets, and people were just walking up and paying to get in. And people wonder why they didn't get in.... Not to mention while INSIDE the building my fun was ruined by mace somebody sprayed right in the center of the crowd. WHO brings mace to a show? It raises questions. People outside getting threatened with mace......people inside inhaling mace. There was PLENTY of space inside too. They could have easily fit everybody in there. Something is wrong with what happened and the rabbit hole goes much deeper than all of this. I mean Devin was sending out posts the day of the show offering people who videod the show free tickets, and at one point in time also told people if they wanted to buy tickets without the service charge they could call him meet up with him and buy them from him directly. I am SO SO sorry for you all who had to endure this debacle last night, and it has caused me much apprehension in attending future events in Atlanta. Liquified had better make good on this. Somehow.
liquifiedassets:
This is a recurring strategy Devin uses with Opera to maximize the take at the door....the club is left completely empty sometimes until there is a long line of people that are getting impatient enough to pay extra and who are tricked into thinking that the show might really be sold out and paying extra is the only way in.................., once inside the club, the vip bands jump from 20 to sometimes even 100+........thats when opera management releases the flood gates to there main dancefloor which becomes so unconfortable that you can't even cross your arms without nudging up against someone.........you are then forced to buy a vip bands to even be able to go to the bathroom
A few months ago, Devin opened the door for Opera to help maximize there profits at the door.....they devised a plan that would guarantee them $300000+ off of this one event by incorporating previously perfected scumbag tactics to get you as frustrated and as angry as they can get you, because ultimately they know that you all drove in town for this event and that paying the extra bribe-tax is just going to take your food budget for the trip to atlanta and put it in there pocket
So,......What happens when you have a line of unruly people outside of your nightclub that have already given you there money, Well, the Opera handbook would say to pay off the police to get them off the premises and then replace the ticketholders at around 1am when your more likely to only have walkups coming in with fresh benjamins to add to the crockpot of fraud.
These people call themselves industry professionals, all they really are is organized criminals
contact these people and do it fast and by the 100s to ensure you get your voice heard before the window of opportunity closes on you to get your money back
I was worried from the instant I got out of my car. A couple of scalpers passed in front of my car, asking people if they needed tickets. I overheard one of the scalpers telling someone "I think something's going on in there."
I tracked that scalper down and said, "Excuse me, but I heard you say something about something going on in there?"
He said, "Yeah... because that line hasn't moved for two hours."
Outside the North Atlanta Trade Center during Liquified's Tiesto show, a massive crowd anxiously waits in a sluggish line for over two hours. Suddenly, several police cars and emergency vehicles converge on the entrance to shut down the party. Sorry for the poor video quality, as it doesn't accurately convey the size of the crowd or the ensuing chaos and outrage, though you can hear loud complaints from a Miami resident who drove eight hours (and waited several hours in line) only to be turned away from the show by a police officers holding riot shields, threatening pepper spray and disorderly conduct charges for those who did not disperse.
Click to viewFacebook images of the lines:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30378200&id=1123980151&l=31814dac69#/photo.php?pid=30378200&id=1123980151&l=31814dac69
The story is the same according to everyone I've asked. The event was sold out... but the people in charge of the event, for some strange reason, assumed a lot of the ticket holders were not going to show up. They then sold 500 tickets at a 250% markup.
Mind you, these people know how the Atlanta party scene works. Most of the time, parties take place at a bar, usually Primal in midtown, Opera in Buckhead, or Dreams off Buford Highway. Georgia state law requires all these bars to shut down at 03:00 every morning. Chances are, that's stated in a law applying to venues who make 60% or more of their revenue off alcohol sales. So parties at these venues work like this: The opening act comes on at 10, gets off at 12. The main act comes on right then, and stops at 3. The North Atlanta Trade Center is not subject to these same rules. But since they know how parties work, they normally start them at 10 as usual.
Not this time, and there's no notification anywhere about the fact that the party started at 9. I've looked at my receipt for the show and all the Liquified Atlanta mailing list notifications, and there is NOTHING to show a different starting time.
There were chants of "BULLSHIT! BULLSHIT! BULLSHIT!" and "LET US IN! LET US IN!", mass banging on the entrance doors, and crowd tension suggestive of a riot brewing. There were no signs to indicate where anyone needed to go. There were no ropes or corral gates to arrange an orderly line, so there was just a huge semi-lined mess outside.
Many people who had already purchased tickets, some of which had done so up to two months ago, were not permitted entrance to the show. People who arrived before 23:00 were charged $10 for parking. People who arrived after that were charged $20. None of the people who left got their money for parking back.
Texts between a friend and myself:
friend (00:50): I am inside. They made me throw away my lights. :(
me: What the fuck?? Are they letting anyone else in??
friend (00:59): Umm, I see that they are, but not sure
friend (01:05): I think they stopped letting people in :(
friend (01:07): They stopped letting people in
me: I just got passed by 14 cop cars as I left. I think 1 was a SWAT.
me: Make that 17 cop cars.
Said friend has not only very nice LED glow sticks, but he always brings 10 of them to every show. How much money does anyone want to bet that some fucker banned all glow toys from the event on the grounds that "they're drug paraphernalia?"
I don't do drugs, and neither does that friend. I'm heavily involved in a movement arts scene, and people who match that description usually hardly even drink, because they need all their motor skills functioning at full capacity to be able to practise their art. How deranged is it that practising something so positive and skill-oriented is verboten at some such events?
Considering the instruments I was armed with are as follows:
Single Flowlights, quantity: 2, price of each, $20
Single case for flowlights, quantity: 2, price of each, $5
Pair of Cole Cords, quantity: 1, price of each: $10.49
Set of rainbow fade LED glow poi with tails, quantity: 1, price of each: $41.16
That's about $102 worth of spinning instruments, and I'll be goddamned if anyone would tell me to throw them out to see any DJ, whether or not I'd spent hours in line, or if that guy had played to 250,000 people on the beach in Ipanema. It is outrageous.
Anyway, said friend with the lights did get his lights back... after paying $40 to get them back. The only "good" news I've heard about this is from him, that this was the most boring party I'd ever been to, and that I didn't really miss anything. I pointed out that even a boring party beats standing in line for hours. He said that not only did they stop letting people in at 21:30 (YES, 9:30 at night, when most people don't even show up to parties until 11 or 12!!), but a lot of people were let in for free. That is, some people were coming in saying "I have a ticket," and employees just waved them into the show without checking any credentials. To add insult to injury, the mark to get in was just an X scrawled out on hands with a black marker.
Messages between a different friend and myself (qgayles):
qgayles says:
So, you made it to the show on Sat?
打って付けの麻薬 says:
About that. I wasn't allowed in, even with a ticket.
qgayles says:
what time did you arrive?
打って付けの麻薬 says:
11:45
qgayles says:
Wow, I should've texted you. I ended up going and got there around 12. I posted my iPhone pics. I was able to walk right-in to the show.
打って付けの麻薬 says:
............. What. The. Fuck.
qgayles says:
I saw the lines and walked to the door...I was like f standing in this line
We followed up on the phone. Qgayles hadn't bought a ticket because he thought he was going to be out of town that weekend. Apparently Devin Walkley himself sold him a ticket for $40. He said Tiesto had been having a hissy fit over something like the stage curtain not working properly, and that he didn't get on stage until 01:15. When he did, you could tell he didn't want to be there. He played a lot of tracks straight from CDs, and didn't change them up or mix them. What's more, both qgayles and my friend with lights tell me the venue was not even half-full.
I showed up at 23:45 and met up with lothar_, who'd been standing in line since 22:30. We stayed there, barely moving an inch, until 01:00. That's when they saw a woman walking away from the entrance with blood on her face. Turns out that woman is lastfm user corvolio's wife. He says:
"we were right at the front doors after waiting for 4 hours in that chaos. My wife got hit very bad, she started to bleed instantly and pass out, NO ONE from the what called "security staff" moved a finger, we spent the night at the emergency room. Please, if anyone has any videos or photos, please contact me asap, we will go with a lawsuit and I encourage everyone to do so, what happened last night is unacceptable. my email is corvolio AT yahoo dot com. Thanks very much"
lothar_, catwho, and I took that poor woman as a sign that we might need to leave, to avoid a riot. Apparently a lot of people left around midnight, as my friend qgayles drove past them, and wondered why so many people were leaving. He said he wanted to ask why, but obviously couldn't.
So fans present (or not!) at the chaos (which may or may not have descended into a riot), let us band together and sue the motherfucking pants off whoever is responsible for this mess. Granted, word out at the venue was that Tiesto himself was 3 or 4 hours late in coming. It could be the Atlanta Trade Center. It could be Liquified Atlanta. It could be a bit of someone setting up bogus sales sites for the tickets. Either way, it's suspiciously looking like someone sold entirely too many at-the-door tickets (which ran $80, btw - $100 if you paid a scalper), so that people who had already bought tickets long ago couldn't get in. Including myself, lothar_, and catwho, the last two who waited in line for three (yes, three) hours with their tickets they'd bought in August, only to find no way in. (Early buyers paid $35 for tickets; the price went up to $40 after a month.) Join us for the ligitation shitstorm, 'cause it's gonna come down hard.
Comments received so far:
BHoops:
I am OUTRAGED by Liquified's actions last night! $100 for will call tickets, $10 rip off for parking, $200 for my performance costume- arrival 8:30 pm, time spent in line 4 1/2 hours +, number of times I feared my safety from a riot countless, number of bloody noses I saw and injuries 15 from Liquified refusing to open the door for Will Call just so they could get more $$ from people and scam as many people as possible with their bullshit $20 cutline rip off tickets, number of cops that showed up when people were so fed up they started calling the news crews and complaining to the cops 64, give or take a few guys in blue. 1000's stood in line for hours and were beat, burnt, and injuried. Your security was a joke and did not do a damn thing , but run around like a bunch of morons refusing to let people in. You knew Tiesto's show was going to be big, duh you sold out tickets, yet you still managed to find tickets to sale at the door, WTF? I was denied entry 24 times because I had will call tickets and you refused to let Will Call tickets in. The cops told us they were shutting you down at that point, yet you still found a way to keep them from doing so, wonder what magic tricks you use. Liquified your actions last night were appaling, I have attended several of your shows at the North Atlanta Trade Center with no problems, I will never be attending one of your shady shows again. I want a refund on my tickets, a refund on my $10 rip off parking bull shit pass, & a refund on the gas it took me to get there from Birmingham. An apology is in order as well to the 1000's of people who wasted their time and money to stand in line for hours, to be treated like animals, and risked their life's to see your show.
dzandman:
I'm right there with all of you! I hope Devin Walkley and whoever else was responsible for this disaster take some responsibility and explain to the fans exactly what happened. I bought my tickets months in advance, and was very excited about my first time seeing Tiesto.
I've never seen such poor organization at a concert, especially for an artist of Tiesto's stature. There's absolutely no reason why thousands of people should have to stand in line for hours when they ALREADY HAVE TICKETS. The venue should have made sure they had personnel who understood the size of the event and were prepared to help let the crowd in smoothly.
The only reason things got a little wild was because people were justifiably angry at being smashed together for hours in a line that went nowhere. But things could have gotten much worse than yelling profanities and banging on the glass. The police should have tried to get the crowd under control before summarily shutting the doors and sending everyone away.
Refunds and apologies had better be forthcoming.
martchrist:
Yo dude, sorry to hear about your wife. that is terrrible.
I was somehow lucky enought to get inside. While in there I saw a girl next to me start gagging then inhaled and found myself coughing uncontrollably. Apparantly someone released some sort of tear gas or mace. Anyone know what that was all about? Was that the lame crowd control's attempt to break up a fight?
ALTien1:
The only reason that I was able to get in is because we paid some guy standing next to the waiting line $20 for each of us to purchase one of those Cut Line tickets. That was $20 on top of the original tickets we purchased online... and on top of the $20 parking! It's ridiculous that it even had to come to that. It makes this entire situation appear to be a planned scam.
I agree that the crowd control was terrible. There were no signs indicating which line was on which side of the building. There were no ropes or anything else to keep the line organized. The security staff was very slow. After I went through will call, I looked back to see that they had stopped people from coming in for no apparent reason. The people who were checking off will-call names were just sitting there waiting for security to let more people in. I stayed until almost the end of the party and I can say that there was plenty of room for a LOT more people. I was wondering why the place didn't get as packed as I had seen it before and found out today about what had happened.
I really do feel back for those who came from other areas and had expenses more that just the cost of the tickets. I believe that the security staff was dragging their @$$es for no reason, which caused the crowd to become upset... someone needs to be held accountable for these people who paid, but were not allowed in.
gravion17:
I want to apologize to all the fans that were trying to get in to this concert...this makes Atlanta look really bad! I wanted to go to this concert but some thing told me not to, and know I know why! I know that a lot of people want to blame Liquified for the debacle that this turned out to be, but honestly it wasn't their fault! All the problems mostly stems from the owner operators of The North Atlanta Trade Center! They hired this well known shady security firm (Black Sheild) and from all accounts, those guys were just out to fleece the fans....I have been to countless Liquifide event's put on on by Devin and they all have been a damn good time! This is why I prefer small venues....
snapp123:
Hmmmmm I've been to a few Tiesto Shows in Europe and a couple of places in South America with 5 times of the crowd from last night. The event was organized horribly. I was able to get in luckily after tipping the security guy in the front a 100 bucks to just let me and my friends in. I truely felt bad for others. We waited about 2 hours before taking that action.
The cut line passes for $20 total bullshit word has it not only Liquified ran the event but Club Opera was the partner in it with the Promotional group name of "Social Study". I'm not sure if people noticed but the promoters from opera and the management was running the show selling the tickets and all that good stuff. They truely ran it like opera. Holding the line up cut line passes changing the parking fee's.
So the support to Tiesto shouldn't be changed The promoters are who to blame a lot of my Friends that drove from macon and other surrounding cities leaving their kids with sitters and taking the day off of work to make it and noone was happy.
You also can't blame the cops if the if its not organized then they are doing their job before things get out of hand. It was a disaster I think I would rather fly out or drive down to like Tampa to see a big DJ then go to Opera or any Liquified events.
pianolinist:
I was there last night, and after most of the madness died down, we got in line around 2 am again and were finally let in. They weren't even scanning bar codes by then; we just tossed our will-call tickets into a box. Luckily, Tiesto hadn't started until almost 2, so we only missed about 3 tunes- and he played till nearly 5 am, so it was a good amount of music. The show was incredible, but the debacle and waiting for 4 hours really put a damper on the whole night. The venue was far from being at capacity. It looks to me like the debacle was caused mainly by the sketchy security personnel trying to fleece us out of as much money as possible (with the cut-line passes, holding up the line on purpose, extra parking fee, etc- isn't this some kind of breach of contract on their part??)... in which case Liquified (or was it the N.A. Trade Center) or whomever hired them needs to pay more attention to who they hire for their events if they want to avoid things like this. There's really no excuse, seeing how they had Tiesto at the very same venue 2 years ago and things ran smoothly without a hitch. I went to Together as One in LA for New Year's (with Armin van Buuren playing) with over 50,000 people attending, and their security was efficient well-equipped to handle it. There's no reason they couldn't get adequate security to run things better last night for a crowd of 5,000 or so.
Liquified shouldn't have tried to oversell tickets at the door. Security shouldn't have tried to scam people out of extra bucks & should have provided more direction and efficiency at moving people through. And the police shouldn't have said they were shutting it down & sending people home when they knew they were going to let people in again once they subdued the crowd a bit. Whomever hired this security co. should have hired a better one to begin with. A lot of bad planning caused this, and the mess could definitely have been avoided.
I feel terrible for the people who traveled long distances for this event and had to miss out. No paying customer should have had to deal with what we all went through last night. I also feel bad for Liquified. Last night's mess wasn't entirely their fault, but they will definitely take the hit for this, for they did screw up if only by not coordinating things better and being more vigilant of who they hired to run this event. I've been to several other Liquified events, where everything went smoothly- and I had a blast every single time. They've done so much for Atlanta, bringing in great artists like Armin van Buuren, ATB, David Guetta, Above & Beyond, etc...people we may not have had a chance to hear live in Atlanta otherwise. I've never heard of anything near this bad happening at their previous events. Whomever does their PR has their work cut out for them, and I sincerely hope that these inevitable lawsuits are settled quickly and fairly. They may have messed up last night, but I still support Liquified all the way and hope they continue bringing amazing acts to Atlanta. (However, I too prefer smaller venues!).
sr171:
Liquified is a supposedly mature promotion company, these were beginner mistakes, and it is the responsibility of said promotion company to have more THOUGHTFULNESS and prior planning to prevent and deal with these problems as they arise. In my 9 years from L.A. to NY I have never seen a more poorly run event in my life than what I witnessed last night. These guys SEVERELY faulted on this one and they know it, and everyone else knows it. They can consult their lawyers and get legal advice about how to cover their ass, but there is no legal protection from stupidity and there is no apology they could make to appease their lack of critical thinking. Liquified should be run out of town and never allowed back in Atlanta ever again. At 1:15 after most people had been standing in line for 4 hours and the thousands of people still waiting in line were becoming angry, and rightfully so. Liquified already had made your money through "Will-Call", they should have just done a "Michael Lang" (Woodstock 69') and let everyone just walk in the doors at that point, they had already paid for their tickets. But no, these guys are like the greedy bankers and insurance companies who have milked our economy dry, and you had one person working Will-Call and started charging an extra 20$ to cut the line to get in right a way. It was only when police came to turnt he 1000's of people away with riot gear at 2 a.m. did they start letting people just walk in. It is evidently clear, now, they are about the money, not the music, nor the people, or the experience in which these gatherings bring. Liquified's behavior is unacceptable, I will never attend another Liquified event ever again, and there are thousands more who share this decision with me. Liquified and Devin Walkely are no longer welcome or viable in this scene. I know that they are going to prepare a well scripted and eloquent statement but that is what people who have screwed up do with their lawyers, because they can't do it themselves, if they did they wouldn't need to prepare one in the first place. There is no excuse or reason for this, OR was this whole thing done on purpose?
tic-toc, tic-toc, tic-toc....
ash211:
Supposedly Liquified is preparing an official statement for what happened. Hopefully that statement will include information about refunds. If not, you can dispute the charges with your credit card company, as I plan to do.
involver19:
I was also present for last night's show and thankfully I didn't get the shit end of the stick, but i am terribly sorry for those who did and can't IMAGINE being in the line for that long.... My friend and I luckily got there early but still waited at least an hour and a half before getting in. Even then the door guys had their whole setup going with the $20 cut line tickets, and people were just walking up and paying to get in. And people wonder why they didn't get in.... Not to mention while INSIDE the building my fun was ruined by mace somebody sprayed right in the center of the crowd. WHO brings mace to a show? It raises questions. People outside getting threatened with mace......people inside inhaling mace. There was PLENTY of space inside too. They could have easily fit everybody in there. Something is wrong with what happened and the rabbit hole goes much deeper than all of this. I mean Devin was sending out posts the day of the show offering people who videod the show free tickets, and at one point in time also told people if they wanted to buy tickets without the service charge they could call him meet up with him and buy them from him directly. I am SO SO sorry for you all who had to endure this debacle last night, and it has caused me much apprehension in attending future events in Atlanta. Liquified had better make good on this. Somehow.
liquifiedassets:
This is a recurring strategy Devin uses with Opera to maximize the take at the door....the club is left completely empty sometimes until there is a long line of people that are getting impatient enough to pay extra and who are tricked into thinking that the show might really be sold out and paying extra is the only way in.................., once inside the club, the vip bands jump from 20 to sometimes even 100+........thats when opera management releases the flood gates to there main dancefloor which becomes so unconfortable that you can't even cross your arms without nudging up against someone.........you are then forced to buy a vip bands to even be able to go to the bathroom
A few months ago, Devin opened the door for Opera to help maximize there profits at the door.....they devised a plan that would guarantee them $300000+ off of this one event by incorporating previously perfected scumbag tactics to get you as frustrated and as angry as they can get you, because ultimately they know that you all drove in town for this event and that paying the extra bribe-tax is just going to take your food budget for the trip to atlanta and put it in there pocket
So,......What happens when you have a line of unruly people outside of your nightclub that have already given you there money, Well, the Opera handbook would say to pay off the police to get them off the premises and then replace the ticketholders at around 1am when your more likely to only have walkups coming in with fresh benjamins to add to the crockpot of fraud.
These people call themselves industry professionals, all they really are is organized criminals
contact these people and do it fast and by the 100s to ensure you get your voice heard before the window of opportunity closes on you to get your money back