Complaint Review: Liquified Events and Opera Nightclub - Atlanta Georgia

It was a sad moment for the Atlanta electronic music scene on Saturday night.  Opera runs arguably the best nightclub in Atlanta, I have been to many Liquified events in that past, and the company is largely responsible for creating a scene in Atlanta by bringing some of the top DJs in the world here.  When I discovered that they were bringing Tiesto back to the North Atlanta Trade Center, I expected nothing short of an incredible night.  I couldnt have been more mistaken.

Here is a summary of my experience:

1 month ago Bought two tickets for my girlfriend and I on wantickets.com because I was afraid the show might sell out

Saturday afternoon Bought two more tickets for some friends at Opera on the day of the show.  The guy who sold them to me informed me that the event would be bananas and that we should get there early.  He claimed that last time Tiesto played there 4,000 people went, and this time they were expecting over 6,000.

10 PM We arrived at the show and joined the will call line.

12:20 AM Still in the middle of the line.  My friends with paper tickets got in along with others who agreed to pay $20 (basically a bribe that Opera offered people to cut the line).  After watching hundreds of people walk to the front of the line, we decided to do the same.  I wasnt proud of the decision, but the line wasnt moving, and it occurred to me that if I didnt do something proactive I wasnt going to see the show.  We slipped back in the line about 20 feet from the door.  At this point the line wasnt a line at all, but just a huge crowd of people trying to jockey for position and get closer to the door.

12:20 til about 1:05 AM Being in view of the door only made everyone more upset.  Im about 64 and had no trouble seeing over the crowd, and they were only letting two or three people in at a time.  Thats no way to clear a line of 6,000.  Texts from friends who were already inside said that they only had two scanners to process will call tickets.  The crowd started chanting Bullshit! and Let us in.  Then, when nothing improved after twenty minutes or so, people realized that no one was doing anything to solve the problem, and they began to push and scream.  This is the point where the situation escalated to the point where I was concerned for our safety.  People at the front of the line then began struggling to get out of the crowd while others continued to try to push their way in.  Still the promoters did nothing.  Then I looked over my shoulder and saw what seemed like forty police cars driving across the parking lot.

1:05 til 1:45 AM When the cops arrived, they told everyone to leave because they were going to cancel the event.  They said a girl had been hit with a beer bottle, and they were going to stop the concert.  I saw a bouncer throw one man to the ground who was at the door at the time claiming his ticket should be honored.  The cops also arrested a couple of people who talked back to them.  They were extremely serious and without remorse for anyone who was trying to plead their case.  We, the ticketholders, were the victims throughout all of this, but nobody acknowledged it.  The pandemonium lasted about half an hour, and everyone was forced to go back to their vehicles and leave the event.  Its hard to estimate how many people were turned away, but it seemed like there were at least two thousand.  We took a cab to the event and didnt want to leave empty handed.  At the cops orders we walked far away from the doors and hung out in the parking lot observing the situation, waiting and texting our friends inside who told us the concert was going on the whole time.  Deep down, I never believed that they would shut down the show because that would only increase the chances of a riot with all the people already inside.  Much to our own amazement, our suspicions were confirmed when we saw the police forming a new line at the door.  We ran across the parking lot to get back into the line, but at this point it seemed like only 200 or so of the 2,000 people that were in the previous line actually stayed.  We finally made it in the concert at 1:45, nearly four hours after we arrived.  I was able to mentally put the ordeal behind me, and Tiesto was great so my night ended happily.  However, I cant forgive the promoters of this show for taking advantage of thousands of people with full knowledge that they were overselling the show and mismanaging the door, and without doing anything about it until the situation escalated to the point where the people they were exploiting were in physical danger.

 My interpretation of what happened:

After finally getting inside, it was pretty clear to me what happened. There was definitely still room for more people inside the venue but probably not enough room for all the people standing in line.  Once this became apparent to the promoters (which should have happened long before the show if they had counted all the tickets they sold), they called the cops to threaten and arrest people until everyone else went home.  Most amazing probably was that they were still selling tickets at the door.  People who paid $80 at the door were way more likely to get in than people who bought their tickets online two months in advance.

Ive attended over a hundred concerts and ten music festivals with 50-100,000 people in the US and the UK, and Ive never witnessed an event that was more poorly run than this show.  Ive also never felt like I was in personal danger at an event before.  It is extremely disturbing that Opera and Liquified grossly mismanaged this to the point of near disaster.  Im thankful that no more people got seriously injured, but I hope that all of the people who got stiffed with their tickets get a d**n good response and refund (including parking, cab fares, hotel rooms for out of towners).  By the way, WTF business did Opera have running an event like this.  They run their nightclub just fine, but they have zero experience dealing with an event of 6,000 people.  Not only that, but most of the people in line could have done a better job running this event.  Among the most distressing things is that Tiesto (and other big DJs) will stop coming to Atlanta and working with Liquified when he finds out how the event was handled.

The only conclusion I can draw from all of this is that Opera and Liquified have become completely clouded by greed.  There was no concern for the people they were ripping off, only flashing images of dollar signs.  Everyone was looking for their slice of an event that was sure to gross hundreds of thousands of dollars.  When I spoke to Operas employee the afternoon before the show, he already knew it was oversold.  When the situation escalated, no changes were put in place to solve it.  People were never even told why they were being forced to wait so long, which only added to their anger.  Bringing the cops in to strongarm people who paid you money to attend your event isnt a very graceful solution.  People were stolen from and put in danger by both of these companies, and I hope that everyone will be compensated for their lost money and time.  Im sure I wont get a check since I made it in after all, but I urge anyone who didnt to hound them until you do.  What I can do, and I urge you to do, is to talk about this event to everyone.  Use the tools in front of you (the Internet, Facebook, Twitter, Last.fm, whatever) to publicize this as much as possible.  Businesses who exploit their own customers in such an irresponsible way will eventually die.  After alienating the people who pay you to perform such an awesome job (promoting cool concerts) so poorly, you dont deserve to have customers.  Spread the word.