I never got around to telling the story here, though I did send an email to an editor, telling her what went wrong. So, I'll use that as a starting point to tell the tale. Though I generally try not to live in the past, I saw one glowing review of the event written by someone who must have had either VIP seats (the only people allowed in and out of the pavilion) and/or an extremely strong bladder. For the rest of us, Sweetlife was a travesty.
For me, the show was a mess on the professional and personal level....
professional:
we (hubby and I) got there about 2 pm.
there was confusion about my press tix and photo pass -
even with a printed email confirmation
(got the first, not the second)
was going to cover for my examiner.com column, but needed pit photos,
which I wasn't going to be able to get.
so, we thought we'd just hang and hear the music.
or not...
which leads us to the personal level mess:
hubby and I go into the GA pavilion seats.
since they are GA seats, only one of us at a time can go out for food, drinks, bathroom, or we lose the seats.
meanwhile, the lawn is filling up with people and it begins to rain.
after Cold War Kids' set, hubby leaves to pee, and when he returns to the pavilion, there's a crush of people wanting to get away from the rain and he's told he can't come back in.
since the ushers can't tell who had seats inside and who's just trying to get out of the rain, they're not letting anyone in.
hubby calls me on the cell phone and tells me he's stuck. (thank god he had his cell phone)
the crowd is growing and getting restless.
one guy gets abusive and the bouncers drag him away.
another bouncer tells the crowd he's going to start picking up people and carrying them out.
the vibe is ugly.
At this point I figure, as much as I want to see Girl Talk and the Strokes, I will have to pee in the next 4 hours and then I'll be stuck on the cold, wet lawn, too.
and I miss hubby :-)
maybe I shouldn't make him wait outside?
so we split.
my other regret - the drunk guy we'd been sitting behind - the one dressed like a Tequila bottle (foam suit) - is coming back from the rest room as we're leaving.
I would have liked to have seen his reaction to being told he couldn't get back in.
we left as Crystal Castles were going on.
got home while Lupe Fiasco was playing.
I started following the twitter feed from the event and couldn't tell if things had gotten better.
tweets were split between people inside the pavilion (with full bellies and strong bladders) who were simply loving the music
and people outside who were really, really mad.
not sure when/if they resolved the crowd situation.
BTW, though Merriweather Post events are usually run by IMP, this was (badly) handled by a different group.
but a lot of IMP people were there and everyone associated is going to be blamed for what could have turned into a riot.
I didn't pay for my tickets, so I was just frustrated, but if I had paid, I would have felt royally ripped off.
there may be some very angry people out there.
a shame, too, since the cause was great and the music line-up was terrific.
I blame it on inexperience, not greed.
still, a mess.
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