I attended the Luke Bryan concert in Raleigh, NC on Friday, July 8th. I have attended one other event at the Walnut Creek Amphitheatre before and in contrast, the way Live Nation handled the crowds at the Luke Bryan concert was atrocious.
First, I got there at 5pm to wait in line for the concert. The lines were ambiguous at best because there were no ropes set up to direct traffic. When they opened the gates the lines collapsed and 3 or 4 lines converged into one line that previously didn't even exist, and I ended up at the end of the line when previously I had been near the beginning of the line since I arrived in line at 5pm for a 7pm start time.
I am 23 weeks pregnant and I was not able to eat, drink or use the restroom that whole time because the food and water was inside the venue. When I asked a Live Nation representative if I could cut in the line so I could get food and water before I passed out, I was told no (even though I had tickets for seats and not the lawn; and even though I was originally near the front of the line but was unable to push and shove my way to the front with the rest of the crowd when the lines completely changed after I had waited in the proper line for over 2 hours at this point). I was also told by other people around me who had been to at least 15 concerts at this venue that they had never seen such a mess before and it was ridiculous.
Secondly, the concert was supposed to start at 7 and they delayed the concert until at least 7:45. This was not communicated in any way to the people waiting in line. They started the opening act, Mitchell Tenpenny (who I really wanted to see!) exactly when they opened the gates late! There was absolutely no opportunity for anyone who was not one of the first 20 people in the new line to watch his concert. I paid money for the ticket and got there
hours early with the expectation that I would be inside the venue before they started the concert. Why did they delay opening the gates?!? Why did they start the concert late and at the same time as they opened the gates?!?
Thirdly, when I was finally inside the venue, I almost threw up and passed out (because I'm 23 weeks pregnant and was not permitted to buy food or water because it was inside the venue and I had to wait through two separate lines to get into the venue). I asked a Live Nation representative for a chair so I could sit down and I was told "we can call the medics but we can't just bring you a chair". They did not offer to give me water or do anything to help. Thank God for the nicest ladies at a food truck who gave me a free sandwich to help get my blood sugar up before I passed out. The nice ladies at the food truck also helped direct me to the bathrooms and gave me a bottle of water. They were so helpful when the Live Nation personnel were not only unhelpful but rude to pregnant women.
I WOULD NOT BUY TICKETS FROM LIVE NATION: My daughter bought us VIP tickets to the Rascal Flatts concert at Darien Lake through this company. She received and email saying our tickets were attached and we would not have to pick up any tickets or wait in line. Upon arrival at the concert we went to the VIP lane and we were told that because we didn't have the physical tickets we would have to go to Will Call and pick them up. That is their policy. We tried to show them the email and tickets but they wouldn't even look just kept repeating the same thing over. So we saw 2 more of their staff members and asked them if they could help us. He was to worried about his aunt receiving tickets to the concert he would only talk to Darien Lake's EMT asking her to have his aunt come and see him and so on. We saw another one of their staff members and tried talking to him. Again he wouldn't look at the email just said he was sorry their policy is you need the physical tickets. We finally saw a SGT of Darien Lakes Security and explained to him what was going on and he pointed us in the right direction to get some help. We talked to a gentleman there who told us he didn't know what was going on but he would take us to where we had to be. He takes us to a gate where we are told we need to go to this other gate and that gentleman takes off. We get to the girl who is scanning tickets and she tells us we need to go to another gate and give them our name. Again none of these people are willing to look at our tickets or the email that came from their Company. We finally get in and this girl has my daughters name and said this is where you are suppose to be. Another girl tried to tell us to calm down we were going to see Rascal Flatts and I said let me send you on a wild goose chase for 90 minutes with no one wanting to listen to what you had to say or see what you were trying to tell them and lets see you calm down. She tells me maybe we need to go home then. After realizing they we are telling the truth and reading my daughters email they call a supervisor for Live Nation which she said she would be there in 3 mins. 30 mins later she still didn't show up. Some guy who said he was in charge of organizing the concerts for Live Nation asked what was going on. The rude girls that told us to go home tells him. He said he wanted to go to will call to see if they had our tickets and came back and said can I see your email once more. After reading it from start to end realized they had been wrong all along. Apologized and took us to where we had to be. Our entry was for 6:30 with the run around we got and 5 gates later we made in just in time for the acoustic show. I JUST WENT TO GOOGLE TO SEE IF THEY HAD AN ADDRESS LISTED SO I CAN PUT THIS REVIEW ON TRUSTLINK BY THE BBB AND WAS TOLD BY USPS THAT THE ADDRESS THEY HAVE LISTED WAS NOT FOUND.