SLANE 2009 Oasis - All Discussion - No ticket sales.

Wile E. Coyote

goldenbrown wrote: »

always have folks hanging out at the village, txt messaging saw them enter as they learned that incredibly mcd had stopped scanning (they admitted this to Joe Duffy) as there was a hillsborough situation developing (Lord mountcharles accepted this live on rte re; dublin lane entrance) .....- that is why there WERE unsafe numbers in the venue, ..
as the problems with bus transport and dublin entrance have been accepted live on rte by Lord mountcharles, if you have been injured in any way take your claim to the www.injuriesboard.ie I believe you should ask MCD for 5000 euros, they made 8-9 million on this gig alone, they owe it to you

(you will not need a solicitor, state employees will asist you fill out the forms)

(txt messaging would also have seen a wave of people come from dublin upon learning that tickets were not being checked, )

You cannot enter the village or pass the initial barriers unless you have a ticket. So even if there was 20,000 ticketless people who decided to take the trip down on the off chance they would get a text to say that MCD had stopped checking tickets they would have gotten no where near the walkway through the wood.

No serious injury's or incidents were reported so there is no compensation due to anyone. Bloody people looking for compensation just because they were inconvenienced really pi**es me off.

BaZmO*

Wile E. Coyote wrote: »

You cannot enter the village or pass the initial barriers unless you have a ticket. So even if there was 20,000 ticketless people who decided to take the trip down on the off chance they would get a text to say that MCD had stopped checking tickets they would have gotten no where near the walkway through the wood.

That is not true

Wile E. Coyote

If there was 'serious' overcrowding (and I really didn't see it myself) then it was not because MCD sold extra tickets. Companies these days are all about the money but I really don't think they're that stupid.

Just a thought but could those stupid e-tickets have been the cause of the congestion on the Dublin entrance? If some budding entreprenures decided that they were just going to photocopy these tickets and sell them on then this could have easily caused the problems at the scanners. If there was 20/30 people at the top of the queue who's tickets weren't scanning correctly then it would be quite easy for a larger build up to develop behind them. It could have been at this point and purely for safety reasons that the gates were opened. Remember in the eyes of the staff checking the tickets no one should have made it down that far without showing their ticket on the way into the village.

On a side note. Why the hell do people need those e-tickets anyway? The majority of people who booked their tickets did so months ago so there was plenty of time delivered by post. They just seem to be an easier way for touts to make extra money.

Wile E. Coyote

BaZmO* wrote: »

That is not true

Are you saying that anyone can enter the village on the day without a ticket?

BaZmO*

Wile E. Coyote wrote: »

Are you saying that anyone can enter the village on the day without a ticket?

I am

valleyoftheunos

Wile E. Coyote wrote: »

On a side note. Why the hell do people need those e-tickets anyway? The majority of people who booked their tickets did so months ago so there was plenty of time delivered by post. They just seem to be an easier way for touts to make extra money.

E tickets are a significant saving for ticketers, no printing and no postage. personally I think they are a disaster and dont use them.

tetsujin1979

Wile E. Coyote wrote: »

You cannot enter the village or pass the initial barriers unless you have a ticket. So even if there was 20,000 ticketless people who decided to take the trip down on the off chance they would get a text to say that MCD had stopped checking tickets they would have gotten no where near the walkway through the wood.

I did. When I got to the first barrier at the bridge at about 5:30, there were only checking bags, I was waved through. Second barrier at the castle gates was the same, nobody asked me for a ticket so I kept going. By the time I got to the gig site more than an hour later, ticket scanning had been suspended, so I got in for free.

I'd like to stress that this was not what I had planned, it was just the way it worked out, see my post several pages back. My friends were driving up from Limerick with my ticket. They stopped off in Trim to watch the Lions game, and when they got to Slane, they were coming in from the other side of the village to me. They rang me and told me to get as far in as I could and he'd give me the ticket. Since there was 6 of us on the same ticket, and it didn't look like I was going fast on the castle path, they sold my ticket and told me to keep going until I got to the gig site, as people were selling spares.

I can't imagine I'm the only one who passed all three barriers without being asked for my ticket

Wile E. Coyote

BaZmO* wrote: »

I am

Well then your wrong because there has always been check points coming in to the village from the 4 main routes and you could not get past without showing either a residence pass or a ticket! You will always have a few that go cross country to enter the village for the day but I think 20,000 + of them would have been pretty easy to spot.

Wile E. Coyote

tetsujin1979 wrote: »

I did. When I got to the first barrier at the bridge at about 5:30, there were only checking bags, I was waved through. Second barrier at the castle gates was the same, nobody asked me for a ticket so I kept going. By the time I got to the gig site more than an hour later, ticket scanning had been suspended, so I got in for free.

I stand corrected but this was never the case. I still can't picture 1,000's of ticketless people travelling down on the off chance that they might get in. And if they did it's only because other concert goers, some of who might be the very ones complaining about it being overcrowded, text them and let them know that they could enter for free.

mcwhirter

Wile E. Coyote wrote: »

You cannot enter the village or pass the initial barriers unless you have a ticket. So even if there was 20,000 ticketless people who decided to take the trip down on the off chance they would get a text to say that MCD had stopped checking tickets they would have gotten no where near the walkway through the wood.

No serious injury's or incidents were reported so there is no compensation due to anyone. Bloody people looking for compensation just because they were inconvenienced really pi**es me off.

If there were serious injuries and deaths, then this would be taken a lot more seriously. If the weather had been pouring down/freezing etc, can you imagine walking 6 km in that.
Do we have to wait until next year for someone to die and then something might be done about it?

Wile E. Coyote

mcwhirter wrote: »

If there were serious injuries and deaths, then this would be taken a lot more seriously. If the weather had been pouring down/freezing etc, can you imagine walking 6 km in that.
Do we have to wait until next year for someone to die and then something might be done about it?

There was no serious injuries and there wasn't anything reported that came close to anyone dying. Having to walk is an inconvenience always has been, always will be. It's not a case for compensation and it will never change. The number of buses and the directions people are given will have to change but you are always going to have to walk!

windowcleaner

Good points at the On The Record blog about how come the CCTV cameras didn't pick up the backlogs

http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/ontherecord/2009/06/25/anyone-for-some-more-pain-in-slane/

schoolbag2

Wile E. Coyote wrote: »

Well then your wrong because there has always been check points coming in to the village from the 4 main routes and you could not get past without showing either a residence pass or a ticket! You will always have a few that go cross country to enter the village for the day but I think 20,000 + of them would have been pretty easy to spot.

You are WRONG, I was first asked for my ticket at the arch at the entrance to the castle. They were only checking bags for drink at the bridge FACT, do not come back and call me a liar, maybe something different happened to you

SEANYBOY1

I didnt mind the walking or the Q to get in even though it took a couple of hours. I was only in the place about 1 hour when I got sererated from my mate and his brother, and that was that we never met up at all. Was on my tod for the whole day, luckily I bumped into a work mate on the way out and I was able to get on a bus that him and his mates hired out. I even ended up having to stay the night in his house.
I showed my Return Ticket to several bus drivers however I was met with a blank stare, thank god I met that guy from work.
All in all I was gutted and still am now that I got seperated from the people I came with, we started to walk down the hill from the back to get closer to the front and like a puff of smoke they were gone, talked several times on the mobiles but couldnt hear a thing and my stupid mobile wont text for some reason. Went to see the Prodigy and Oasis in Cork in 95 and was really looking forward to this one..................:(

Micilin Muc

RTÉ's Liveline have made a retraction over MCD's overselling of tickets.

BaZmO*

Wile E. Coyote wrote: »

There was no serious injuries and there wasn't anything reported that came close to anyone dying. Having to walk is an inconvenience always has been, always will be. It's not a case for compensation and it will never change. The number of buses and the directions people are given will have to change but you are always going to have to walk!

Just out of interest, where you in the queue in the forest when it wasn't moving?

SEANYBOY1 wrote: »

I didnt mind the walking or the Q to get in even though it took a couple of hours. I was only in the place about 1 hour when I got sererated from my mate and his brother, and that was that we never met up at all. Was on my tod for the whole day, luckily I bumped into a work mate on the way out and I was able to get on a bus that him and his mates hired out. I even ended up having to stay the night in his house.
I showed my Return Ticket to several bus drivers however I was met with a blank stare, thank god I met that guy from work.
All in all I was gutted and still am now that I got seperated from the people I came with, we started to walk down the hill from the back to get closer to the front and like a puff of smoke they were gone, talked several times on the mobiles but couldnt hear a thing and my stupid mobile wont text for some reason. Went to see the Prodigy and Oasis in Cork in 95 and was really looking forward to this one..................:(

Obviously too late for you now, but whenever I go to something like that with mates we always arrange a meet up point as soon as we get in. I'm sure you'll be doing that from now on. It's a real p1sser though when you're splip up like that.

Wile E. Coyote

schoolbag2 wrote: »

You are WRONG, I was first asked for my ticket at the arch at the entrance to the castle. They were only checking bags for drink at the bridge FACT, do not come back and call me a liar, maybe something different happened to you

Get off your high horse and have a read of my post after the one that you've quoted. The one that states 'I stand corrected...'. But if they were checking the tickets at the Arch before the wood then how would people without tickets have gotten through to get into the field???

The G Child

My experience of the day was that:

1) You could get through any of the checkpoints without tickets. Yeah, they checked my ticket entering the village but not for the rest of the way to the concert. 5 of my friends tickets were not checked at all.

2) We got in before Kasabian started and our walk through the grounds to the concert was a bit of a mare. People were acting the maggot, but no more than you would expect for a gig like this.

3) The toilets and the bar were a write off. A friend of mine missed the whole of the Prodigy set queing for a drink. After the first couple of hours I just decided that the bar wasn't worth the effort. With the toilet Q a mile long, is it any wonder people were p*ssing up against railings when security or police were not stopping them?

4) There was well more than 80000 people there. I'm not saying they sold more than 80000 tickets, but people were chancing their arms. My mate said it to me in there, that if Croke Park holds 80,000 there was at least 100000 at Slane. Obviously this will never be proved, but from our vantage point 3/4 of the way up the hill it looked jammed.

5) I didn't feel it like a Hillsborough situation in the concert itself, as I felt people had plenty of room, but the walk out afterwards was the worse aspect of the day for me. On the dirt track out of the castle into the village, I didn't feel crushed, but I was getting cramps in my legs as I could only take tiny baby steps at a time. This was uncomfortable and I certainly wasn't fearing for my life, but I can understand why some people may have felt this way.

6) Overall, for me it was a brilliant day with a friendly enough atmosphere. I'm sure this would be differednt if people were stuck beside a load of bogeys, but we had a great berth and were mingling with everyone around us. I thought each band from Kasabian to the Prodigy to Oasis got the crowd going and it was an absolute belter of a day. So much so that I would go back next year again.

This is just my experience. Yeah, I agree that the organisation was the pitts and the promotors/council/police/transport/security people made a good attempt of ruining it, but all I care about is that the music was brilliant and the atmosphere in there was great.

Wile E. Coyote

BaZmO* wrote: »

Just out of interest, where you in the queue in the forest when it wasn't moving?

No but neither were you!;)

I did enter the village though and had to show my ticket to get through.

BaZmO*

Micilin Muc wrote: »

RTÉ's Liveline have made a retraction over MCD's overselling of tickets.

It was stupid of Duffy to say that MCD oversold the gig as that is easily proved and MCD would never do that. But the overcrowding issue is another mater and can't really be proved if it was overcrowded or not because they allowed a lot of people in without checking their tickets.

BaZmO*

Wile E. Coyote wrote: »

No but neither were you!;)

But I'm not here saying that it wasn't stressful for those who were.

Wile E. Coyote wrote: »

I did enter the village though and had to show my ticket to get through.

But that was "your" experience and not the experience of everyone concerned.

SEANYBOY1

BaZmO* wrote: »

Obviously too late for you now, but whenever I go to something like that with mates we always arrange a meet up point as soon as we get in. I'm sure you'll be doing that from now on. It's a real p1sser though when you're splip up like that.

That is some I usually do Bazmo but we even got split up in the mad dash to get into the place when on that forest track and then met up 15 mins after getting in. Sure we were under some 'severe influence' which mad it all the more fustrating:mad:

schoolbag2

Wile E. Coyote wrote: »

Get off your high horse and have a read of my post after the one that you've quoted. The one that states 'I stand corrected...'. But if they were checking the tickets at the Arch before the wood then how would people without tickets have gotten through to get into the field???

well you are the one with the arrogant attitude to call someone a liar.

I was asked for my ticket at the arch it was not scanned, you clearly stated that they were checking tickets at the village, they were not when I passed which was my point.

FYI "I stand corrected" is not an apology which is what you owe the chap for calling him a liar.:rolleyes:

Wile E. Coyote

schoolbag2 wrote: »

well you are the one with the arrogant attitude to call someone a liar.

I was asked for my ticket at the arch it was not scanned, you clearly stated that they were checking tickets at the village, they were not when I passed which was my point.

FYI "I stand corrected" is not an apology which is what you owe the chap for calling him a liar.:rolleyes:

I had my ticket checked. Thousands of others had theirs checked on the way into the village and anyone that has ever been to Slane before will tell you the same thing.

And 'FYI' the other poster wasn't even at the gig so wouldn't know either way!

Wile E. Coyote

BaZmO* wrote: »

But I'm not here saying that it wasn't stressful for those who were.



But that was "your" experience and not the experience of everyone concerned.

I never said anything about it not being stressful. People are trying to make out that 20,000 + people walked in without tickets. I'm not doubting that the walkway was cramped but even if it was double or treble the size that it was it still would have been cramped because people would still have pushed forward trying to get in as quick as possible.

My experience was the same as thousands of others.

columok

Wile E Coyote wrote:

Having to walk is an inconvenience always has been, always will be. It's not a case for compensation and it will never change. The number of buses and the directions people are given will have to change but you are always going to have to walk!

My ticket wasn't checked entering the village. My ticket wasn't checked at the bridge. I had my ticket out assuming it was gonna be checked at the arch. It wasn't. The walk through the woods was horrific. I'm 105kg and play rugby, MMA and american football and still found the walk to be intimidating and unsafe. It wasn't a matter of convenience. It is the duty of those organisers to manage the crowds. Quite simply they didn't. I remember arriving in at the gig thinking where do we go? Where do all the thousands behind me go? This was at 6.55! The hill at the back is normally the chillout quiet zone (even for the likes of U2).

On Saturday this wasn't the case. Are you actually trying to tell me that with the same people and the same capacity the place was noticeably fuller? Are people fatter this year? Obviously MCD wouldn't oversell tickets but they didn't do their paid professional duty- managing the crowds!

BaZmO*

Wile E. Coyote wrote: »

And 'FYI' the other poster wasn't even at the gig so wouldn't know either way!

But I had loads of friends that went this time and that coupled with the fact that plenty of people on here have agreed with what I said goes a long way to prove my point. Plus I've been to Slane twice before and never had my ticket checked until I got to the gate. You calling be a liar was wrong but I don't really care about that, the fact still remains that you were wrong.

I take it you arrived at the Drogheda side?

Wile E. Coyote wrote: »

I never said anything about it not being stressful.

Tbh, I'm not really that bothered if you said it or not and I'm not going to trawl through the thread to find examples, but it's certainly the impression you gave.

Wile E. Coyote wrote: »

People are trying to make out that 20,000 + people walked in without tickets.

Regardless of whether that is true or not nobody actually knows (not even MCD) as they stopped scanning tickets for a period of time.

Wile E. Coyote wrote: »

I'm not doubting that the walkway was cramped but even if it was double or treble the size that it was it still would have been cramped because people would still have pushed forward trying to get in as quick as possible.

Again, did you enter through that entrance?

Both times that I've been I've been through that way and nobody pushed their way through because tickets are checked before you get into it and not at the top. Plus it's a very long walk so it's hard to keep pushing forward without slowing down a bit.

Wile E. Coyote wrote: »

My experience was the same as thousands of others.

Yeah it was very positive and fairplay, but no one is doubting that, so why are you doubting the experiences of others?

maninasia

Wile E. Coyote wrote: »

No but neither were you!;)

I did enter the village though and had to show my ticket to get through.

Showing a ticket in this case could mean showing one of hundreds of photocopies/printouts of the SAME ticket. That's not much use now is it?

rocknrollstarrr

columok wrote: »

My ticket wasn't checked entering the village. My ticket wasn't checked at the bridge. I had my ticket out assuming it was gonna be checked at the arch. It wasn't. The walk through the woods was horrific. I'm 105kg and play rugby, MMA and american football and still found the walk to be intimidating and unsafe. It wasn't a matter of convenience. It is the duty of those organisers to manage the crowds. Quite simply they didn't. I remember arriving in at the gig thinking where do we go? Where do all the thousands behind me go? This was at 6.55! The hill at the back is normally the chillout quiet zone (even for the likes of U2).

On Saturday this wasn't the case. Are you actually trying to tell me that with the same people and the same capacity the place was noticeably fuller? Are people fatter this year? Obviously MCD wouldn't oversell tickets but they didn't do their paid professional duty- managing the crowds!

Agree with all of this 100%. I entered the walkway at 6:15 and at NO stage ANYWHERE was I asked for a ticket.

The whole organisation across MCD, Dublin Bus and the Gardai smacked of complacency, an attitude of, "sure it was grand before, it'll be grand this time".

Bad and all as the Dublin Bus fiasco and the brutal bar service was, the most serious issue for me is the overcrowding and crowd management strategy and that is MCD's fault. The first thing I thought when I got in was that the venue was well overcrowded and my brother said the same thing. There was hardly any space to move even up at the back. I've been to two Slanes before (second U2 gig in '01 and RHCP in '03) and there was far more space at those despite them selling out.

MCD can spin it any way they want but there was at least 87-90,000 people inside the venue. For me the new "print your own tickets" system was the key problem which led to overcrowding, allied to the failure to scan those tickets before the start of the walkway. Scanning them at the end of the venue is too late as it's almost impossible to send people back with a large build up of people.

Ask yourself, if you had bought an A4 sheet of paper ticket from somebody you didn't know on the day of the concert, would you be confident of getting in? How do you know that other people don't have exactly the same ticket elsewhere? What's to stop people from printing off as many tickets as they like? Nothing. The print your own ticket system might be alright for smaller events but is hugely open to abuse at something like Slane. It has to go.

People can make little of the problems if they want but that's the kind of thinking that that led to Hillsborough. It wasn't a million miles away from a Leppings Lane tunnel type situation in the walkway close to the entrance. Add another variable to the mix, ie a serious downpour of rain, and you may well have been talking about serious injuries and even a life threatening situation. Also the area immediately after the walkway entrance just as you enter the venue is very steep so a build up of people there is definitely dangerous.

Bluetonic

I'd imagine this thread has run it's course. The same theories are just being repeated at this stage.