My friends and I were so excited for this concert, but as soon as we got to our seats everything started to go down hill. For starters, we picked our seats purposefully as the map showed the seats were supposed to be located in front of the B Stage, and when we sat down the stage was on the complete other side of the floor. Not that it mattered anyway because the concert got so delayed by inclement weather that Hozier's set got cut and the stage wasn't used. The weather was obviously not Ticketmaster, Live Nation, or the venue's fault, but the way they handled the situation was. When we were told to take shelter, the venue took to their social media channels saying if we chose to take shelter in our cars that we would be allowed reentry as long as we had our tickets still. However, all of the gate staff were telling people that they would NOT be allowed reentry, and the internet service was so poor that the stadium's social media channels and website would not load for a majority of the concert goers," so many people chose to stay in the concourse of the stadium. The concert was originally delayed around 7:50, and the stadium gave a total of two (2) updates in the over two (2) hour delay, which one of those updates was a tweet at 10:15 saying the concert would go on at 10:30 giving 15 minutes for all of the people who did leave the venue, which many people did when they saw how bad the storm was, how minimal communication we were getting from the venue over that over two hour period, and the 11 PM curfew looming on the horizon. During that time frame, the venue staff was abysmal to put it lightly. Staff continued to tell us contradictory statements about what we needed to do (some told us to go to our cars, some told us to stay in the concourse, some told us to evacuate to the storm shelter over half a mile away), and much of the staff refused to help people who needed it. Someone down the concourse from my friends and I had passed out and people around them were calling for a medic, so I turned to a group of staff by me saying that they needed to call for one, and the individual I assumed was in charge as they were carrying a clipboard shrugged her shoulders at me and said "I'm not a medic." I'm sorry but that is the lamest ass excuse I've ever heard from someone when they're told there's a medical emergency happening at their place of employment. You're telling me they didn't have a walkie talkie or a phone to contact a on-site medical team??? Ridiculous. They also refused to even sell water to people during this entire time when we had all just been standing in 80 degree weather with high humidity which definitely contributed to more people passing out while we were packed like sardines in that concourse. The vendor staff were still there! I was standing right next to a group of them for that entire time! My friends and I did decide the leave the concourse at 10 PM and shelter in our car, so we can attest that none of the gate staff were monitoring the security screening gates or checking tickets as the hoard of concert goers attempted to reenter the venue in 15 minutes. And on top of it all, there was still lightning directly above the stadium throughout the concert that I have multiple videos of! All of the bowl seats in the stadium are metal bleachers that were continuously being rained on! And this venue has had someone struck by lightning on its property before! This was blatantly an attempt from the venue's upper management to avoid refunding people or rescheduling the show, but the atrocious event management and lack of care for attendees was ridiculous. On top of everything, when I reached out to Ticketmaster regarding a refund due to the atrocious event management amongst everything else, my ticket had mysteriously been resolved without a single individual contacting me and not a cent of a refund to be seen.
