Forbidden Cities Nye Party A Bust

[tw2ntyse7en]

So I prepaid $55.00 dollars (x2 = $110.00) to go to this New Years Eve party I had mentioned on another thread. Well, here's what happened.

We drove by around 9pm when it was starting and saw no line. We decided to park nearby, catch a rick-shaw to Main and eat there (note: rick-shaws kick ass!). Unfortunately, they were all up around Main, so had to walk from the Doubletree @ Dallas to Prairie. We decide on Cabo as everything else is packed & have to pay $30.00-$50.00 cover. Mix-Mex was goooood So we catch another rick-shaw back to the party (as mentioned earlier rick-shaws kick ass!), tipped the young lad a twenty (you could tell he was tired). And made our way to the gate of the Forbidden Cities Party.

As we're walking up, it's about 10:30 pm, and a lot of people are walking away. I think nothing until a guy asks if we were going to that party. We replied with yes only for him to tell us that they aren't letting anyone else in. Somewhat concerned, we go on and investigate.

We get to the gate to find about 300 people standing outside yelling and holding tickets. No one really know what was going on in the back except that they weren't letting anyone else in. I worked my way up to the front, found a police officer, and ask what was going on. This is what he told me:

"They've oversold this place, and the fire marshall came in and shut the gate down. No one else is getting in tonight."

We were pissed. How do you oversell an outdoor venue??? A little more investigation found that they had oversold by as many as 3000 people! (still unconfirmed) There was no representative for the party to tell us what to do, and the girl that had been taking ticket had the police on either side of her as she packed her laptop & ticket box up. She knew nothing, or at least said she knew nothing. Standing next to me was a man with 4 VIP tickets that he had paid $200.00 each for. He walked away with no anwser either. We left at that point, not want to waste midnight standing in a mosh pit of anger revellers. We went back to main and decided to swing back by before it closed down around 2:00am

We come back by around 1:30am. Here we find out that enough people had finally left the gate area that at 11:50pm they had started letting people back in. We also found out that we would have to go back to the gate around tomorrow (New Years Day) at 4:00pm if we want a refund. Also, you would have to have a full untorn ticket to receive the refund. This was no problem for us, as we never got in to begin with. However, it was said that when the fire marshall came in, he pushed the last 100 of so people who came in and were still near to the door back out, leaving them with a ticket stub and no proof they had been forced to exit. Supposedly they were told that to get a refund, they would have to get their ticket stub stamped. I have no idea if they were able to accomplish such.

So today, I have to waste the 2nd half of my holiday to go see if I can get a refund. I got ripped off, and we'll see if I get justice today at 4:00pm

[jmancuso]

55 bucks a ticket is steep. next year, go downtown and watch the fireworks for free.

[Double L]

Unfortunately, they were all up around Main, so had to walk from the Doubletree @ Dallas to Prairie.

You know if you go into the underground tunnels (you should be able to get there from the doubletree) there is a lot of restaurants down there.

[ssullivan]

Okay...so I went to get a refund on my tickets and this is what I found out:

1. If you had a complete ticket, with or without a stamp - you got a refund.

2. If you bought an e-ticket online with a c/c you have to fax in the printed ticket to get your c/c account credited.

3. The max capacity for the event was 2500. They claim, at last count, 2159 people had entered when the fire marshall closed the gates.

4. They oversold The venue by 500 people (at last count), for a total of 3000 tickets sold.

5. The claim that the fire marshall shut the gate, not because of capacity, but due to excessive crowd rowdiness.

6. Worst of all - They ran out of liqour before the night was over.

It was very unorganized today, I was there for 3 hours waiting in multiple lines to have my name put on a list so that I could wait in another line, and then finally be called upon to receive my refund. In my opinion, the workers there were uninformed, and didn't seem to care. No one from the promotion company came out at anytime and apologized.

If this venue comes back to town, I will actively protest against anyone to go. The promotions company, once I find out their name, will receive the same treatment if they continue to host events in this city. What a disgrace to Houstonians.

Glen

Wow I think if I had charged it to my credit card and experienced that kind of wait and disorganization when going for the refund I would have just called the credit card company and had them reverse the charge and take it up with the party organizers for not providing the promised service. Why go through all that mess when most credit card issuers would take care of it with a 5-10 minute phone call?

[gwilson]

I would love to throw a massive bash like this, but I wouldn't make it ANYWHERE NEAR that big. Most successful parties are limited to around 500 people (with maybe 100 or so tix available at the door).

If the party doesnt sell enough tickets by a certain date, refund everyone and cancel.

I have a buddy that threw a NY party this year (as well as last year) and it went off without a hitch both years.

Im glad I didnt get conned into forbidden cities like some friends were trying to do.

[Lowbrow]

I think they had 2 bottles of tequila and a lime.

[Talbot]

That sucks to hear. And I agree, I wouldn't give them my money for such poor quality and unorganized business. If it happens again, they will feel the effect of their poor business habits.

[Dallasite]

New Years Eve is overrated.