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Troubles at London Film and Comic Con- an open letter:


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How are we selfish? Because we had a good time, because we got in, because we can actually see the positive side of the event, because we didn't experience any of what you do did? I encountered only well mannered, polite and helpful staff! Queues are expected at any event like this. !

 

 

That's the thing though, everyone in the early morning Stan Lee queues - Sunday especially - did everyhing they were supposed to do, and still most walked away empty handed.

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How are we selfish? Because we had a good time, because we got in, because we can actually see the positive side of the event, because we didn't experience any of what you do did? I encountered only well mannered, polite and helpful staff! Queues are expected at any event like this. !

 

 

That's the thing though, everyone in the early morning Stan Lee queues - Sunday especially - did everyhing they were supposed to do, and still most walked away empty handed.

 

 

Sunday was no one's fault though! No could have known Stan was going to turn up late and then need a rest! Even then, from what I can gather, most people headed over to Stan's queue to get VT's around the same time, so even if you did everything right, there was no guarantee of a low VT number!

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I met a lad in the war weary queue that had paid for a ticket to Stan lee that I can only assume you had no intention of honouring, because he was standing in the queue with us... Waiting to get inside, without a front door ticket!

 

Well surely he should have bought a door-ticket at the same time of purchase? That's hardly the organisers fault if he bought one ticket and not the other.

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I've been going to SM events for some time now, always an enjoyable experience.....until now.

Yes, I got in both Sat and Sun, I know how it works thanks to experience. I also met everyone I wanted to see. However, this was really tough to achieve. I got there at 7.30 on Sat and 8.30 on Sun, still had quite a time of queuing and that was just the start of it. Having guests added after the online shop closes meant that I had to queue again inside and this took such a long time. Then, it was running from one queue to another. I'm not sure the VQ system worked at all and the numbers on my photoshoot tickets seemed meaningless most of the time. As for the venue, well, horrible is an understatement.

 

I'll break it down.

 

  • As this year's event incorporated outside space and two buildings SM should have had far more staff outside of the venue to help with advice and queue management. This was very poor with only 1 or 2 staff visible that I could see.
  • Queue jumping was rife, outside the venue and in photoshoot queues. Why did I bother buying my tickets so early? I had ticket number 1 for one of my shoots and I was about the 200th person in, the staff member I pointed this out too couldn't care less and told me to join the back of the queue. This happened quite a bit and loads of people pushed in on purpose or just wandered in because instructions were lacking. With only 1 or 2 people in charge of hundreds of people it wasn't surprising.
  • The venue wasn't very nice, the canteens were appalling, the refund queue was bigger than the purchasing one - okay, not an SM thing but please keep in mind when looking for venues.
  • There were far too many people in the venue, it was dangerous at times and the heat made it more so.
  • On the whole, the staff were below par. Some were better than others but in my experience over the two days they were on average unhelpful and sometimes rude. Trying to be funny and enthusiastic (and being told to cheer up after being in a 2 hour queue) was also unhelpful.

 

Okay, so some food for thought SM. Now, Stan attracted loads of newbies, silly of SM to underestimate this but next time get more staff and maybe think about paying for them, because if you pay peanuts....

 

I got love for you SM but this time you failed and I really don't know if I can hack another event like this.

 

Okay, enough SM bashing from me, here is some words for other customers..

 

  • Sitting on the floor was unhelpful and dangerous. I asked loads of people to stand up (because the staff couldn't be bothered) but most people didn't bother.
  • Cosplayers - we all love you, but why not pose for photos to one side and not in the busy entrance and walk ways? You created dangerous bottlenecks in the gangways!
  • Read the rules before you play the game!!!!! SM had a lot of faults at this Con but the stupidity for the general public was also to blame.

 

So in conclusion, SM need to sort things out if they're wanting to get bigger and don't underestimate the stupidity of Mr. and Mrs. Joe Bloggs.

 

I'm afraid the weekend was quite an unpleasant experience, I bet some of the guests would agree too as many of them looked as peed off as I felt half the time!

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I've been going to SM events for some time now, always an enjoyable experience.....until now.

Yes, I got in both Sat and Sun, I know how it works thanks to experience. I also met everyone I wanted to see. However, this was really tough to achieve. I got there at 7.30 on Sat and 8.30 on Sun, still had quite a time of queuing and that was just the start of it. Having guests added after the online shop closes meant that I had to queue again inside and this took such a long time. Then, it was running from one queue to another. I'm not sure the VQ system worked at all and the numbers on my photoshoot tickets seemed meaningless most of the time. As for the venue, well, horrible is an understatement.

 

I'll break it down.

 

  • As this year's event incorporated outside space and two buildings SM should have had far more staff outside of the venue to help with advice and queue management. This was very poor with only 1 or 2 staff visible that I could see.
  • Queue jumping was rife, outside the venue and in photoshoot queues. Why did I bother buying my tickets so early? I had ticket number 1 for one of my shoots and I was about the 200th person in, the staff member I pointed this out too couldn't care less and told me to join the back of the queue. This happened quite a bit and loads of people pushed in on purpose or just wandered in because instructions were lacking. With only 1 or 2 people in charge of hundreds of people it wasn't surprising.
  • The venue wasn't very nice, the canteens were appalling, the refund queue was bigger than the purchasing one - okay, not an SM thing but please keep in mind when looking for venues.
  • There were far too many people in the venue, it was dangerous at times and the heat made it more so.
  • On the whole, the staff were below par. Some were better than others but in my experience over the two days they were on average unhelpful and sometimes rude. Trying to be funny and enthusiastic (and being told to cheer up after being in a 2 hour queue) was also unhelpful.

 

Okay, so some food for thought SM. Now, Stan attracted loads of newbies, silly of SM to underestimate this but next time get more staff and maybe think about paying for them, because if you pay peanuts....

 

I got love for you SM but this time you failed and I really don't know if I can hack another event like this.

 

Okay, enough SM bashing from me, here is some words for other customers..

 

  • Sitting on the floor was unhelpful and dangerous. I asked loads of people to stand up (because the staff couldn't be bothered) but most people didn't bother.
  • Cosplayers - we all love you, but why not pose for photos to one side and not in the busy entrance and walk ways? You created dangerous bottlenecks in the gangways!
  • Read the rules before you play the game!!!!! SM had a lot of faults at this Con but the stupidity for the general public was also to blame.

 

So in conclusion, SM need to sort things out if they're wanting to get bigger and don't underestimate the stupidity of Mr. and Mrs. Joe Bloggs.

 

I'm afraid the weekend was quite an unpleasant experience, I bet some of the guests would agree too as many of them looked as peed off as I felt half the time!

 

The reason you were not first person to have their photo done is there are those who have passes for priority access, so they will always be first unless there are crew members having photos done as was explained to me yesterday! Even then, most of the bigger photo shoots I went to were calling in groups of numbers, for example 1-50, but it didn't mean whoever had number 1 was the first in line.

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I was advised by a lovely crew member late Saturday afternoon (when I was going home) that as I am disabled I was entitled to a helpers pass to help with not queuing but nobody advised me of this when I spoke to several other crew members during the day. I returned on Sunday and went straight to the organisers booth to sort out getting this pass and I unfortunately was greeted by a most unhelpful and sarcastic woman who spoke to me like I was a complete idiot. I've attended many showmasters events over the last 5 or 6 years and crew members have always been as helpful as they can possibly be but this woman (who I've never seen at an event before) was neither helpful or polite!

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I met a lad in the war weary queue that had paid for a ticket to Stan lee that I can only assume you had no intention of honouring, because he was standing in the queue with us... Waiting to get inside, without a front door ticket!

 

Well surely he should have bought a door-ticket at the same time of purchase? That's hardly the organisers fault if he bought one ticket and not the other.

Except they'd stopped selling the door tickets then... Just still selling the others. And had they not been advertising plenty of on the door tickets on their website he wouldn't have bought it as he told me. He was a keen fan that just got slighted by bad timing sure.... But to be honest if they had a registration website that only let you buy the extra tickets once you had a main door ticket that would have stopped that happening and SM being showered with refund requests. Now I know that means some people wouldn't have got to see Stan lee for example , as they missed the ticket sales online and an on the dat VT would have been too high...but tbh at that point if they were in our queue... They didn't anyway, and as everyone keeps mentioning that IS what you buy EB for?

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Sometimes at events a guest does not feel well, goes home early, can't sign as much as was planned, this is not the guest nor the organisers fault, it just is what is. I've been to a number of events over the years where it has happened, I can appreciate it is disappointing when you are so excited to meet the guest, but the guests like the rest of us are just human and are susceptible to feeling ill as the rest of us are. At the base of it, this is exactly what happened with Stan Lee, no disrespect to other guests there, but if this had happened to say a minor Doctor Who cast member who was elderly and they had had to leave early as they didn't feel well, there would have hardly been a ripple. Based on Stan's age and how he was a feeling he still managed to do more photoshoots than anyone else ever has I would think over a weekend and so gave the chance for 1000s of his fans to meet him on his final European appearance.

 

I don't think you can expect the venue or Showmasters to provide drinks or suncream, I've been at music festivals where drinks have run out on hot days and at short notice it is very difficult to be able to do this. It looks like what could be improved here was better communication to the queue on how long it might take so they could make a more informed decision on whether they waited or not.

 

I don't understand why people would buy a photoshoot ticket in advance but not an entry ticket, it just seems bizarre to me as they are so inter-linked.

 

There are lessons to learn though from some areas and having been going since the very first LFCC, I can say that Jason and Showmasters do look to improve things, for example, collecting photos used to be a nightmare, where people would hang around, literally in there 100s sometimes around tables of photos at the end of the day so you couldn't get near them to get yours, solution, the new photo system was introduced, great result, you can just pick up your photos straight after your shoot. Now this wasn't a quick fix, it took time, it took investment it took a trial but now it works well and problem solved.

 

What is certainly true is these events are getting bigger and more popular and this was the biggest yet.

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I don't understand why people would buy a photoshoot ticket in advance but not an entry ticket, it just seems bizarre to me as they are so inter-linked.

 

They stopped selling Saturday standard tickets in advance but the website said there would be "plenty" available on the door. Hence a lot of people turned up without tickets.

 

I think it's clear in future that unless you've bought your ticket in advance, don't bother going.

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They hadn't stopped selling early bird tickets online, only standard entry ones.

I assure you they very much had. Or I would have had an EB ticket as was my intention. No tickets could be bought online by the time I was able- except for the tickets for things inside the venue like master classes etc.

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I don't understand why people would buy a photoshoot ticket in advance but not an entry ticket, it just seems bizarre to me as they are so inter-linked.

 

 

Well I can tell you why I didn't - our society has a deal with Showmasters whereby they provide us with a letter that gets us a discount on entry, that can only be done on the door, not online. By the time we realised that they weren't going to send it this year (we had received no response to our enquiries) it was too late to buy online. Thus my photo op with Carrie Fisher that I had pre-paid for came and went whilst I was still in the queue outside.

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I've been going to SM events for some time now, always an enjoyable experience.....until now.

Yes, I got in both Sat and Sun, I know how it works thanks to experience. I also met everyone I wanted to see. However, this was really tough to achieve. I got there at 7.30 on Sat and 8.30 on Sun, still had quite a time of queuing and that was just the start of it. Having guests added after the online shop closes meant that I had to queue again inside and this took such a long time. Then, it was running from one queue to another. I'm not sure the VQ system worked at all and the numbers on my photoshoot tickets seemed meaningless most of the time. As for the venue, well, horrible is an understatement.

 

I'll break it down.

 

  • As this year's event incorporated outside space and two buildings SM should have had far more staff outside of the venue to help with advice and queue management. This was very poor with only 1 or 2 staff visible that I could see.
  • Queue jumping was rife, outside the venue and in photoshoot queues. Why did I bother buying my tickets so early? I had ticket number 1 for one of my shoots and I was about the 200th person in, the staff member I pointed this out too couldn't care less and told me to join the back of the queue. This happened quite a bit and loads of people pushed in on purpose or just wandered in because instructions were lacking. With only 1 or 2 people in charge of hundreds of people it wasn't surprising.
  • The venue wasn't very nice, the canteens were appalling, the refund queue was bigger than the purchasing one - okay, not an SM thing but please keep in mind when looking for venues.
  • There were far too many people in the venue, it was dangerous at times and the heat made it more so.
  • On the whole, the staff were below par. Some were better than others but in my experience over the two days they were on average unhelpful and sometimes rude. Trying to be funny and enthusiastic (and being told to cheer up after being in a 2 hour queue) was also unhelpful.

 

Okay, so some food for thought SM. Now, Stan attracted loads of newbies, silly of SM to underestimate this but next time get more staff and maybe think about paying for them, because if you pay peanuts....

 

I got love for you SM but this time you failed and I really don't know if I can hack another event like this.

 

Okay, enough SM bashing from me, here is some words for other customers..

 

  • Sitting on the floor was unhelpful and dangerous. I asked loads of people to stand up (because the staff couldn't be bothered) but most people didn't bother.
  • Cosplayers - we all love you, but why not pose for photos to one side and not in the busy entrance and walk ways? You created dangerous bottlenecks in the gangways!
  • Read the rules before you play the game!!!!! SM had a lot of faults at this Con but the stupidity for the general public was also to blame.

 

So in conclusion, SM need to sort things out if they're wanting to get bigger and don't underestimate the stupidity of Mr. and Mrs. Joe Bloggs.

 

I'm afraid the weekend was quite an unpleasant experience, I bet some of the guests would agree too as many of them looked as peed off as I felt half the time!

 

The reason you were not first person to have their photo done is there are those who have passes for priority access, so they will always be first unless there are crew members having photos done as was explained to me yesterday! Even then, most of the bigger photo shoots I went to were calling in groups of numbers, for example 1-50, but it didn't mean whoever had number 1 was the first in line.

 

Yes, I know. Like I said, I've been going to these for a while. I didn't expect to be first with my number 1 ticket but I didn't expect to be 100th - there were only about 5 or 6 pass holders. They called out in 25 batches, people ignored them. While in the Stan Lee queue I could clearly see peoples ticket numbers as they were using them as fans. I had ticket number 417. I watched several 600, 700 and even 1000 go in the queue ahead when they were only calling out the 200s and when I pointed this out to the staff I was ignored. I even pointed out the people to them and asked those people to respect the rest of us by queuing properly only to be ignored by everyone. There was only 1 staff member in charge of around 1000 people. That was highly stupid!

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Here's my comments of the weekend-

 

good-

 

Great guests

nice amount of dealers

new unseen dealers

 

Bad-

the venue was too small

the number of people aloud into the venue was too many

the tickets went off sale too quick

Why on earth cant you have the choice to get a post or E-ticket?

why cant you sell E-tickets to those who but tickets will less than a week before the event?

the AC inside didn't work most of the day so it was hotter inside than outside

surely there could have been more staff monitoring the lines

would it really have been that hard to have had someone outside handing out tap water to the dehydrating mass?

I had pre bought my tickets for the event on Saturday but was sent all the way around earls court before i eventually of my own finding fount the entry queue for pre booked tickets which was very close to where i had actually entered the venue. why didn't someone at the gate just tell me "yes mam your queue is just to the left"

why on earth were the only layouts of the venue on internal pin up walls would it realy have been that hard to put some up on the edges of the venue inside e.g. next to the toilets so people could fine them.

on the layouts of the venue that were up why was there no mark for "you are here" so people in the building could actually know where they are?

i asked many showmaster staff what the capacity of earls court was because the numbers of people inside seemed like a health and safety risk. The answer i got was " its up to the owners of the venue to decide how many people we let in" but there were no venue owners there to say when to stop letting people inside.

i almost got crushed with the numbers of people in the building especially when i got there and entered at 11:30am on Saturday.

showmaster should have clearly marked out where different ticket lines started but they didn't.

I was wandering around and around to try an find photo area E for my photo with Adam Brown but no showmaster staff could point me to there photo area E was and i almost missed my shoot time. i was one of the last 2 to 3 to get their pictures taken. Literally I'm not kidding.

there were no water fountains or anywhere to get free drinkable tap water.

noone could direct me to where i could get one of the programs for the event.

there were no layouts of the venue available at the door

there were no staff monitoring queue jumping

there was no way inside earls 2 to get to earls 1 to find the comic book people.

the layout of the inside was very confusing and made getting around even more difficult. surely if they had put all the signing tables round the outside would have been better for the lines?

 

I am not one to usually complain on these forums but when the con's far out weigh the pro's then i just have to speak up.

 

showmaster should have carried on selling tickets up to 2 days before the even with those who bought their tickets a week or less before the event should have had to pay extra for next day delivery or been sent a home print E-ticket.

another thing nor next time is sell tickets till a week before the event then advertise there will only be X num of tickets to buy at the door and have staff telling everyone that that is it no more tickets available please leave the queue to prevent people standing in line for hours to realise all they have got to of the day is heat rash, dehydration and sore feet.

 

overall marks-

 

guests 9/10 :)

dealers stalls 9/10 :)

queues 3/10 :(

staff knowledge 4/10 :(

ease of finding the correct queue 5/10 :(

staff friendliness 6/10 :I

overall score 7/10

 

i have been coming to events with showmaster for several years not and this was the most disorganised event i have EVER seen.

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Someone should answer the question why the fire exits were chained up. Pretty sure that's illegal as it has a massive health and safety risk

That is down to the venue not event organisers.

Oh well, thank god we didn't have a fire then! Are you serious? It should be one of the main things that should be checked! If an emergency arose (like a fire) how many people would of found a safe fire escape? They put us in serious danger

 

 

 

I wonder if the correct channels at the relevant & affected Earl's Court venues would agree with 1 of 2's "assessment" of where to place the blame ;)

 

 

Saying that the fire exits being chained up is down to the venue and the organisers simply wouldn't hold up from a legal standpoint. It is the responsibility of both parties to ensure that everyone is safe and, in this situation, both parties are undoubtedly cupable for the debacle that arose.

 

Hmmm, you all appear to have misunderstood me. I was simply saying that any chaining of fire doors would have been done by Earls Court not Showmasters.

 

Just curious, did any of you actually speak to a member of Earls Court or Showmasters about your concerns regarding chaning of doors.

 

There were still mutliple exit routes available, including the massive loading doors at the back of the venue which could have been opended easily if needed

 

This is quite concerning. Are you saying that in the event of a fire & the escapes being locked you believe that Showmasters would have no responsibility for any loss? Have you checked this with your lawyers? Especially with all of the social media reports of overcrowding that would also be your responsibility?

 

Why would I check my lawers?

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I don't understand why people would buy a photoshoot ticket in advance but not an entry ticket, it just seems bizarre to me as they are so inter-linked.

 

They stopped selling Saturday standard tickets in advance but the website said there would be "plenty" available on the door. Hence a lot of people turned up without tickets.

 

I think it's clear in future that unless you've bought your ticket in advance, don't bother going.

 

Surely if you are going to an event though, the first thing you buy is an entry ticket, then you buy your add ons like photoshoots, talks etc rather than the other way around. What if you don't have enough money to get a ticket on the day, then you are stuck with a photoshoot ticket, it just seems an unusual way of approaching things.

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I don't understand why people would buy a photoshoot ticket in advance but not an entry ticket, it just seems bizarre to me as they are so inter-linked.

 

 

Well I can tell you why I didn't - our society has a deal with Showmasters whereby they provide us with a letter that gets us a discount on entry, that can only be done on the door, not online. By the time we realised that they weren't going to send it this year (we had received no response to our enquiries) it was too late to buy online. Thus my photo op with Carrie Fisher that I had pre-paid for came and went whilst I was still in the queue outside.

 

Thanks, that's a slightly different case though compared to the majority of people that attend as you may well have had a different expectation to the majority of people that attend due to what had happened previously with your society.

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They hadn't stopped selling early bird tickets online, only standard entry ones.

I assure you they very much had. Or I would have had an EB ticket as was my intention. No tickets could be bought online by the time I was able- except for the tickets for things inside the venue like master classes etc.

 

All ticket sales stop at a certain advertised point as the Showmasters store staff need time to process them and get them sent out to people in a timely fashion to reach them in the post.

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I don't understand why people would buy a photoshoot ticket in advance but not an entry ticket, it just seems bizarre to me as they are so inter-linked.

 

 

Well I can tell you why I didn't - our society has a deal with Showmasters whereby they provide us with a letter that gets us a discount on entry, that can only be done on the door, not online. By the time we realised that they weren't going to send it this year (we had received no response to our enquiries) it was too late to buy online. Thus my photo op with Carrie Fisher that I had pre-paid for came and went whilst I was still in the queue outside.

 

Thanks, that's a slightly different case though compared to the majority of people that attend as you may well have had a different expectation to the majority of people that attend due to what had happened previously with your society.

 

 

Different case indeed, but it does go to show that there may be valid reasons for some people. Not necessarily all I grant you, but just wanted to state why that was the case for myself at least.

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Someone should answer the question why the fire exits were chained up. Pretty sure that's illegal as it has a massive health and safety risk

That is down to the venue not event organisers.

Oh well, thank god we didn't have a fire then! Are you serious? It should be one of the main things that should be checked! If an emergency arose (like a fire) how many people would of found a safe fire escape? They put us in serious danger

 

 

 

I wonder if the correct channels at the relevant & affected Earl's Court venues would agree with 1 of 2's "assessment" of where to place the blame ;)

 

 

Saying that the fire exits being chained up is down to the venue and the organisers simply wouldn't hold up from a legal standpoint. It is the responsibility of both parties to ensure that everyone is safe and, in this situation, both parties are undoubtedly cupable for the debacle that arose.

 

Hmmm, you all appear to have misunderstood me. I was simply saying that any chaining of fire doors would have been done by Earls Court not Showmasters.

 

Just curious, did any of you actually speak to a member of Earls Court or Showmasters about your concerns regarding chaning of doors.

 

There were still mutliple exit routes available, including the massive loading doors at the back of the venue which could have been opended easily if needed

 

This is quite concerning. Are you saying that in the event of a fire & the escapes being locked you believe that Showmasters would have no responsibility for any loss? Have you checked this with your lawyers? Especially with all of the social media reports of overcrowding that would also be your responsibility?

 

Why would I check my lawers?

 

Sadly I was stuck in the middle of the aisle trying to get out, feeling rather ill and panicking, there was no way to even make it to a fire exit to check if it was open or not or indeed chained up......I didn't get the chance to talk to anyone at the door because the floodgates of people coming in the same door made the crush even worse....I based my, hopefully in the main, generalised comments re Health and Safety around those made by others that were there and your replies to them......

 

 

I am seriously NOT trying to troll or flame....if you read my post about my experience with a fire and the fears from that you would know that my interests are purely in proper safety control....

 

 

But as this is a waste of time until Jason gets back to us I'm leaving the discussion now to go and prepare for a lovely little trip I'm taking across the water in a few weeks to partake in hopefully the chance of meeting Mr Lee elsewhere along with some rather interesting peeps...;)

 

 

Real life beckons.....

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Sadly I was stuck in the middle of the aisle trying to get out, feeling rather ill and panicking, there was no way to even make it to a fire exit to check if it was open or not or indeed chained up......I didn't get the chance to talk to anyone at the door because the floodgates of people coming in the same door made the crush even worse....I based my, hopefully in the main, generalised comments re Health and Safety around those made by others that were there and your replies to them......

My query about did anyone raise their concerns is genuine. Personally it wasn't something that bothered me as I assume if a building (especially an event based one) is open to the public then it complies with all fire safety regulations, and is checked on a regular basis.

 

General comment - if people have a concern about something like that then please raise it at the earliest opportunity with an appropriate person. Saying about it after the event just means that nothing can be done at the time. That applies to anything in life.

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And the other issues 1of 2?

 

Not to bang on but it would be nice to see the key points made summarised and answered (though I know a big ask when you are volunteers believe me I do!) I can't answer the health and safety inside the venue as I never actually got that far.

 

Though I' wouldn't be saying it didn't bother you as you assumed the venue was okay... I was always taught where health and safety goes never ASSUME.

 

We aren't trying to cause strife we just want to know why it was such a painful experience for so many, and if we get silenced without answers it just makes us feel as though our valid concerns are being ignored.

 

If you guys weren't there then can someone from the team who was there kindly answer us and not just repeat that "fact not drama of fiction" thread which was not very good as damage control goes.

 

Thank you for your time 1 of 2.

 

-claire

Edited by Xchasingtailsx
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Someone should answer the question why the fire exits were chained up. Pretty sure that's illegal as it has a massive health and safety risk

That is down to the venue not event organisers.
Oh well, thank god we didn't have a fire then! Are you serious? It should be one of the main things that should be checked! If an emergency arose (like a fire) how many people would of found a safe fire escape? They put us in serious danger

I wonder if the correct channels at the relevant & affected Earl's Court venues would agree with 1 of 2's "assessment" of where to place the blame ;)

Saying that the fire exits being chained up is down to the venue and the organisers simply wouldn't hold up from a legal standpoint. It is the responsibility of both parties to ensure that everyone is safe and, in this situation, both parties are undoubtedly cupable for the debacle that arose.

 

Hmmm, you all appear to have misunderstood me. I was simply saying that any chaining of fire doors would have been done by Earls Court not Showmasters. Just curious, did any of you actually speak to a member of Earls Court or Showmasters about your concerns regarding chaning of doors.There were still mutliple exit routes available, including the massive loading doors at the back of the venue which could have been opended easily if needed

This is quite concerning. Are you saying that in the event of a fire & the escapes being locked you believe that Showmasters would have no responsibility for any loss? Have you checked this with your lawyers? Especially with all of the social media reports of overcrowding that would also be your responsibility?

 

Why would I check my lawers?

You suggested that Showmasters don't have a duty of care to the staff, volunteers, guests & customers while attending the event & that locked fire doors isn't their responsiblilty.

 

If there was a fire there & the escapes were locked Showmasters as well as the Earls Court would be in serious legal trouble, especially if there had been fatalities.

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They hadn't stopped selling early bird tickets online, only standard entry ones.

I assure you they very much had. Or I would have had an EB ticket as was my intention. No tickets could be bought online by the time I was able- except for the tickets for things inside the venue like master classes etc.

 

All ticket sales stop at a certain advertised point as the Showmasters store staff need time to process them and get them sent out to people in a timely fashion to reach them in the post.

 

That is correct, hence why people are asking to change to etickets - as you would have mmore time because they wouldn't need to close it until right up until the event. What are people to do if there isn't anything they want to see whilst the on line tickets are availabel, but guests/events they do want to see are announced afterwards?

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