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

[LadyLaraCroft]

 

I got there at 8:30 am and was still out there queueing at 1pm. I have never ever burnt in the sun in my life due to being naturally olive skinned but I BURNT WHILST I WAS IN THE QUEUE. I brought three bottles of water and guzzled them all in the queue as well as offering them to others who hadn't got any drinks. They were letting people re-enter whilst people who hadn't even got their tickets were frying in the sun outside, which was completely unfair. LET PEOPLE IN WHO HAVEN'T BEEN IN YET BEFORE ALLOWING RE-ENTRY! When I eventually got in I fought my way through the insane crowd and went straight to get a VT for the only guest I was there to see, Bernard Cribbins. The attendant tolf me they were only on number 100 (my ticket was 418) so I should come back at about 4. I did just that only to be told that he was going home and no matter how much I begged and pleaded the answer was no. And the board said tickets 1-450 which couldn't have given me a big time-window anyway. I wouldn't have been as disappointed if the autograph was for me, but it wasn't, it was to be a birthday present for my baby sister. I went home in tears because I had let her down. Since I got home I have been constantly drinking water and sleeping due to heat stroke, dehydration and exhaustion.

This was such complete and utter bulls***. I went for a day out to enjoy myself and got disappointment, anxiety, heat stroke and sunburn.

 

I'm so sorry to hear that. Hope you're okay!

 

I'm much better now, thank you. Sleep and a lot of water and snuggles with my cuddly toys and now I'm pissing like a racehorse but yes, much better.

[Raylenth]

The event is announced about a year in advance so plenty of time to see if you can make it and the shop closes about 2 weeks before the event. Plenty of time to know if you can make it. What ticket touts? Thats the first I've heard of that.

I will comment on this as this affected me for the first time. Yes we have plenty of time to buy the tickets on line. No I don't expect everything to be run to cater to me and any issues I have, however for me, from the announcement of the event to the close of the online tickets not one guest was announced that was of interest to me. It happens and I just don't go to that show. Simple. However guest announcements are still made after the online tickets become unavailable. Yes I know this has always happened but it can lead to there suddenly being a guest going that you desperately want to meet but it's too late to get an online ticket. Usually it's no problem as you can buy on the day. I have always bought early bird tickets but this time could only try and get an on the day one in the hope that I could get into the Sherlock talk. Which I couldn't as I couldn't get in despite allowing what under any other circumstances would be plenty of time.

 

As others have pointed out we are told that there are day tickets available so we spend money to travel down on the belief that we will be able to get in. I know a lot of people have said 'well you should have bought a ticket earlier' but this is real life - why should we when we are under the impression that we will be able to get in fine, if a bit later with a day ticket.

 

SM aren't responsible for my desire or lack there of to see this event's crop of guests, but unfortunately we can't all buy a ticket and book time off work on the off chance that someone we want to see might be announced in the last few days. Yes that side of it is our problem, I really don't have any issue at all with SM making announcements right up until the event itself or anything but we have always been told then that on the day tickets are available. Seeing a great announcement after the shop has closed, there has always been almost no trouble buying on the day - lots of people I spoke to in the queue only ever buy on the day and have been able to get in before with no hassle.

 

I appreciate that SM seem to have been caught out by the huge number of people that wanted to attend but several things need to be addresses in my opinion - one of which being the ticketing system. If they are going to have lots of huge guests/talks etc that are going to attract customers to the venue they need to have a better plan in place for dealing with all of the issues that have arisen.

 

If people have paid for/got tickets to events going on inside the venue they should be guaranteed entry. Any guest/talk/shoot that is considered a big attractant may need to be handled differently at future events.

[Angel62sir]

I'm going to chip in here, my group and I traveled all the way from Yorkshire at from extremely early morning looking forward to the day and was met by sheer chaos, there were no changing facilities (there was supposed to be I asked Friday afternoon) so we had to change in to our costumes in the gents. The cloak room was full so we had to carry all our kit around. so I couldn't take photos. From coming out of the relative cool of the loo to the sauna of the main hall was appalling in full costume, by the time I got to the cloak room I nearly passed out twice (being ex army I'm a tough cookie) but I was appalled at the lack of organisation of the whole place. I ended up not enjoying myself very much hanging around outside in the little shade I could find watching all the kit nursing heat exhaustion.

 

From now on I'm either going in costume or simply not going. Shame on show masters really, a event where people come from all over to be met with chaos is simply not good enough.

[GamerGraph]

cant blame the event runners for sun burn this isnt a sun kiosk or sunbed or a beach resort, sun index heard of it?! NOPE?! well metoffice has the info. hat and sunglases and covered arms, cba to read that all knowing you cant be asked to read an index and be ready for the sun. which is ironic as uk gets so little of it.

[samsuperfly]

If it's any constellation (which it probably is not) it seems they pulled their shiz together for the Sunday. I had a pleasant time although it was bloody hot inside! The staff were fantastic and helpful. Saying that, I did have a pre paid ticket.

 

I can't believe there wasn't a single person updating the crowd with queue times... That just seems like a standard thing to do... A free bottle of water upon entry as an apology wouldn't have gone a miss either!

 

P.s. The utmost admirability for those waiting in the heat in costumes! You guys have some balls! Unless your a girl.

[jamesmc91]

I only went down to see a couple of authors and a comic writer and saw them so I guess i'm in the "Saw who I want to see so it was good" camp, but it was clear there was problems.

 

I've never been to one before so don't know what it's like in previous years but i think it was a simple case of vastly underestimating the amount of people turning up. We saw one guy at the entrance opposite Earls Court tube who sent us around the entire building to join the queue which was actually on the the side to the left of that entrance, clearly he hadn't been informed the queue had got so big. Plus seeing as he was the only person we could see there was about 20 of us just following this massive queue and joining a queue and asking the guys in front of us.

 

As the queue itself seemed to be decided by the customers as opposed to managed by organisers it was all over the place and cut across an access road to somewhere and cars and buses were driving through the queue. We had one idiot push in front of us with his two sons and was acting all smug and pleased with himself and kept talking to his sons about pushing in again where the queue was doubling back on itself, he managed this when a couple of cars drove through the queue, splitting everyone up. It totally rubbed me up the wrong way and I had decided I was going to say something to an organiser or security guard, but never actually saw one until we got in the building.

 

The overcrowding was clearly a problem, me and my brother went into London for dinner and came back at about 1 to get back in for a signing and everyone was sort of mushed up against the door with no clear queue apart from the people paying on the day, the one girl holding the door then informed everyone the venue was at capacity so everyone was stopped, blocking the exits and this poor girl was clearly out of her depth as people just barged past her and she had to explain to some impatient people the situation.

 

Those were the main problems I could see, little problems I also noticed was that no one was policing the exit to the Stan Lee hall, so if you went in there first you wouldn't get stamped for reentry. Also the sound was terrible for the GoT talk and was completely underwhelming, not worth the £20 and the moderator had no idea what he was doing, the guests just chatted aimlessly for 10 minutes before the guy decided to open up the floor to Q+A.

 

Like I said though I saw the guys I wanted to, only had to pay for entry for one day and a talk and had a good time round London on the Friday and Sunday, so for me it was a good weekend in the Capital. If I'd spent £100's on it like some people and been there for both days I would be disappointed, Don't think I'll be going next year.

[jamesmc91]

cant blame the event runners for sun burn this isnt a sun kiosk or sunbed or a beach resort, sun index heard of it?! NOPE?! well metoffice has the info. hat and sunglases and covered arms, cba to read that all knowing you cant be asked to read an index and be ready for the sun. which is ironic as uk gets so little of it.

 

I don't think they're blaming the organisers for the Sun, they're blaming them for allowing people to be stood out in it for hours for no reason.

[TerraHawk]

LET PEOPLE IN WHO HAVEN'T BEEN IN YET BEFORE ALLOWING RE-ENTRY!.

Thar's not practical though. If you want the big autographs you arrive early, you pick up your VT, and leave. You come back later to get those autographs and or photoshoots. But if you think you can't re-enter at 14:00 for a 14:30 photoshoot or just check what the VT numbers are up to. you'd to have to stay put, perhaps with little to do for hours, other than take up floorspace. Which doesn't do the queuers outside any good either.

 

And of course there was the 2nd building too. Going straight from one to the other was not techincally leaving.

Edited July 14, 2014 by TerraHawk

[sophstar007]

Why do people keep bring up the weather in a way that sounds like SM fault? I know the queuing was bad for people I myself was there at 7.30am in the early bird pre paid queue, but paying on the day has its risks. While people complain SM were bad as get got sunburn etc.) it's unfair to hold SM accountable for that.

 

The weather isn't SM's fault. But its the fact that health and safety was a big issue outside and inside. If it was going to be so hot, SM maybe could've thought about handing out water to people waiting in the queues, or had bottles of sun cream. maybe unrealistic but surely some of the crew could have been going up and down the queues with that as well as the programme?

 

I think SM were so unprepared for the amount of people turning up. I really think they should rethink the whole system...as others have said no pay on the day tickets.

[Henchman]

Those were the main problems I could see, little problems I also noticed was that no one was policing the exit to the Stan Lee hall, so if you went in there first you wouldn't get stamped for reentry.

 

I had an issue with this too, I went into EC2 first and got stamped on exit, but it wan;t very good and had rubbed off by thre time I wanted to leave EC1. I tried to leave by the stairs first only to find that there was nobody at this exit, so I had to go back up to the main floor, and then back down in the lift (I could see no other way of getting back to the lobby as the escalator only went up) only to find that they guy on the exit door didn't have a stamp so I had to go to the entrance door and get restamped there. It seemed that they were only stamping people on the way in to EC1, but they didn't seem to be doing this earlier on in the day. On the Sunday it was better, as the guy at the exit of the mian lobby had a stamp, but this was still not actually the exit that the majority of people used as to come out this way you had to use the lift, if you went down either of the stair cases then they would take you out through un-policed fire exits.

[Henchman]

The weather isn't SM's fault. But its the fact that health and safety was a big issue outside and inside. If it was going to be so hot, SM maybe could've thought about handing out water to people waiting in the queues, or had bottles of sun cream. maybe unrealistic but surely some of the crew could have been going up and down the queues with that as well as the programme?

 

 

I don't think you can reasonably expect Showmasters to do this. As the counter argument, if it was going to be so hot then people should have bought their own water and sun cream. It would have been a massive expense and logistical problem to have people carting thousands of bottles of water and sun tan lotion up and down that queue, and also a big drain on their already stretched personnel numbers. It is like when it is hot on the London underground they do not go around handing out free water, they tell you to bring your own water.

[jael001]

The idea that SM can suddely drum up thousands of bottles of water and sunscreen for those people who haven't even bothered to spend money on their event is laughable. They are not a catering company, or Boots, they dont have instant access to that type of thing, and people should be grown up and look after their own wellbeing. Take some responsibility for your own health, don't expect Showmasters to babysit you. Yes it was a long queue and you may or may not have gotten in, but how you deal with being in that queue is up to you, not them. If you come out inadequately prepared then that is on you.

[MrsEllacott]

I find these SM apologists rather confusing.

 

People were treated shockingly yesterday. Queueing with no organisation and no information, with realistically no chance of getting in, is simply not right. It is no way to run an event.

 

And then, for those who got in, to find it dangerously overcrowded and unventilated, is again simply not right or fair.

 

The fault of all the problems lie clearly at the feet of SM management. They should have paid and trained many, many more staff. They are all too willing to invent countless different hierarchical tickets and wristbands in an effort to take as much money off of us nerds as possible, without ever seemingly thinking about logistics and customer experience.

 

For people on here to say to those with entirely legitimate complaints, that they should have brought a bottle of water with them or put some suncream on, is frankly disrespectful.

 

 

I find these SM apologists rather confusing.

 

People were treated shockingly yesterday. Queueing with no organisation and no information, with realistically no chance of getting in, is simply not right. It is no way to run an event.

 

And then, for those who got in, to find it dangerously overcrowded and unventilated, is again simply not right or fair.

 

The fault of all the problems lie clearly at the feet of SM management. They should have paid and trained many, many more staff. They are all too willing to invent countless different hierarchical tickets and wristbands in an effort to take as much money off of us nerds as possible, without ever seemingly thinking about logistics and customer experience.

 

For people on here to say to those with entirely legitimate complaints, that they should have brought a bottle of water with them or put some suncream on, is frankly disrespectful.

 

How is it disrespectful for anyone to say you should have brought water with you or you should have used suncream? It is common sense to anyone that you should have done that! I knew the moment Stan Lee was announced that come Saturday there would be huge queues and that it would be much busier than normal, so I brought ALL my tickets in advance! But had I not and had I been in that queue, I would have brought plenty of stuff with me! I am regularly at events where there are usually queues and long waits and I NEVER go without essentials like drinks and suncream! Therefore you can not blame Showmasters for your lack of common sense!

 

 

I find these SM apologists rather confusing.

People were treated shockingly yesterday. Queueing with no organisation and no information, with realistically no chance of getting in, is simply not right. It is no way to run an event.

And then, for those who got in, to find it dangerously overcrowded and unventilated, is again simply not right or fair.

The fault of all the problems lie clearly at the feet of SM management. They should have paid and trained many, many more staff. They are all too willing to invent countless different hierarchical tickets and wristbands in an effort to take as much money off of us nerds as possible, without ever seemingly thinking about logistics and customer experience.

For people on here to say to those with entirely legitimate complaints, that they should have brought a bottle of water with them or put some suncream on, is frankly disrespectful.

Hear hear. If they were in our position at any point in the day I think they feel the same but it's people with the "well I got what I wanted so the rest of you should stop complaining " attitude- that's really raising my eyebrows. Especially as they are picking up on tiny little things I've said and not on the major health and safety implications or genuine issues, which I maintain are predominantly down to bad management and people movement and zero communication.

 

I've been at events where we've had to handle complaints but nothing of this magnitude and I'm not inexperienced, I think it's an insult to everyone when they were actively promoting people without tickets to come down to treat those people as if their complaints are invalid or over dramatised.

 

Someone handle this. Don't tell us it's not you fault- own up. Don't tell us your gonna learn from it , tell us what you are going to implement so that it never happens again and stop fobbing us off. If that's what you want from posts from us as detailed In the rules and regs, have the decency to do it back.

 

 

And yours' sounds like a bad attitude at not getting what you wanted or what you thought you deserved! It may to some people even sound like jealousy! Don't blame all their advertising on the amount of people who turned up, there is word of mouth to consider as well! That is how I discovered LFCC to begin with, through a friend, not their advertising! Simple fact is, if anyone thought they could turn up this weekend and be guaranteed entry without having prepaid, then that is all on them!

 

I think the crew did a fantastic job considering how busy it was and from what I heard some very rude and disgruntled attendees!

[adriangill]

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.

[discodiva]

 

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.

 

But surely a company as professional as Showmasters would have checked that ALL aspects relating to Health and Safety were in place and working before they dared let anyone in the room?....

[OurDek]

To add to this, I have previously backed showmasters on most occasions, even on Saturday, but having attended on Sunday this was the least enjoyable event I have been to in a long time. To begin with, knowing how busy pre-sales had been I took the decision to pre-book the car park at a cost of £26.50. Upon arriving at Earl's Court at 9.15 after a two hour journey I find that the entrances to the venue are cordoned off with Car Park Full signs. I told the attendant that I'd pre-booked and was told I'd have to go the other entrance. Three laps of the surrounding roads later, I found another attendant who gave clear instruction on how to find the correct entrance. I got in the car park and parked. I next got to the main entrance where there were two queues, one saying pre-paid tickets (which wasn't moving) and one pay on the day. Rather than get in the wrong queue I asked a couple of the crew girls on the entrance which queue to join and was told that I could go straight in as I had pre-paid. It turned out that the queue was for pre-paid standard entry. Once in the venue I fought my way through the already considerable crowd to get VT's for the guests I wanted to meet and found that for the first time there didn't appear to be crew members giving tickets out, despite some guests showing VQ numbers. I managed to get in the Terry Farrell queue with only a couple of people in front of me and waited about 30 minutes to meet her. Thankfully she was a fantastic guest, really lovely. I again tried to find crew with VT's and still couldn't get anywhere near anyone or just couldn't see anybody. Giving up any hope of meeting any of the larger guests I found the area at the back where the Doctor Who guests were and met four more guests.

 

I then decided to spend the money I had left over in the dealers area but as the general entry people were now coming into the building I found it almost impossible to get anywhere near the stalls. There were just too many people for the size of the aisles so it was horrendous trying to get to see anything. Another problem were the large number of people sitting around the only open spaces around the promotional displays, they were an obstacle blocking movement.

 

I couldn't even attempt to get near the comics building as again there were too many people hanging around so I decided to make the 2 hour+ journey home, having spent three hot and uncomfortable hours inside the venue. Here comes the third fun element of the day, trying to drive through the hundreds of people who just stood where they felt, blocking the car park exit even when security asked them to move. Thankfully no-one was killed.

 

Having been to pretty much every LFCC since their inception, I can see a few ways to stop these repeated problems at the event:

 

1) Have all entry on pre-sold tickets only, with a number of options within this idea. Using Stan Lee as an example, have major guest-specific ticket sales. For example, a Stan Lee All-inclusive ticket for say £100.00 which would include entry, autograph and photo shoot immediately to Stan Lee's area from the event opening, or a Stan Lee ticket for £60.00 which would just cover entry and the autograph. VT's could still be issued and a hand stamp used to enter other areas, but at least with this format entry could be deliberately measured and photo shoots timed, which leads into point

 

2) Photoshoots. It was obvious to anyone with a basic grasp of logic that it would have been impossible for all of the people attending the event to meet Stan Lee that not everyone would get the autograph they craved because of the amount of time taken up by photoshoots and talks. On Sunday there was only a window of approximately four hours for him to sign, taking into account photos, talk and lunch. I know that these sessions make a fortune for Showmasters and they are not likely to drop them, but they hold things up and take large chunks out of the time for others to meet a guest. There are a couple of options here. Either split the days that these things are done, so for example have the Saturday as a photo shoot day and the Sunday as a signing day. Showmasters could still sell the thousands of photo shoot tickets for all of the guests and the people who only want a photograph could time their day so that they get their photo and see the dealers stands. Then on the Sunday those who want autographs have the whole day to get their VT and get a signature. If this was done and announced in enough time, it would allow people to book time off work with plenty of notice.

 

The other option is to have a photoshoot either at the start or the end of a day in one session of two or three hours. You then have a fair amount of time for the autograph collectors and those who want a signature on their photo would still have the option.

 

3) Cut down on the guest list. It looks impressive when the number of guests is announced but it is almost impossible both financially and in terms of time to meet so many guests. Also stop having big guests on one day only. Having them for two days spreads things out and gives everyone a chance to meet people. For those of us who are fans and who work on Saturdays it is very frustrating to find that the major guest you want to meet is only doing the day you can't make. I for one would much rather have a list of say thirty or forty guests signing on both days than a list of almost 100 people with a large percentage only signing on one or other of the days.

 

4) Don't allow standard entry people to form queues outside the venue entrance until all of the early bird entries have entered. Earl's Court is a large enough venue that two queues could be neatly formed away from the entry. Or stop anyone with a standard ticket queuing from the early entry time without paying the additional charge. Make them enter the grounds after 10.00 to form their queues or make them upgrade. What is the point of queuing so early if you aren't getting in for two hours. It's OK for those who are entering at 9.00am and want early tickets, or who have paid for the car park in advance and can gain entry from 7.00am to the car park. By stopping standard entry people from queuing so early you would not need five queues on the day, only three for the first two hours of entry - Queue 1 for Gold pass holders, Queue 2 for pre-paid ticket holders and Queue 3 for pay on the day early entry. Added to this it would be an idea to have one or two trusted crew members go along the pay on the day queue, selling the tickets to those waiting and getting them to join the end of the pre-paid queue. Once the doors are open and the queue has gone in to the venue then the box office can start selling the early entry tickets to those entering later.

 

I fully agree with the forum poster who started this thread, not enough is being done to stop the repeated problems that LFCC is encountering. Instead of promising to get bigger and have more things, look at going smaller and making all attendees have the best day possible.

[Abigail308]

Just wanted to say I attended with my 15 year old son and we had a fantastic day. Everyone was lovely and he was thrilled because he got his photo with Mark Gatis. I thought it was all well organised and we met everyone we wanted to with ease. Jason Mewes was a legend. I understand people had very different experiences of the day but just wanted to say ours was very good.

[bem]

The organisation on Saturday was awful, to the point where I saw plenty of people leaving and selling their Sunday tickets to people who had queued for hours because "it's a shambles in there and I have no interest in coming back tomorrow". I heard plenty say that in my 5 hour wait.

 

Worst of all though was that when I was near the front of the queue, I asked a few of the staff what was going on as 5 hours had gone by and now that I'm near the doors the queue has stopped dead. I got told by 4 different staff members that no more tickets were being sold. I still stuck it out for a bit longer though. I asked a 5th guy at 2:30 whether this was it or not and he told me that absolutely no one else was getting in. Boiling and exhausted, I left the queue and sat on the wall opposite the building in the shade for a break before my walk back to the hotel. Half an hour later I see the queue is moving again. If I'd stayed were I was I'd have gotten in. No one would let me back in the queue as the group in front and behind me both left as well after being told that no one else would be getting in that day. I even asked if they were going to be telling everyone else in the queue as you could tell that it was still huge and they said they would... no one did though. Unless you left the queue you had no idea what was going on.

 

The only good part of Saturday was meeting Claire in the queue. Other than that, it was a very long and painful day that ended in disappointment and annoyance that the staff clearly had no idea what was going on.

 

Sunday, I finally got in and found my favourite artist. All I really wanted to do. Took me long enough though as no one could tell me where he was. I asked 10 different staff members and none could even tell me where his section was, as I had the section name. When I finally found him, he informed me that he had a hard time setting up as no one could even tell him where his stand would be as they had no floor plan. The other tables around him complained of the same thing saying that it was a nightmare. How can they have these guests and not know where they're all going to go? That's just bad planning from SM.

[loveamyadams]

how odd that some people think everyone is in the same situation when it comes to being organised. how can you buy tickets in advance and be prepared when they are still announcing new guests up to the last 48 hours including popular new GOT guests and the website has been shut for ticket sales for 2 weeks or more. of course many people will make an unexpected decision to turn up last minute having not planned to come at all especially when you see the website saying there are still plenty of tickets available for 'pay on the day'. and separately in my daughters situation she gets paid once a month and it fell on the friday of the convention. so she had no option but to do things last minute. I'm guessing plenty of people were the same.

[TerraHawk]

those people who haven't even bothered to spend money on their event is laughable. They are not a catering company.

I think that's a bit of a calous attitude - everyone was there to spend money on the event. They didn't in advance - so stuff em? Online sales ceased early. Nothing was done to discourage the unbothered.

 

You can hire catering. Profit can be made.

[MissShell]

 

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

[TerraHawk]

 

 

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

Golds first. Edited July 14, 2014 by TerraHawk

[Leacroft]

Health and Safety of staff, guests and customers should be the number 1 priority.

It wasn't.

I'm just surprised the Emergency Services weren't called.

The event would have been shut down.

[discodiva]

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

[CurlyKirsty]

 

Showmasters do say online when the shop will be closed so you are told when ticket sales finish. Don't think you can blame showmasters for a broken air con that is the venues fault and people selling drinks outside for high price that is the normal for any event in this country.

But I can blame them. They are the events organisers and I know what that means. It means you are responsible for the running of the event and the attendee experience. If they had been visible and monitoring the queue the touts wouldn't have been able to do that. If they had recced the venue appropriately they would have had a back up plan. Like. I said- I do their job.

 

Additionally I'm criticising their whole ticketing system which is outdated and clearly doesn't work. People don't know months in advance if they will be free that weekend in this day and age - weirdly people work Saturdays a lot now.

 

Yep I work all weekends except when I book this off as holiday aproximately six months in advance, I'm not stupid. I purchased my tickets three weeks prior to the event, usually I get standard but they had stopped selling them. Realising that meant capacity had been reached if I hadn't managed to get earlybird tickets I wouldn't have bothered turning up on the day. But then I use common sense such as bring my own bottled water that has been in the freezer all night so it defrosts throughout the day and makes an excellent cold compress when you are stuck in a queue.

 

Showmasters warned us time and again that this was going to be big but demand obviously overtook all expectation and results in people accusing the Showmaster team of being all about sucking money out of customers and then moaning that Showmaster's didn't take your money for autographs or photos, ie they didn't deliver what you wanted. They also get accused of not training crew enough, my answer to that is for you to go work for showmasters if you think things need changing. The crew is primarily people who used to be customers like you, and at least you get into the event for sure then.

 

Yes I am being cheeky but really you should email and volunteer to crew. You sound like the type of person that Showmasters needs.