#1

Hi

A group of us were refused admission to a gig at a locla venue as we were “late”. Neither the gig tickets or venue made any mention of a curfew, and considering the gig was billed at 10pm to 3am, we thought midnight was unreasonably early for a curfew, espec as it was not advertised.

I’m sure the legalities of this are somewhere but I can’t find it. Of course the ticket agencies all say “no refunds” (unless you purchase their insurance) and all the consumer sites are concerned with refunds for cancellations. The venue says to contact the promoter, but I doubt they are going to help.

Is it really a case of just taking your chances with gig tickets?

#2

Was this at The 100 Club?

10 Likes
#3

Nope a small Midlands venue, but tickets sold by the usual big agencies.

#4

A lot of things which are 10-3 that I’ve seen say you have to be there before midnight

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#5

Yeah also seen this, it should be explicitly stated though

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#6

I’d be irked

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#8

Seetickets says “Events are not the responsibility of SEE …”
… “The venue or the Promoter will have rights to refuse admission … There will often also be rules restricting or preventing the admission of latecomers.”

So they absolve themselves I guess.
But if a venue or promoter doesn’t display their admission rules then surely they can get away with anything?

#9

Were you all shitfaced?

4 Likes
#10

Ha - no, well not this time anyway! :wink:

#11

Have you had a look here?

https://www.resolver.co.uk/consumer-rights/ticket-sales-denied-entry-complaints

Quite often promoters or venues reserve the right to deny entry, even to ticket holders, and it’ll be in their T&Cs which you agree when you purchase a ticket.

1 Like
#12

Which venue was this?

#13

Tx for the link, useful info.

It seems that the ticket agencies cover themselves by the venue-specific exclusions, but how does one pursue anything against a venue or promoter if they don’t publish their T&Cs? In any other consumer purchase, your contract is with the vendor, even if they subcontract things out afterwards, but this situation is different as the agency effectively exclude themselves event-related. Not sure if I’m over or under-thinking this!

Oh and this was the Leamington Assembly, owned by The MJR Group.
The venue have just advised me that they did not put the event on and sent me a link to the promoters page on Facebook where they advise of the curfew. Bah!

Is this sufficient publication of their restrictions, as it seems unreasonable to expect folks to hunt around for all this info beforehand?

#14

Would expect this information to be available at point of purchase tbh, it always has been at anything I’ve been to with last entry times.

#15

Have you tried talking to the management about it?

#16

Your contract is with See Tickets but they have effectively incorporated any conditions that the promoter might impose as part of that contract by the wording you quote above. They’ve also effectively passed responsibility onto you to find out what those are.

That might be awkward for you, but you can see why they do it. They sell tickets for events at thousands of venues all with different rules, all enforced and publicised differently. In practical terms it would be close to impossible for them to find out what those terms were, make sure each customer knew them and take responsibility for them being fairly enforced.

It’s obviously been a shitty experience but I can’t really see any redress. The See Tickets contract term is not so unfair as to be ineffective and I don’t see you have any claim (other than the moral one) against the promoter. I would definitely boycott the promoter though.

#17

I would speak to the management first, as they don’t always agree with the doormen or the people running the night (have seen venues absolutely furious that promoters have been turning people away before). Then go for plan B and kick up a stink on social media. Probably won’t get anything from either, but at least with the latter you’ll give others a warning.

#18

I can’t see the sense in turning people away - obviously they want people to come early so that they will spend money at the bar, but turning people away means they make nothing from them (other than the ticket price, which they get either way).

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#19

They probably just paid someone to run the door til midnight

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#20

Luckily a FoaF is one of the promoters and has been in contact, and so I’ve got some complimentary tix for their next event. :slight_smile:
They said that the ticket agency didn’t allow additional info but they’ll try again to add it next time - also that sometimes the bouncers could be a bit casual in not fetching the promoter if there was any entry issues. So all’s well even if the situation remains a bit unclear in terms of legal obligations and relies upon best efforts all round.

1 Like
#21

In which case, presumably, there would be no one to turn the latecomers away