Update from Sticks Festival!
Published: April 18, 2009
Updated: April 19, 2009
We’re out here for day 2 of the Sticks Country Music Festival! So far we’ve seen thousands of people, hundreds of families, and many great country artists. We have a few pictures in our Snap page, and more on the way. We’ve also go some video from Sticks! WRBL has been here with us at Parker Hill helping out with covering this event on both our websites. Ashley met and interviewed Granger Smith! Click here to see that video!
Chuck Wicks was hanging out backstage and we also got to introduce him to the thousands of people in the audience!
Needless to say, we’ve been having a great time out at Parker Hill these last 2 days. More pictures and video are on the way!
Our Sticks Festival page has even more! Click here to see it!
Don’t forget to follow us on our Twitter Page also!
Reader Reactions
Well i was another one of those reserved ticket holders. I purchased my tickets back in February. I purchased 3 tickets for myself and my parents. Once at the gates i was also told there was no room in the reserve section. This is not fair to most of those that prepared for this event and took the time to order early. Where is my refund. Where are the refunds to the hundreds of people that ordered reserved section seating. This was concert was not a thought out thing from the beginning. The parking was was confusing when we arrived on friday. One person sent us one way and the other another way.. Half of the vendors required tickets and half cash. I feel as if i was taken advantage of with the ticket sales and not sure i will return to future events.
I’d like to respond to the person above. First, let me thank you and everyone else who came to Sticks…we we’re really glad to have you there. From the lack of complaints overall, we think the majority of the people in attendance had a great time.
I also want to thank you for taking the time to voice your concerns. We can only get better if we know where we were coming up short.
First, with regard to “Reserve Seating”. Our tickets were printed with something that read “Seat ###“. This should have read “Ticket ###“, which would have avoided much of the confusion. There was no “Row #“ as you indicated. The website map http://www.stickscountry.com/buy-tickets clearly showed that we would have as many as 5 sections blocked off for reserved seating. The text also clearly states “Seats are not provided in this section”.
Yes, the section was too small because of two things: 1. we sold “upgrades” to those who asked at the gate (we had sectioned off the fencing to hold the correct amount of people who had pre-purchased tickets…we were not planning on selling “upgrades” at the door. 2. security was a bit lax about letting people in the “purple section” without the right wrist band. Our fault. Security will be tighter and better instructed next time around.
You mentioned something about “collecting all the extra money on parking fees and tickets sold that they didn’t have space for.“ With regard to this, I’ll offer the following: 1. Our parking fee of $10 for a Fri/Sat pass works out to just $5 / day. Considering the time and labor it took to prepare a neatly ordered, easy in/easy out parking lot, parking revenue was simply trying to cover costs. 2. Our ticket sellers had no way of knowing that the reserved section was full. They were simply trying to make customers happy by giving them what they wanted. At just $15 per upgrade, this was also not a big revenue generator either.
The guys (and many women) told us that they liked meeting the Sticks Chicks and getting their pictures taken with them or getting their autographs. Sorry you did not care for them.
We made every effort to be as accessible as possible, however we are operating on farm land so we can’t offer a “perfect situation”. We will continue to keep the needs of those in need in mind as we continue to improve the facility.
I hope that these answers help you better understand that we were trying to please as many individuals as possible this weekend…and to that end, I believe we were successful. I do sincerely hope that you were satisfied once we brought you the chairs and I hope you’ll consider giving us another chance next year.
You can contact me at dmlowitz@aol.com if you need anything else. Best, David
I for one was VERY upset after ordering Reserve tickets with row/seat numbers on them. Getting to the concert I was told by the person driving the “so called” shuttle where to go to get arm bands and someone would show us where the reserve section was along with helping find our seats. What a joke! There was no one to do either but the joke of it all, was there was no such thing as reserved seats! After finally finding the reserved section we were stopped at the entrance by security telling me the reserved section was full. I tried explaining that could not be possible because I had purchased tickets as far back as Feb. when they first went on sale. After 2 trips back to the front gate complaining and getting someone with security to get on the radio and call someone about the problem. I was told by David Adams via the radio “I would have to deal with it”. David did however get me the chairs that I needed and found a spot to set them up after I demanded money back on the cost of my tickets. I later found out the front gate was letting people who had purchased general adm. upgrade tickets to reserved. The area they had marked off for reserved was NOT big enough to be selling extra tickets. Plus after the concert began the security at the entrance disappeard leaving the gate wide open to anyone who had a general adm. braclet, to come into the already overcrowed area to watch the concert. It was up to the people who had paid the price of reserved to police the area and threaten to get security to people coming in with general adm. braclets on! I realize this was a first event, but all this could have been avoided. It seemed to me they were after every dollar they could get. I’ve been reading what a success this was and I’m sure it was to the producers who collected all the extra money on parking fees and tickets sold that they didn’t have space for. To me they have a long way to go before I will be back.
The entertainment was Great with the exception of the Stiks Chicks. They were totally unnecessary in my opinion. Maybe they were a male thing???
The other thing I hope for next year is to make this available to the handicapped (parking, paved lanes to restrooms/concessions). This was not an event with handicapped availability. Isn’t it a law that every public event be handicap accessible?
Advertisement