Forum: 

Sin City Fetish Halloween was a bust.

Anonymous's picture
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on
Published Public: Anyone can view.

That was the crummiest event I've ever been to. Last year's was amazing, but this year...

1. Standing in line for 2 hours, after which the police told us the club was at capacity. And yet there's still a huge lineup of people down the street... all with advance tickets. Rumours of people paying $20 to skip the line. If the club capacity is what, 400ish, why are people holding tickets numbered 700 and higher?

2. Many give up and leave the line, but we persevere. Finally make it to the front, only to to be rudely - and forcefully - pushed in the door by the bouncer. While he was yelling at his staff to stop yelling, no less. (Would appreciate the name of that security team if anyone has it - I'd like to complain).

3. And look! The coat check is full! So now we're going to go into a fetish club with our coats! Yay!

4. But it  doesn't matter, because it's so packed and hot in there that we can only dance for an hour or so before fleeing.

Now, the Sin crowd are still the best people to dance with, so good-natured and fun to be around. All the Sin (and Skank) events are generally awesome and I appreciate all the hard work that goes into them by the organizers.  But really, this event was an utter gong show (especially after having spent so much time and effort on my costume!).  Just a huge, huge disappointment.

Sigh. Really not impressed. 

**from Pandemonium**

All right folks, still waiting on the official word from the venue as to what they have to say about the whole situation, but from Sin City HQ, now that we've -almost- get everything sorted from Halloween - still have to load a few trucks and return stuff to the venues where they normally live and set everything up for the Decadence Ball tomorrow - here's the skinny on what we're trying to do for people who either had tickets that didn't end up getting used from changed plans due to increased wait times at the door due to the venue's late doors opening, and even for people who did get in and party it up but only after a crazy wait :

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Unused tickets, as well as having been good for free entry to the Sanctuary Halloween party this past Sunday at Celebrities, can also be redeemed in the following ways, whichever is easier for people :

- full refund at point of purchase. The advance ticket vendors can only hang on to the ticket sales for so long though, and are asking everyone to collect refunds if needed no later than SUNDAY NOVEMBER 16.

- traded in for tickets to the huge Sin City New Year's Eve Bash at Club 23 West, details and tickets for which come out in a couple of weeks. Anyone who is a Sin regular knows that this past Halloween party for Sin is absolutely NOT par for the course, we have a long history of all our other past events of providing over-the-top events that also run smoothly. All fun, no headache! As well, our regular two-room venue Club 23 West has an excellent track record with us and is always working to make the venue better and better for our attendees.

- if for some reason you can't deal with in the next few months and all these options pass, we'll always be able to issue a refund on an unused ticket at the doors of any Sin City party.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

For those who DID make it in to Fetish Halloween to party it up at the event we've worked so hard on staging for the past 4 weeks, but had to deal with the added hour and a half waits from the venue's late doors opening beyond what was promised to everyone, present your ticket stub at any Sin City party for the remainder of the year (including New Year's) and receive front-of-the-line priority and $5 off admission.

The next Sin City party is the 4th Annual Military Theme Fetish Ball, Saturday November 22 at Club 23 West. This is one of our most popular parties and a guaranteed good time!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

As well, we are highly encouraging Richards On Richards to offer something similar from their end, but that is obviously beyond our control .... once again, I STRONGLY URGE people to leave an email or telephone message to Richards On Richards expressing your dissatisfaction with the added hour and a half delay to the doors opening, and ask they get back to you with an explanation and details of what they plan to do about it for everyone this affected.

Richards On Richards contact info :

info@richardsonrichards.com
604-687-6794

So your comment is relevant to this thread exactly how? Did you read anything other than the subject line before you decided to make a completely irrelevant post?

Reposted from the Sin City Facebook group:

To all Vancouver Kinksters & Halloween enthusiasts :

WHAT AN INSANE NIGHT LAST NIGHT. So many amazing costumes, incredible performances from our stage shows, and unbelievable vibe inside the room!!!

However, these were the best parts of the party, but there also was a massive problem with a longer than usual lineup, even for Sin Halloween, and a late entrance for many of our patrons.

Thank you to everyone for getting ahold of us to voice your concerns, we understand completely and are similarly dealing with the venue with the concerns of our own for the various things which happened last night compromising the integrity of the event for our attendees, and for those of us who have worked for over a month on putting this party together.

This is the third Halloween party we have staged at the venue, always on the Saturday of the Halloween weekend. Ticket sales for last night were booked based on how the last two years went, and at the end of the day we actually had a little -less- people last night than last year. The previous two parties had the same numbers, but ran smoothly, without long waits or late entrances, and we had every reason to believe that the same planning would have the same high level of experience for our attendees on our most high profile and high energy party of the year.

As we all now know, the venue double booked the night with an earlier live show, despite this party for all intents and purposes having been booked years in advance and already in place before the double booking. As far as we know this was mostly a scheduling clerical error as opposed to any kind of intent to make any extra income for the venue, they only lost out big time because of this snafu.

Though we did know about this beforehand, we were very firm with the venue that our doors could NOT be any later as the domino effect on our line and any loss of time from the party for our patrons would be unacceptable. Their official stance up to last night as we negotiated the situation with them was that they had contacted Live Nation and they had organised their early live show in such a way that it would end at 8:30, thus allowing them to guarantee our doors could still open at 9 PM.

We proceeded, expecting the party to run as smoothly as it has on the two previous years, but obviously this didn't happen. The band got off stage at 9:40 PM, and even with a lighting fast changeover, that put doors to our event at 10:15, adding a full hour and a half to the wait time for all our early patrons who had already been waiting prior to that, pushing the time when the lineup evaporates back another hour and a half to an unacceptably late time, and packing the entire party, which was otherwise awesome, into three and a half hours as opposed to five hours, also unacceptable.

To say we as promoters are incensed with the venue is an understatement, both for ourselves and on behalf of our attendees. Live Nation is similarly furious with them, as this affected the crowd for the early show as well, with fans of the band arriving to find the show ending an hour earlier than anticipated.

As a matter of course all unused tickets will be refunded and we will do our best to effect that in a way that is easiest for each individual - they can either have them refunded from the point of purchase, or from us directly at any Sin City event, whichever is the most convenient. Or, they can be traded in for tickets for our New Year's event which go on sale in a couple of weeks, which is held at our regular host venue, Club 23 West, which has always done right by our scene and is constantly is working to better the venue for our parties. Or, the two parts of the tickets can be used for admission to two of our regular parties.

Thanks for posting this! Pretty much addresses everything that went wrong about the night. Sympathies to all who were affected!

I, too, remember the days when Granville was awesome... and now, anytime I want to get out of the West End, I have to traverse a perilous river of drunk, rowdy nasties. I always feel bad for the cops who have to babysit the. And the guys who run the poutine place. :)

That's hilarious about the guys coming down to The Fall so as not to get shot. Ironically, this past summer I was trapped inside The Fall with a crowd of people because of that shooting across the street at Gotham. :)

I don't know the whole story, but Richard's royally fucked up. Everything that went wrong was, IMHO, entirely the fault of the venue. The club was double-booked to start with. I was more than a little stunned to walk in early to set up my booth to find the club full of hipsters. I was there early to be set up by 9:00 and the wanking indie wanna-be rock-stars didn't even get off the stage until well after 9:00.

We got there fairly early - and talked to others who had got there even earlier - and the lineup was so long it looked like they hadn't even opened the doors yet. So Richard's double-booking would definitely explain that. What a mess.

Grr Richards! Getting pushed by a bouncer for no reason really pissed me off. I can appreciate that they were having a tough night, but really, treatment like that is uncalled for.

When events from the Goth/Alternative scene or the tangentially related Fetish scene happen in places that normally cater to what is now disparagingly known as "the Granville Street crowd" (a term that makes me a little sad, since I remember when Granville Street was cool), the regular venue staff can be a problem, dealing with the crowd as if they were the usual herd of yahoos they are used to.

Celebrites, Club 23 West, The Red Room - they love our crowd because they know we drink like fish and never cause any serious trouble. Friday, Hallowe'en night was a great case-in-point: I was at The Fall for the Flaming Angels party and fashion show (pictures coming soon) and was outside for a smoke when I fight literally erupted out of Au Bar. There were people scrapping in the middle of Seymour Street, blocking traffic, including the trolleys, and some of the more clever individuals from Au Bar actually came down The Fall to "hang out with the freaks, where it is safe" "because I don't want to get shot" (actual quotes).

Our crowds are simply not used to the sort of brusk treatment one gets from bouncers whose normal job is to keep normal people from seriously injuring or killing eachother.