How Eventbrite solves the problem of queues
The 2017 festival season has brought issues for promoters and attendees alike. Apart from the bad weather and unexpected event cancellations, long queues at the gates have dampened the festival spirit for many.
The case for fixing the queue problem is obvious: every minute spent in queues detracts from a positive festival experience for attendees, and for promoters represents lost sales on food, drinks and merchandise.
Comprehensive entry management is one of the key ways to tackle queues, and Eventbrite, one of the world’s leading providers of live event technology, has developed a 360° approach to reducing waiting times, starting from the moment that tickets go on sale. Real-time access to ticket data enables promoters to deal with attendee issues as they occur – and live attendance tracking helps boost sales of last minute tickets and merch.
Eventbrite’s box office kit includes dedicated ticket scanners, capable of processing 20 tickets per minute. A five-hour battery makes sure that peak time entry is covered on a single charge. A card reader, also included, enables onsite ticket sales via chip and pin or contactless. Eventbrite offers the equipment for purchase or hire to best fit an event’s budget.
“The transition to Eventbrite was smooth, with very little communication from customers adapting to the new system”
For festivals with thousands of attendees, Eventbrite’s integrated RFID solution takes event production up another notch, with rapid entry and onsite transactions at the tap of a wristband. Attendees can optionally link their wristband to their email account or social media profiles, which opens up new options for fans, events and sponsors to connect and interact. The first European event to implement Eventbrite’s RFID technology is the Reeperbahn Festival Conference 2017 in Hamburg.
Beyond tech
Whichever solution organisers go for, Eventbrite’s field services team stands by to create a strategy unique to any given event, as well as give support on the day, overseeing the technology from load-in to de-rig. It’s an approach that aims to combine the best live event technology with professional onsite support. Proven at festivals like BPM, WOMAD and Ramblin’ Man, it ensures a great experience for attendees and promoters alike.
As WOMAD’s festival director, Chris Smith, explains: “The transition to Eventbrite was smooth, with very little communication from customers adapting to the new system. It was also simple for the team to use, and removed administrative hurdles. Accurate reporting and timely payouts are essential to help the business side of WOMAD run smoothly.”
The figures speak for themselves: Using Eventbrite’s ticket sales data, WOMAD was able to come up with new incentives, which helped their early-bird presales increase by 167%.
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BPM expands to Europe with Portuguese festival
Long-running Mexican dance music festival BPM will this September stage its debut European event, in the Portuguese coastal resort of Praia da Rocha.
BPM Festival Portugal, running from 14 to 17 September, will be soundtracked by an as-yet unannounced line-up featuring a “discerning selection of DJs from the house and techno spectrum”, reads the launch announcement.
The future of the flagship BPM event in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, is still up in the air following a drug-related shooting in January which left four festivalgoers and two security staff dead. The mayor of Playa del Carmen, Cristina Torres Gómez, shortly after spoke of her wish that “not one more” dance music event should be held in the town.
A planned Brazilian spin-off was postponed following the shooting.
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Playa del Carmen moves to ban EDM festivals
Civic leaders in Playa del Carmen, the Mexican coastal resort home to the BPM Festival, have spoken of their wish that “not one more” dance music event be held in the town following Monday’s deadly shooting.
Speaking at a press conference earlier this week, Cristina Torres Gómez, the mayoress of Solidaridad, of which Playa del Carmen is the municipal seat, said she would “no longer allow these type of events in Solidaridad”, preferring to focus instead on “another type of tourism for our municipality”.
Her position was supported by business leader María Elena Mata Pineda, president of the Business Coordinating Council (Consejo Coordinador Empresarial), who said: “We businessmen approve of this and ask the authorities to create a safe, clean destination for our families where we can live in peace and quiet. We are asking to now allow any more of these events.”
“We will no longer allow these type of events in Solidaridad”
Torres also announced that she had requested local venues to increase security in the aftermath of the attack, while the Solidaridad government would step up the police presence on its municipality’s roads.
Solidaridad’s move to evict its electronic dance music (EDM) events mirrors a similar decision by Buenos Aires in the aftermath of deaths at the Time Warp festival.
The Los Zetas cartel, one of Mexico’s most notorious criminal syndicates, has claimed responsibility for the shooting, which left four people dead. Local media outlet Semanario Playa News posted a picture of a sinister ‘narcoblanket’, signed by the cartel, which appears to take aim at the festival’s Canadian co-founder, Philip Pulitano, and a source quoted by CBC News alleges Pulitano “had the role of coordinating the terms of the festival with the cartel”.
“The organisers, who previously had a decent relationship with the drug cartel, ignored their demands”
The cartel reportedly “increased demands on BPM organisers this year,” reads the report by the Canadian state broadcaster. “But the organisers, who previously had a decent relationship with the drug cartel, ignored those demands, according to the source. ‘They can turn on you in a second,’ the source said.”
Miguel Angel Pech, attorney-general of the state of Quintana Roo, said on Tuesday that drug-related activity was the chief line of investigation for the shooting, with extortion also a possibility. Officials in Quintana Roo are also investigating whether the attack is linked to a shooting less than 24 hours later in Cancun, when gunmen opened fire on the state prosecutor’s office.
In addition to BPM, the EDM ban is also expected to affect Arena, an LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) festival scheduled for the first week of February.
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Four dead in BPM Festival shooting
Four people have died during a shooting at BPM Festival in Mexico with fifteen others reported injured.
The incident took place in the early hours of this morning at the electronic music event’s closing party at the Blue Parrot nightclub in the coastal resort of Playa del Carmen.
According to a statement on BPM Festival’s Facebook page, police have confirmed reports of a lone shooter, which resulted in four fatalities and fifteen injured. The violence began on 12th street in front of the club and three members of the BPM security team were among those whose lives were lost while trying to protect patrons inside the venue.
“We are overcome with grief over this senseless act of violence and we are cooperating fully with local law enforcement and government officials as they continue their investigation.”
The statement continues: The BPM Festival has been working closely with the local authorities (Seguridad Publica / Policia Turistica) throughout the festival to ensure public safety and security for all visitors. We are overcome with grief over this senseless act of violence and we are cooperating fully with local law enforcement and government officials as they continue their investigation. Our thoughts and prayers are with all the victims and their families and all those affected by these tragic events.
BPM Festival attracts DJs, producers and festival-goers from around the world. This year it celebrates its 10th anniversary from January 6th – 15th. Artists on the line-up include Jack Revill, Anjunadeep, Detriot Love, Pete Tong, Warriors and Dusky.
Those on the bill at the closing party were Hot Since 92, John Acquaviva, Michelangelo, Jamie Jones, Stacey Pullen, Shiny Objects, Joey Daniel, Elio Riso, David Berrie, The Martinez Brothers, Hector and Lauren Lane. The event is helmed by festival directors Craig Pettigrew, Philip Pulitano and Alessandra Axelsson.
Valerie Lee, Mixmag’s US digital editor, was at the closing party and witnessed the shootings. Lee told the Guardian: “We were there for maybe 20 minutes when we heard four to five shots. Everyone was processing it for a second then people starting running away from the main entrance towards the back.
“There is a large cement wall so we crouched underneath waiting to see what was happening. People started saying it was just fireworks. But shortly after other people came running through the area and said they had seen someone with a gun.
“The shooters didn’t seem to enter the club, they just kind of shot towards the front entrance and did not get in. People seem to be saying shooters but I’m not positive (how many there were).”
“The shooters didn’t seem to enter the club, they just kind of shot towards the front entrance and did not get in. People seem to be saying shooters but I’m not positive (how many there were). Nobody entered the club. It didn’t seem like a terrorist attack – just an attempt to kill as many people as possible.”
DJ Jack Revill tweeted after the attack pleading with festival-goers to stay in their hotel. He later added: “This is a very, very sad situation. Tryna get my head around it still. Thoughts and condolences to all affected.”
The Martinez Brothers have also responded to the incident, tweeting: “No words man…completely thrown off blessings to everyone affected & stay safe guys.”
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