waynetravis

That's one of the stupidest things i've ever heard.
You're queing up outside an arena for a conert without your ticket??? ridiculous

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4U2Play

bfloxng,

I totally understand your anger and frustration, but I disagree a bit with the idea that people who line up days in advance need to stay in line at all times, or even most of the time.

Isn't the reason why U2 fans created the numbering system in first place is so that people needn't waste their entire time standing in line? Especially in a place like Hawaii.... demanding that everyone stay in line all the time borders on sadism

I have no problem with fans who show up 48 hours in advance of a gig, write their names in the book, slip on a wristband, then return later to line up a couple of hours before the gates open up. Is there really anyone here who actually enjoys camping out in freezing weather or in windswept parking lots? The Portland GA lineup was miserable, and I hear the Salt Lake City and Pittsburgh lineups were equally terrible. Unnecessarily so, I think.

Part of the reason why the Monterrey, Mexico GA crowd was so dead was because most of the people there had waited in line for over three days and nights, leaving many fans completely exhausted by the time the concert started. Who needs that?

I remember the local BASS ticket seller administering a practical system for selling tickets to Bruce Springsteen's 1985 tour. Instead of having people line up for days in advance to buy tickets, the ticket agency staff simply wrote down everyone's name and driver's license number, gave everyone a randomly-numbered wristband and told them to come back two days later a couple of hours before the windows opened to line up to buy tickets. Worked like a charm.

Madonna's promoters did the same thing a few years ago, except they added a nice twist to it by having a lottery in which the first 500 numbers in line were thrown into a bag and whatever number that was drawn ended up being the first number in line.

The problem with these U2 gigs is that the various security officials at all these stadiums have their heads up their collective ass.

Instead of paying these guys all that overtime money to stand around monitoring us for two days straight, they could just institute an "official" line-up system using a similar method to that described above, rather than letting U2 fans fight amongst themselves trying to nail down their own homemade system that inevitably ends up ticking off large numbers of people.

Blaming the "Boston flagship people" or "Super Fan" or anyone else involved with the Honolulu line-up is unfair, I think. If it weren't for them, there would've been no organization at all in Honolulu, fair or not, since the Aloha Stadium security staff was completely unprepared to deal with the hundreds of fans camping out overnight in its parking lot.

One of the U2 fans at the front of the line even took the time to go out and buy 500 wristbands with their own cash, number them and pass them out so that fans would be able to come and go at will. Pretty cool thing to do, I thought.

It wasn't until the Aloha Stadium dopes started telling everyone that they could only leave the line for a maximum time limit of one hour did things get a bit hairy.

Hopefully, things will change for the better in two years' time.

Chizip

My understanding is the number system allows you to leave to leave for short periods of time to go to the bathroom or get some food or whatever without worrying about losing your spot in line. If you allow everybody to just leave and come back it just opens up to the system to all kinds of abuse.

You say you're cool with someone showing up a couple days aheead of time and getting a number and leaving until show time. Well what happens when people start showing up 3 days ahead of time, a week, a month and say they have a number. Where does the line get drawn? And what would stop the people in charge of the line giving out good numbers to their friends who never even showed up until the show anyway? And why would the people at the very beginning of the line have to stay there and give out numbers while everybody else was allowed to leave and come back? That's not very fair to them.

Once you line up, you should be in line. That's what a line is. The number system is just there to help keep things more organized and allow people to leave for a short period of time to take care of things. People who get numbers and leave for an extended period of time while others wait all day are abusing the system.

4U2Play

Sorry, I guess I didn't make my point clear.

I didn't write that U2 fans should adminster the lineups, I wrote that something along the lines of how BASS tickets handled the Springsteen fans would be better, since it would be administered "officially" by someone in authority, rather than by self-appointed U2 fans who might or might not be honest and true in their dealings.

No abuse occurred, since everyone's name and license were taken down when they picked up their wristbands (which were randomly numbered, which prevented the crazy Bruce fans from lining up just for the wristbands).

It probably wasn't a flawless system. I guess the BASS ticket employees might have been subject to bribery, or withholding the high numbered wristbands for their buddies, but none of that happened as far as I remember (I ended up 7th in line).

In any case, I think it's something U2, Inc. should at least explore next time 'round.

Chizip

Ah ok, yeah I definitely agree that U2 should have some staff to help take care of line. When you leave it up totally to the fans there will always be some shenanigans and people getting pissed off.

You did say this though...

And I'm saying U2 fans created the number system just for better organization while people waited in line, not so people didn't have to wait.

4U2Play

Yeah, totally.

No doubt there have been some major abuses of the GA lineup by some of the more "entitled" U2 fans, who everyone here knows far too well.

If U2 or stadium security would take charge of the lineups next time, instead of allowing us fans to rip each other up over something that is not really our jobs, I think peace and harmony would reign over the U2 Nation and all would be forgiven.

Then, we could spend the rest of our time here bitching about the setlists.

4U2Play

Oh, OK, I didn't know that.

But, wouldn't it be better if none of us would have to wait in line overnight at all?

We could all just pick up our wristbands during the day, then meet at a cool Irish pub and hang out and make the person with the highest wristband number buy all the beers. Or, we could force him to stand on one leg and sing "Party Girl" over and over until he puked.

Either way, we would all be friends again and maybe even have a bit more crowd energy to give back to the lads, and God knows, we ain't getting any younger in the energy department.

Chizip

Yeah it would definitely be better. But until U2 puts their own system in place instead of leaving it up to the fans, it's not possible, unfotunately.

But you know in Boston, the venue did give out wristbands in the morning and people were allowed to come back at showtime. But people still wait in line to be the first to get a wristband. So I don't know if there is any perfect system.

u2bonogirl

I'm sorry to hear that you had such an experience. I know first hand how disheartening it is to stay in line for what seems like an eternity only to see the same people jump in line at the last minute because they feel like they are entitled to something others aren't.

This is exactly why I wasn't sad about missing the Honolulu show even though I'll be on Kauai on Saturday. Really, most U2 fans are great, I love meeting them. But the ones that feel like they are better than everyone else because thet have been to five thousand or so shows....well it makes the whole experience a bit lousy when standing in line making friends could be fun. I'm actually a bit sick of seeing U2 because of things like this

oceane

Exactly. I wasn't in Honolulu but also had my share of GA lines experience, and that's what it boils down to. I agree that some people tend to abuse the numbering system by ending up spending most of the time away from the line, and that always annoyed me for the shows I was at. But I find some of the people's comments here a bit unfair on the 'line-managers'. To me there is absolutely no doubt that things would be WORST if there was no fan numbering system at all, and I am grateful to the people who are willing to do it.

But U2 should take care of it, because in the end it's true that the fans managing the numbers can sometimes abuse it. But I still find this fan-made system better than no system at all. It's nice to be able to leave the line from time to time and not having to worry about your spot. But there should be an un-spoken rule about how long you can leave for, and how many times. The reality is that none of us should be ashamed of not tolerating people showing up two hours before without having spent any time in line. Unfortunately, most times when it happens no one says anything.

Niamh_Saoirse

Hi there. I´ve been reading this thread for the past day or so and I´d like to say something.

I´m part of the so called "Flagship" crew and I did indeed get onstage in Boston. As I moved back from Dublin to Argentina and that means spending loads of money, I unfortunately had to miss the Hawaii gig, so I´m not entitled to comment on the stuff that went on over there. It´s obvious that it was a pretty nasty affair and no one can deny that. But this kind of situation not only happened in HI but in lots of different places, even before our group of friends came together. This time some people are pointing their fingers to the some peeps of the flagship ´cus they happened to be at the top of the line, but if some other groups had been in that spot, they would have received the same treatment. So in my humble opinion, this will always happen, no matter who´s there, until the band´s management or whoever is in charge of this issues comes up with some lining scheme.

That being said, all I´d like to say is that we didn´t plot our way onstage as somebody posted before. We had all though of carrying our national flags as a way of showing our background and how we came together because of the band. It looks like Bono liked what he saw from up there and decided to let us all up onstage.

I hope I don´t get flamed for posting my thoughs but I felt the need to share this with yous.

Thanks.

starsforu2

During the tour, I thought that U2 should employ at least one person on the day of the show to handle the line.

If you wanted to cut down on queueing, you have to make queueing up almost a fruitless endeavor. What I propose is that U2 have Ticket Master put one word from a U2 album name on the GA tickets. (Boy, October, War, Fire, Tree, Hum, Baby, Zooropa, Pop, Behind, Bomb)

On the day of the show, at 4 PM, a member of the U2 staff would randomly draw the album and then reorders the line so that the first album drawn is in the first group, second album is in the second group, etc.

After the sections are drawn, you process the entire line, you scan the tickets to confirm the group number and authenticity of the tickets, band their wrists and allow that member to bring one person with them to that section in line. (As an aside, I would recommend printing the date of the show coupled with different colors to make it hard to copy or to allow someone to use a legimate wrist band from a different night)

If someone arrives after the 500+ bands are passed out, then they just get into line behind the back group.

Anyone who tries to merge into the wrong group of banded hands, would be asked to go to the back of the line.

I think if you only had a 1 in 10 chance of being in the front, then it would make sleeping outside a bad investment.

Personally, I don't think that suffering through the line makes you a more dedicated fan, because even though I love U2 and have waited many hours for them, I don't think it HAS to be a necessary part of the U2 experience.

Added: Since I haven't seen U2 in a stadium since PopMart, I don't know if this would work in Stadiums. For smaller venues, it might be able to work. Fewer people = fewer hassles.

Catlady

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kerber

AMEN!!!!!

coolian2

Heh, after getting burned by losing a cap at Auckland 1 i smuggled a cap in for Auckland 2....i even put it on the bottle right in front of security...