New Halloween World Record: Most Complaints

Paul Ryding | Nov 4, 2013 6:58 pm | 5 comments | 5798 reads

Police struggle to form orderly queues at the entrance to Electric Castle

The Electric Castle Halloween Party held in Tianjin on Friday night was supposed to be a record-breaking gathering. The chateau soiree was going to include all manner of hijinx; games rooms hosting beer pong and Wii competitions, a costume contest and giveaways worth winning – iPad's were mentioned. Instead, attendees reported a night of agitated crowds, widespread confusion and most disappointingly for many revellers, no access to booze.

There were reports of some people being left behind by packed coaches at the Gongti meeting point, although many who did manage to make it to Tianjin will say they were the lucky ones. On TBJ staff member who was in attendance reported cold and increasingly agitated crowds shoving when a scrum ensued as several coach loads of people arrived at the entrance simultaneously.

Quote:
"It took us two hours to get in. We got in 'line' six times, but the queues kept being broken up by the cops. Eventually, they figured out a system to get people to enter in an orderly fashion. The whole time no one told any of us what was going on and there was a lot of pushing – nobody was listening to the police. At one point, I was even grabbed by a cop and shoved to one side."


Despite their strongarm tactics, our source praised the police for their handling of the situation.

Quote:
"There was an insane amount of police at the scene and they were getting pretty aggressive trying to handle increasingly distressed and confused crowds. But in the end, we were glad those cops were there, otherwise it could have descended into a riot. They tried to handle the situation as calmly as possible."

Police struggle to contain increasingly agitated crowds

The problems didn't end once people actually managed to get inside the venue.

Quote:
"Once we finally got inside we were given a handful of poker chips that we were supposedly able to exchange for booze. But we found there was nowhere to buy any drink except a makeshift shop where you could buy whiskey by the bottle, but you needed a VIP bracelet to get in there. We had thousands of RMB worth of poker chips, but nowhere we could buy any drink!"


Beijing-based promoters Street Hustle moved quickly to distance themselves from the fiasco on Sunday evening and contacted the Beijinger with a press release wanting "to rectify the wrongs that were done by the organizer of Friday's disaster (Night Owl Entertainment)."

The notice starts: "We stand with you, cold, thirsty, hungry and disappointed."
 


The notice advises that potential refunds will be handled by the event organizers Night Owl Entertainment, although emails to a given address and numerous calls to a mobile phone number supplied drew a blank today.

Organizers reported 5,000 people were in attendance, though much of the pre-event hype focussed on the event breaking the world record for a Halloween-themed gathering. The Guinness World Record for a Halloween gathering currently stands at 17,777 and was set at the Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, on 31 October 2010, according to Guinnesworldrecords.com.

Email: p.ryding@thebeijinger.com
Twitter: @pjrydo
Weibo: PaulRyding

More stories by this author here.

Photos: The Beijinger/Street Hustle

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Baixiaowei's picture Baixiaowei Submitted by Guest on Tue, 11/05/2013 - 19:13

Every single time Beijing "whatever" organization organizes something, it's a nightmare.

Don't you remember David Guetta's concert in the Great Wall this summer??. It took me 3 hours to catch a bus to go to the Wall because we where hundreds of people waiting in the waiting point, and maybe 4 buses arriving every 30 minutes.

Beijing has organized the Olympic Games, but I think they have forgotten how to deal with big events with laowais. That's why I didn't go to this Halloween Party.

Please Beijing, we like you and we wanna have fun. Don't let us down again and again!

nickrr's picture nickrr Submitted by Guest on Tue, 11/05/2013 - 15:58

Night Owl: to make things right, you could start by refunding tickets. Attendees had to activate their tickets online, so it should be pretty straightforward to get people all (or even some) of their money back. You have all of our ticket numbers, names, sexes, emails and ages on record. I'd like to see that information go to some positive use (who knows who you're planning to sell it to). Your apology is empty and your party will forever be remembered as a SCAM until substantial action is taken to compensate the thousands who trusted you.

Nick Richards, Arts & Culture Editor

Guitarist, The Beijing Dead

Paul Ryding's picture Paul Ryding Submitted by Guest on Tue, 11/05/2013 - 14:01

Event organizers Night Owl Entertainment have now issued this statement:

Quote:
To our guests,

This is both an apology and a thank you… To everyone who bought a ticket, we want to thank you for believing in us and for supporting us to be a part of the celebration. Although many of you have told us you had a great time, we are also aware of the many guests who were let down. Our goal was to make this a night you would never forget. We achieved this, but of course not in the way we wanted—at all. The fact of the matter is, we dropped the ball, and we failed miserably to deliver what we promised.

What happened was embarrassing and deeply disappointing. Many of you have told us (at the event and online) about our lack of organisation, inexperience, irresponsibility, etc. Many of you were disappointed and angry, but yet remained patient and rational. Thank you again: thank you for staying calm in the middle of the chaos. Although we don’t want to believe it, we know you’re right. If we were in your shoes, we would feel the exact same way. It was one of the biggest lessons we have learned. Our regretful actions put you all at risk, and quite frankly… we’re lucky that worse things didn’t happen that night.

However, we want to set the record straight that it was NEVER our intention to scam anybody. As organizers, we were working together to make this the most amazing Halloween party in the world, one that would set a new record and make Tianjin the place to party, a celebration that would bring new opportunities for all of us, but our dream suddenly became a nightmare. The truth is, our team is not exactly “together” right now. Members with good intentions and high ambitions are now ashamed to have been a part of this. We sold tickets to our friends, family, and co-workers. Our reputation not only as a brand, but as individuals have been tarnished.

We appreciate the many suggestions given to us to make things right, and although we don’t have much to say anymore, we are indeed listening. Although we can see how the answers would seem to be quite obvious, there are certain situations limiting us at the moment. We really are sorry, and we truly want to make things right. We don’t know exactly what we will be able to do, but we are trying our best.

Sincerely,
Night Owl

Managing Editor, the Beijinger

admin's picture admin Submitted by Guest on Tue, 11/05/2013 - 11:56

Future reference to one and all:

Anything marketed as

World's Largest _________

in a place like China is an invitation to stay the f*** away, far away

Books by current and former Beijinger staffers

http://astore.amazon.com/truerunmedia-20

Nerol88's picture Nerol88 Submitted by Guest on Tue, 11/05/2013 - 11:40

It really was stupid. A lot of us paid 400rmb for tickets and didn't get ANY of our 7 promised free drinks.

We also realised later that we could have gone for free, because at no point did anyone check our tickets!

As for the police keeping everone out - it was ridiculously easy to sneak in round the back.

I'm surprised there weren't riots - keeping party-goers from their alcohol is a bad move!

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