COMPLETE CON
Inside Comic Con from HELL with 12-hour queue, cops gatecrashing & staff sacked – even its own bosses are lost for words
Organisers released a statement apologising for the 'perfect storm' of problems
COMIC Con fans faced an event from hell as they endured a 12-hour queue, cops who supposedly gatecrashed and staff sacked.
The Basingstoke Comic Con event was billed Aquaman star Jason Momoa as one of the main attractions, along with Hobbit actor Richard Armitage and Stargate's Richard Dean Anderson.
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But it descended into a shambolic event where even the organisers were lost for words.
The event, which ran from May 11 to May 13, was hit with allegations the show was oversold, problems with autograph timings and planning and scheduling conflicts were just some of the complaints levelled at organisers.
To compound matters, attendees had to contend with 25C heat at the event.
Event organisers claimed two members of staff were also “physically attacked”.
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The event was compared to the Willy Wonka Experience - the over-promising, under-delivering event in Glasgow back in February.
While another compared a statement issued on the issues at the convention to the disastrous Fyre Festival in the US.
Fans were also disgruntled after Momoa’s attendance was chopped down to just one day after he had been previously touted as a weekend headliner.
Organisers denied claims that they purposefully "messed up his flight" so he could not attend for the full two days.
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Momoa was reported to have told fans his attendance was cut to one day.
The event website was amended at some point before Comic Con to reduce his attendance to the Saturday alone, despite previously claiming the Aquaman star would also be present on Sunday.
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Basingstoke Comic Con organiser Jane Lowther said: "Regarding Jason Momoa, we have read a number of comments left by people saying Jason said that we changed his attendance to one day and also that we messed up his flight so he couldn’t stay two days.
"This is completely untrue; we would have loved Jason to attend two days."
Organisers were also criticised for describing Stargate actor Richard Dean Anderson as a "slow signer" of autographs.
Fans rushed to defend the legendary actor and claimed he stayed until the early hours of the event so he could sign autographs which fans paid £60 for.
'DISASTER'
Despite promising an "AMAZING-Stoke Weekend" fans branded the two-day event a "disaster".
Taking to Reddit, one attendee said there were ";no signs" and "a crush risk at times in the queue".
The user wrote: "No aircon, on a blistering sunny weekend. There were a few people taken out to ambulances.
"Seemingly no cap on autographs, so Richard Dean Anderson was there until 12am Saturday and 1am Sunday to get everything signed.
"Management left long before the event was over."
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Another said: "It was such a s***show. The actors were lovely, despite being subjected to the same unpleasant conditions and disorganisation, and clearly not having a great time of it.
"I really hope this doesn't put the guests off coming to these more regional events, though I wouldn't blame them for never, ever coming to an event organised by this team again."
In light of the complaints about this year's show, organiser Jane Lowther published a statement on social media and the convention's website apologising to attendees.
Ms Lowther said the events senior team spent 10 months organising the convention and were "heartbroken" by what has happened.
STAFF 'DIDN'T TURN UP'
The organiser blamed the issues on "unexpectedly" losing 35 per cent of their paid staff who "just simply didn't turn up".
The statement read: "Having spent over 10 months putting the event together, we were hit by the perfect storm of problems that led to an event causing people to feel let down.
"It also left two members of staff physically attacked, some physically threatened, and almost all verbally abused.
"We truly apologise to everyone, whether a customer or staff member, who came away from the weekend unhappy.
"We ran Sunday on the barest minimum of staff that we thought was safe and I am so proud of them, as they faced overwhelming odds as we had to juggle and firefight throughout the day for the event, we had worked so hard for.
"Because we had lost so many key team members such as runners, radio operators and actor handlers’ people had to move to other areas to interface with visitors."
Addressing concerns about the queues for autographs and photos, the statement said: "Communication is key, and we hear you loud and clearly.
"We had a communication plan in place to manage queues and give people the chance to enjoy other areas of the event rather than spend time queuing.
"Our intention was to call people in batches. With the lack of staff, we lost the ability to do this."
"So based on the feedback we received we tried to make better use of the arena and clearly made the mistake of going the other way and unfortunately making it too small.
"This smaller area for groups of 50 plan, not the amount who ended up queuing. Added to that the barriers were laid out incorrectly and I am currently investigating to see how that occurred.
'GRIDLOCK'
"It all amounted to a gridlock in the autograph area. With hindsight, we should have cleared the whole area, sent everyone away with times for each group to come back, but again because we were lacking the staff, we did not make this happen.
"We know people queued for hours and were hot and squashed and we are so deeply sorry. It was absolutely not the plan and devastating for us.
"The very last thing we wished to see is people who have looked forward to an event, saved for it and travelled long distances not having an enjoyable time.
"We are also aware the queue sizes led to far from ideal accessibility, something we take seriously. After the problems on Saturday, we created room by reducing the space of Artisan Alley, but this could not solve the problem by itself."
She continued: "On Sunday, because we had so few staff, we were very limited in what else we could put in place. Staff members were having to fulfil a dual role of actor handler and queue management.
"And because of the events of the day before, people were fearful of getting their autos, which I completely understand, and it meant many people were not prepared to leave the queue and come back later which led to more crowding and people standing for long hours.
"Please do not feel like we are blaming anyone here, I understand why. Losing the ability to communicate with attendees and each other made things incredibly challenging as it meant we were unable to respond quickly to issues as they happened."
Speaking about the heat over the weekend, the statement added: "We watched the forecast, and we planned for warm weather and some rain.
"What we didn’t expect was for it to be 25C plus. I am aware that people were complaining that we didn’t provide water until later in the day and the simple explanation was, we didn’t have any.
"The hotel was unable to provide us with any, so we went out to buy bottled water and also tried to fill the gaps with jugs of water. We went out and brought fans and tried to think of every way we could to improve things for people with the event space we had available.
"I would like to give my absolute assurance that we were not ignoring people’s issues and concerns and we felt so bad that there were times when we just couldn’t give people the answers which they wanted."
Organiser Jane Lowther continues the statement: "I wish to address other points we have been receiving with the same openness and honesty. Not for sympathy or as an excuse, but I believe everyone deserves to know the truth.
STAFF 'SACKED'
"We had to sack two members of staff, one was behaving improperly with guests and the other, well I don’t know where to start. This person stole items and lied about his presence at the event, getting photos and autos when he should have been working.
"The same person is now spending time in Reddit spreading lies and misinformation. We will be taking action against this person.
"Regarding Richard Dean Anderson, we were advised in advance of the event that he was a slow signer and as such we limited the number of autos sold and calculated his signing time based on that.
"What we didn’t expect was for him to take 4/5 mins per auto. It would take him over 13 hours to sign 200 autos. Based on his actual signing time we should have only sold 45 autos a day which would have left many fans upset.
"We also did not force him to stay and asked: Could he sign faster, if he’d like us to cut the queue and if he was happy to continue at the current pace and we would find the staff and security willing to stay while he continued signing."
COPS AT EVENT
The organisers also claimed that the reason many people saw the police attend the event was incorrect.
She continued: "The reason why they attended was because people were walking around Basingstoke Town Centre and swords.
"These weapons may have been fake, but members of the public didn’t know that, and they rang the Police worried and concerned. We spoke to the police and addressed this immediately via social media and Tannoy announcements.
"People have also speculated about numbers and said that we oversold, this again is incorrect, as while some areas were overcrowded due to queues, others were completely empty.
"When we put the Stargate VIP ticket on sale, it only had 7 actors on it and people were happy to purchase it at the advertised price. We should not have added so many guests as we now realise it created a logistical problem for people to get them all."
The statement also explained that attendees can now request refunds but this depends on certain criteria.
Organisers said they would aim to complete the refund process by 30 June.
'DEEPLY SORRY'
Ms Lowther added: "We are deeply sorry that people didn’t get the experience they deserved. This was not the Comic Con we planned to run.
"To all those who have sent messages of support via email and social channels, it means the world to me, and we’ll be back stronger and better next time."
But attendees have continued to hit-out at the organisers after hearing their apology.
On Facebook, one wrote: "You can't address issues when the convention is over. The whole thing was appallingly organised.
"Richard Dean Anderson stayed till 10.30pm signing autos on the Saturday then 1am last night.
"Absolutely disgusting to have an actor have to do that to get through the lines.
"You oversold tickets to make money. That's all you cared about. Even with the excessive queues still on Sunday you continued to sell tickets for photos and autos etc.
'You don't care about the people at all. There was a pregnant lady in the queue with me waiting for two hours at that point in that boiling hall with no air con.
"And staff wouldn't allow her to get through. We told the staff and they just had no clue how to deal."
Another said: "So let's get this right, you're blaming RDA for being a slow signer and taking much longer with people who paid to see him !!
"He understands how to treat people with respect by making all of his fans feel loved and welcome at the table, much more than I can say for the nature of the event !!
"In short this feels like a massive excuse to get out of the absolute horror that people experienced over the weekend!! 10 months to put together, more like 10 minutes !!
"Shouldn't be allowed to run events as you clearly can't cope or manage, you over sold, admit it, you can't blame other people for your faults!"
Another said: "You planned for the weather?? Seriously £2 for a bottle of water when we spent a fortune to enter the s***show in the first place. I seen people fainting having falls and not to mention sun stroke.
"It was health and safety nightmare. You let everyone down. The staff the guests and us the paying customers.
"I attended a lot of cons usually I take my disabled daughter. Thank god she had no interest in this one because honestly she would have had a mental breakdown.
"There is absolutely no excuse or reasons for the shambles of a con you produced.
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"The lack of respect compassion and consideration was disgusting towards staff guests and customers.
"All the organisers cared about was their money simple as."
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