That Paramore fiasco

My plurk has been ablaze with Paramore related posts since Tuesday, March 9, 2010. Understandably so, because it was the day that they were holding a concert here in Manila. So I read posts about how excited they were to be attending the show and how some were even lucky enough to score VIP tickets as a complimentary pass from the sponsors. These are bloggers. The VIP tickets were being sold for Php 10,000 each while the Gold tickets were at Php 4,000. Let me point out that that's a Php 6,000 price difference.

Now this is the original zoning for the ticket holders at the concert.

click on the picture for a larger view

Come the next day, when I opened my timeline again there were mixed posts about the concert. Some were extremely happy about the performance of the band and of course there were raves about Hayley but there were also frustrated posts about the production management. It turns out that just moments before the start of the concert, the VIP ticket holders were mixed in with the Gold ticket holders. Meaning the zoning wasn't enforced anymore. This of course enraged the people who paid an extra 6K to get the best view and the best location for the concert. That was really unfair.

Of course, the rage is also shared by the bloggers who were there at the concert and although they enjoyed the show they couldn't help but feel sorry for the people who didn't get their money's worth. Being bloggers, they posted about this on their corresponding blogs and microblog sites. One of them even posted an official statement coming from the local producers themselves in order to appease the frustrated VIP holders who have now taken to the net and social networks to air out their disappointment and have been demanding for a refund.

Today, comes more frustration for everyone because the local producers have asked the bloggers who posted the official statement to retract the post lest their foreign producer counterpart gets wind of it. My immediate reaction was WTH??? I'm not going to post the official statement here but it involves a compromise to the VIP holders for the fiasco which to my opinion is not worth it. But it really smells like something fishy is going on here. I do hope that they iron this out well and that they appease the disgruntled concert-goers soon. On the bright side though, I think this would be a valuable lesson to the organizers and hopefully, the next time a foreign act comes along, there wouldn't be any more mix-ups like this.