Lot of anger after the Toronto Island Show

I herd from everyone that went that the beer line situation was unreal. A group of friends from Oshawa even left the event before BSS and Pavement even came on because of the shitty service when it came to beer/food.



Broken Social Scene, indeed: The Toronto Island Concert reviewed (not the music, the beer service)

Scott Deveau June 21, 2010 – 12:25 pm

The Toronto Island Concert this weekend could have been a perfect day.

The sun burned through the clouds just in time for the first bands to take the stage and blazed through the day until just before Pavement took the stage.

There was a cool breeze blowing across the grounds, the ferries were running smoothly, the bands were excellent and the food – top notch.

It could have been a perfect day that is if it weren’t for the f@&#ing beer lines.

To say there was a complete and utter organizational disaster in all the beer tents would be an understatement. The system seemed simple enough: line up for tickets, then line up for a beer.

So how did such a simple system degenerate into a half hour wait to get into a beer tent, an hour-and-a-half wait for tickets, and another two hour wait for a beer? Who the hell knows?

Collective Concerts, who put on the show, has yet to return our calls or emails for an explanation either. Judging by the wait times we experienced Saturday, it’ll likely be a while yet.

*****UPDATE: Collective Concerts’ response below***********

In the spirit of offering constructive criticism, we at the Ampersand have some suggestions for next year [mostly because we won’t be going back to another show on the Island until it’s fixed].

Too much selection causes too much of a disaster

It’s nice to have some good beers on tap when you go to a concert. But let’s face it, asking each person in line which of five beers they would like, is ridiculous. You need to decide on one brewery, make them an official sponsor, then offer two of their beers – a light one and a regular one. That way the people pouring the beers can create a conveyor belt whereby a group of “pourers” fill up hundreds of beer cups an hour of the same beer and place them on a table for a group of “servers” to give to customers.

Hire experienced bartenders to serve beer

As anyone who has worked a bar can tell you, experienced bartenders are an absolute must when dealing with high volumes. Watching the system that was set up on Saturday was one of the most maddening things you could ever imagine once you finally made it to the front of the line after a three hour wait. There were two or three guys filling up pitchers of beer, then pouring those pitchers into plastic cups. Filling up the pitchers again. Then filling up the cups. Any efficiency expert will tell you that the fewer actions you have each worker do, the faster the overall system will run [see a car factory for details]. This is where a two-beer policy shines.

Keep it simple, stupid.
It’s not that hard to run a beer tent. People have been doing it for eons. But the more variables, rules and regulations you put into it, the worse it
will be. Limiting the amount of drink tickets people can buy to four [which they did Saturday] is ridiculous, especially when you’ll only sell them two per person after waiting in line for three hours.

Too many lines cause too many line ups

Ottawa’s Bluesfest has a simple solution to this. Instead of lining up to get into a beer tent, have people line up for wristbands. Then make the whole area a beer tent for those people who have a wristband and have shown ID. Then set up several stations around the grounds to diffuse the lines. We understand the risk of underage drinkers. That’s what the wristbands are for. Don’t sell them to underage people, and the security people and police at the concert should throw out those without wristband who are drinking.

*****UPDATE*****

Jeff Cohen from Collective Concerts responds:

“3 Hrs?

Whatever you’re smoking can you send some over please.

The drama of it all.

One of the beer tents had both mechanical and electrical issues with regard to the flow of the beer draft (The North area).

It wasn’t as much as a problem earlier in the day, but at the peak hours, there was indeed a wait of up to 45 min to get a beer.

We told people as much and that they’d be better off going to another tent but at that point, the other tents were filled to capacity.

Few left. That is all regrettable.

We offered refunds to anyone to bought beer tickets and could not get service in a reasonable time. Many took us up on that.

We’re already looking into using a different [company] or insisting a service person is on site for our next show.

We’ll fix it.

We don’t want people to have to wait more than 15-20 min.

The other tents did not have this problem and the wait time was more in the 10-30 min range, the 30 min being only at peak hours.

But It’s not a beer festival, it’s a music festival.

65% of the 11,500 there were not even interested in buying a beer.

They came for the experience of hearing great live music in a serene outdoor setting. It can be had without alcohol.

While we’ll 200% be looking into how to set up the site to reduce waiting times (especially with regard to food and water) if you see a long line to get into a beer tent, why do you join it?

Maybe you should just come back later when there’s no longer a line?

Isn’t their a personal choice involved here?

Literally food for thought..”

Read more: http://arts.nationalpost.com/2010/06/21/broken-social-scene-indeed-the-toronto-island-concert-reviewed-not-the-music-the-beer-service/#ixzz0rWUi3hDD
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