PSA: WBWT Queues
Posting this PSA so that other fans attending the WBWT don’t get duped like I did in Paris for Night 1 (May 18). There was a woman who posed as someone from Conan’s management team to “organize the queue” for VIP ticketholders outside the stadium in order to let everyone in her social circle jump the queue, get low entry numbers, and first entry into the stadium. Her friend then subsequently got front and center and got to pull the wishbone. Here’s what happened:
This was my fifth Conan concert, but my very first Conan concert with VIP 1 Experience admission.
Five days before the concert, I received an email from Live Nation (vip.package@livenation.fr) with further details about the VIP 1 Experience. The email stated, in part, that VIP check-in would be held from 16:30-18:00 at the Main Entrance, Hall Sud. From seeing others’ social media posts about their VIP 1 Experience on the Wishbone Tour on previous tour stops, I knew that there would be queuing ahead of the check-in and that individuals in the queue would receive numbers, which would determine their order entry into the venue to secure their place during the concert.
I wanted to make the most of the experience and arrive early to the queue so that I could get a low number for optimal placement in the concert venue. This required substantial pre-planning on my part, as this meant that I was going to be standing outside for hours before the concert in the queue. I packed breakfast, lunch, and dinner for myself and arrived at the venue at around 10am. There were already people in a queue outside of the venue. I asked people in line if there was a VIP 1 queue, and they told me that a woman was checking everyone in and giving everyone queue numbers. The referenced woman was at the head of the line and was wearing a Conan shirt. When I approached her, she told me that she was in charge of the queue and that everyone needed to take instructions from her (I’ll call her the “Queue Woman” for ease of reference). She asked me information about my ticket and declared that I was number 71. She then proceeded to write the number 71 in permanent gold marker on my hand. I looked around at everyone else in the queue, and they all had a number written on their hand in either gold (for VIP 1) or silver (for VIP 2). Receiving the number 71 seemed odd to me, as there were only about 15 people ahead of me in the queue who were VIP 1. When I questioned this, I was told that my number was accurate.
About an hour later, the woman instructed everyone to move to a different queue behind a different set of barricades. I dutifully complied and spent the next six hours sitting in my spot in the queue. It wasn’t easy, as it rained multiple times and got quite cold.
Later in the afternoon, I started noticing that a lot of people were being admitted by the Queue Woman into the queue ahead of me and had lower numbers than me. However, this didn’t make any sense, as I had been waiting in the queue since the morning and had never seen them before. They most certainly did not wait in the queue like I had. Around 15h, the Queue Woman started shouting out instructions. She told us that no one could sit in the queue anymore, that we all had to stand on our feet. When she made this announcement, I noticed that she had changed into a sailor outfit. This struck me as odd, as I didn’t think that the person in charge of the queue would be wearing fan apparel. I complied with her order and stood up. I noticed that there was a large open space a few feet ahead of me, so I started walking ahead to the open space. However, the people with lower numbers on their hands in the queue who arrived after me chastised me and told me that I had to honor the numbers listed on our hands and could not move up past them. The Queue Woman reinforced this.
After a further hour and a half of standing in the queue, the Queue Woman announced that we would soon all have to go through security in the stadium. She told us that security would break us into five lines and that after we went through security that we would have to reassemble according to the numbers written on our hands.
Around 16h45, stadium security approached the queue and announced that we should walk to the security checkpoint where there would be two lines. Accordingly, everyone in the queue started walking to the security lines. I noticed that most people were going to only one of the two lines, so I decided to go to the second line, which was shorter. However, when I attempted to do so, I was yelled at by others in the queue who insisted that I stay behind and proceed in the order of the number written on my hand. Once I got through security, I proceeded to enter the stadium, where I showed my ticket to stadium staff, received my VIP 1 lanyard, and received a different number (#62), which was a sticker that stadium staff affixed to my VIP 1 lanyard.
When I made it to the VIP lounge experience and saw the Queue Woman fangirling with a bunch of her friends, I realized what had happened. The Queue Woman had represented herself as part of Conan’s management responsible for organizing, queuing the fans, and setting the rules for the queue prior to stadium entry. In reality, she was just a fan who set arbitrary rules that she herself had made up and gave all of her friends (who did not wait in the queue all day) lower numbers than those of us who waited in the queue in the rain all day. She then used the threat of expulsion from the queue to ensure that everyone followed her made up rules. She had concocted a grande ruse to ensure that she and her friends would have prime spots in the concert venue at the expense of everyone else, and she succeeded in doing so. I could not believe that this happened. I was so disappointed and angry. I had waited outside all day in the rain to get a good entry number while the Queue Woman allowed her friends and contacts to jump to the head of the queue shortly before security. She lied to us all about her authority and then abused it for her friends’ gain. However, by the time I realized what happened, there was nothing that could be done to improve my queue number. While I was the 16th person with VIP 1 status to arrive at the stadium in the morning and join the queue, I was number 62 due to the Queue Woman’s scheme. While I had wanted to be in the center of the stage, the best position I could get with my number was to the left of the stage. Upon settling in my position, I noticed that the Queue Woman and her friends, one of whom wore a birthday sash, were front and center. Next to me were two school age children who spent their day in school, not in the queue, who somehow had a lower entry number than me.
When the time came for the breaking of the wishbone and selection of the surprise song, Conan selected the Queue Woman’s friend with the birthday sash. It seemed that everything went according to the Queue Woman’s plans.
While I do not know the name of the Queue Woman, I hope that she never again has the opportunity to take advantage of Conan fans. I found her actions and schemes to be absolutely deplorable, and while the concert was amazing, it was a tad difficult to fully enjoy the experience due to how I was treated.
I do not wish this experience on ANY Conan fan. What I witnessed was not a spur-of-the-moment decision by the Queue Woman. It was a well-planned scheme, and I fear that either the Queue Woman or someone in her large social network circle will strike again during another stop on the tour, causing innocent fans unnecessary anguish and unfair treatment. Fans need to be warned that (i) Conan’s management will not be managing queues outside of the venues, (ii) they should only take instructions from stadium officials who wear stadium uniforms, and (iii) anyone else organizing queues outside the venue is unauthorized and is not allowed to set rules.