For this portion of my ‘fan account’ it will be mostly about the venue and everything that went wrong. I will keep the good stuff separate because I want this ugliness out of the way. So.. let’s just get this over with. For those of you that weren’t in that front portion of line this might offer a different perspective on where things went wrong.

This is very long btw. I tried to go into as much detail as possible. And I let some of my anger out so excuse my name calling omg

Okay I’m finally writing my account of the day which was one of the longest and most painful of my life. Before I start I will say that the show was amazing and despite everything I did enjoy it, but it was nowhere near what I had hoped and dreamed about the moment the concert was announced. And that has nothing to do with Infinite but everything to do with Hammerstein and their completely incompetent and unprofessional staff. Yes there was an issue with the fans. I will not deny that, but if I’m spreading the blame out for the events of the night Hammerstein gets at least 95% of the blame from me and trust me I was there every step of the way. I saw every poor decision being made as it happened and myself and my friends that are normally quiet spectators tried our best to fix things, but the staff was comprised of the most ignorant and useless people I’ve ever met.

You have no idea how many things we tried to fix. But we were ignored. If you want to hear about all of that bull and ugliness feel free to read this whole account. If you just want to hear the good stuff you can skip this and wait for my fan account with all the good stuff. Because I did enjoy it and the boys were amazing despite clearly being concerned for the crowd. It was still an amazing concert and wonderful things happened that I will never forget, but most people weren’t as lucky as me and didn’t get to enjoy it at all.

It all starts with lies and bull. Many people called the Hammerstein to ask what time they could line up and were given the reply of 3pm. Now fortunately for me I have been to many concerts. I’m 25 years old and I’ve been going to shows since I was 13 and I called bull instantly at this 3 pm nonsense. And apparently a lot of other people called bull too because even though I got there at 4:30 in the morning there were already at least 30-40 people in line. I was instantly saddened because I really thought I’d be in the top 10 being there so ridiculously early. But I figured this is still a very good position and I was confident everything would go well.

The first few hours of waiting were as you’d expect, cold, boring, rainy. Thank goodness we brought blankets. But really all this was nothing compared to the torture that came later. The truth is the line was the most civil when there wasn’t a single employee there. Everyone was in basically a single file and people were being respectful of everyone’s space.

Then cue the group of line cutters. Now I had heard rumor of this group of people on facebook the day before and didn’t think anything would come of it because really it’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. For those that don’t know I will explain. Apparently there is a group of people that decided to get in line for the concert 2 days before. Yes that’s right 2 days before. Already I was baffled by the stupidity. They were of course sent away because although the Hammerstein may be the tiest business I’ve ever seen they are a business and they can’t have people showing up days before when they have other shows to put on.

Well now this group apparently were left with the feeling of entitlement for showing up 2 days early and they decided to make a list of all their names and on the day of the show they claimed they would be in the front. Are you guys following all this stupidity? It hurts me to write it really.

Well this group of class act morons shows up around 6 am maybe… I can’t remember for sure but there were already a lot more people behind me and my friends. We were separated from the first people in line by a parking garage but we could see this group of 20ish or so idiots trying to cut and I saw others that had been waiting for hours lashing back. It was a mess. Then a man from the Hammerstein came out and after what had to be a half an hour of reasoning with them he got them to back off and get in line. I tried to refrain from cheering when they walked by us on their way to the back.

I’m guessing at the times here but let’s say that at 9 or 10 am they put some barriers up to help stop with line cutting and stuff like that. When this happened we got moved up to the first group in front of the venue before the parking garage separation. I liked it here very much and for awhile everything was just fine and dandy. We bought cardboard so we could sit and we shared with the group of girls in front of us. We played Uno and people were sharing snacks and it was all very civil. You could even say it was fun.

Then let’s say around 2pm the group of stupid line cutters came back. Throughout the day actually they were up at the front of the line from time to time arguing with employees and trying to get in early or get closer in the line. It was honestly one of the most pathetic things I’ve ever witnessed and I really didn’t like any of those people. I’m not a mean person or an angry person, I’m really very pleasant as some of you probably know but this group was agitating everyone. We were all fearful that they’d actually convince someone to let them cut. It’d be one thing if it was one person or three or even four but this was about 20 people maybe more. It was insane and no one was having it. At one point the front of the line turned into a protest rally. A girl from the front was chanting “will you guys stand for this?’ and everyone shouted back ‘no!’. I mean seriously. This actually happened. This is how ridiculous the situation was.

Then came the decision that ruined everything for everyone and I mean everyone because I honestly believe this is where the entire show went wrong. This one employee on the security staff made the decision to allow the group to cut the line. And this is where everything took a heavy decline that we never surfaced from.

This security man opened up the back of the front section (right behind us) and allowed the entire group get in line behind us.

Now I guess I have a temper. I didn’t really realize it but even though these people were still behind me they were cutting at least 30 people behind us.

So before I could stop myself I voiced a bit of a complaint and man did I let all my sass get into my tone of voice. The security man was forcing us to push forward to cram in this group of line cutters and he was very rude and yelled “everyone needs to push forward” and I yelled back “why because of this?” and I motioned to the crowd. Really not a terrible comment in my opinion. I was sassy for sure because seriously this guy just ruined the whole concert and I felt it in my bones that this decision was going to everyone over. So I said it.

And then comes the saddest and most pathetic hissy fit I’ve ever seen a grown man throw. He came over to me and began yelling. I instantly turned my back to him because I wasn’t even going to give him my attention. He deserved nothing from me but my middle finger in his face, but instead I turned my back and just listened while he ranted and yelled at my back for over a minute I’d say. He was shouting stuff like “Do you want to see the show? Because I can have you out of this line right now. I run this! You run nothing! I’ve been up since blah blah blah” and more pathetic whiney BS.

Now if anyone knows me they know that I’m actually a super shy person with terrible anxiety problems especially in social situations. I was the type of girl in school that cried when I got in trouble. But the funny thing is this guy had absolutely zero effect on me. I didn’t bat an eyelash, my heart didn’t race like it normally might. My friend Ana didn’t even realize I was the person he was yelling at that was how little I reacted. He was just so pathetic and unprofessional and he really deserves to be fired for his attempt at publicly humiliating me. He even talked about me to another security guard while my back still faced him. He was the most childish adult I’ve ever met. And the other thought I had after that was what if I had been a minor? What if I was just a 16 year old girl he was shouting at like this? How would they have dealt with it? Would they have been able to handle that the way I did?

After that I became very protective of the girls around me. Because from here on out things just got worse and worse. Now with the line cutters in our small portion of barricade there was no longer any sitting, no one left the line for fear of losing their spot. Everyone was on edge. No one looked happy or excited.

But we were still in front of the line cutters so it should all be good right?

Wrong.

Stupid decision number 2 was when they decided to separate the lines into early admission and general admission. The way this was done is they set up a new little section of barricade beside us and checked our tickets one by one and corralled us inside the new section. The first people in line stood to the far right and then as more people got their tickets checked they would move behind the first person, forming a new line but with the same order.

Sounds okay so far right?

But it gets to us and we see that this section of barriers is closed in the back with no more room to line up behind the people in front of you. So what happened was the group of line cutters behind us ended up curving around back towards the front of the section in the shape of a giant U. Our anxiety was instantly up. Because although we know who is in what order and we respect the order, this is the group of line cutters we are dealing with. This group of people that had no respect for anyone else there and no moral character about them were now positioned in front of us in the line.

At first it was them that were panicking because some of them were in the curve of the U with us. And everyone was filling in in front of them, putting them now side by side with the people that were at the very front of the line and therefore far ahead of us at the back of this new screwed up line.

 At first we thought maybe they’d maybe be reasonable. One of them even said ‘what do we do use the honor system?’ and we were like YES! I just wanted to say that they should have some goddamn respect for other people. Respect the fact that we were here earlier. That we huddled under blankets in the rain and lost hours of sleep just to get our spot in line.

But of course as we expected they had not an ounce of moral fiber. They faced forward and pushed to the front and we were left stranded at the back of this section. We had gone from around 40th in line to about 60th in a manner of seconds and all because the Hammerstein Ballroom Security Team is completely useless and probably couldn’t tie their own shoes without the help of an adult.

Now we made some attempts to fix this that fell on deaf and incredibly dumb ears. The cutters couldn’t be reasoned with and the security team wouldn’t even attempt to help. I looked one of them in the eyes and begged him to simply try asking if they’d move back behind us. All I wanted was for him to TRY to use his words from his dumb useless mouth and just at least make an ATTEMPT to get them to move back. But apparently that was too much to ask for. We were ignored and yet again disrespected as they left to continue doing a terrible job at their job elsewhere down the line.

Really can I just say that this is your JOB. I have never seen people be so useless at their JOB. Every single one of them was terrible.

Now come some tears from one of my friends. She says she isn’t a crier and I believe her, but because of all the emotional stress and aggravation these people were causing she was crying as she pleaded with one security guy to help and he looked so disturbed honestly. He didn’t seem to realize just how important this was to everyone.

Now this man did at least make one pathetic attempt to help us which really didn’t help much in the end. He told us that they would be widening the barricade as they cleaned the sidewalk and that we could try to get closer and move past the group if possible. He said it was the best he could do for us. Thanks for all the help genius because this turned into another ridiculous situation.

As the barrier was moved and the space was widened everyone moved up and we did at least get even with the line cutters, but now the line wasn’t a line but more resembled a mob. It was at least 10 people wide and jam packed. There was no longer any formation. There was no separation of who got there when.  We were just like sardines in a can. Me and my friends and the lovely girls we met in line were now all squished against this barricade with no room to move or breathe. My friend that came with me from RI was two people ahead of me and I kept asking her if she was okay because she was against the rail and she has bad wrists and a bad knee and a bad shoulder and the girls a mess lol. I could see the pain on her face and she said the barrier was cutting into her ribs but there was literally nothing we could do about it.

Now to make this terrible situation worse guess what the geniuses of Hammerstein Ballroom did? They let every section they sorted after us come right up on our asses to add to the pushing. Seriously all the hysteria that everyone talks about from the show started outside in this line and it all started because of that group of cutters and the security guards that don’t understand the concept of a line or order.

So for about 2 hours we all got very cozy and squishy in this so called “line”. I had two girls next to me I had been with all day and met there and they were tiny so I was worried. The crowd kept pushing and it was like an ocean of movement and I was worried they’d get pushed back so I told them to hang on to me. I’m not small. I’m a big girl. I was wearing boots. I was solid in my spot. So I just told them they could hang on to me like an anchor anytime they needed to. And they did. Which okay, little break from all this for a little cute thing, I felt someone touching my arm so I looked to the girl to my side that I wanted to help and she was hugging my arm and told me, “youre so warm and you smell so good.” lmao. I really adored a lot of the people I met and it sounds like a bad crowd from the fan accounts and from this account as well, but for the most part it wasn’t the fault of the fans. I really did meet so many lovely people as well. I just want to make that clear. The fans weren’t all so bad.

Except of course or the group of line cutting turds. It’s their fault and the Hammerstein’s, but really if they had never been allowed to cut I don’t think any of this would have happened, including the pushing inside the building. At least not to the extent it went because the staff created this hysteria themselves.

But I’ll continue on. For 2 hours we were there in that position. One of the line cutters started crying. I feel evil but I didn’t have much sympathy for him. Anyway now comes the issue of letting us in the building. How on earth they were going to do it I had no idea, but people in the crowd were suggesting that they take ten at a time. Which was reasonable and sensible. Therefore ignored entirely. Instead they opened the flood gates and then ensued more pushing and running and hysteria as everyone just tried to get into the building as fast as possible and get to that damned stage.

Here comes another mistake on the Hammerstein’s part. They took all beverages away from everyone at the door. Because god forbid we be hydrated. Instead you should leave the spot you fought and clawed your way to in order to spend way too much on a bottle of their water. Super smart Hammerstein. You guys are brilliant. I see the audiences well being is your number one concern.

Also can I mention that they started off doing pat downs and then decided to just give up on it. Because of this situation they created they were now bypassing an entire part of their job as the concert security. Do I think anyone went there with the intent to hurt Infinite or others? No I don’t, but security measures are there for a reason and this is yet again another example of how unprofessional and absolutely useless this entire security team was. At first I was thinking maybe one or two of them should be fired, but honestly every single person working security should be fired. They have one job and at no point did anyone feel secure.

I digress for now. So my friends were ahead of me and I ran in and found them by the right side of the stage where we planned to be because we heard Dongwoo was on the right a lot and both my friends are Dongwoo biased and although I’m technically Sunggyu biased I really didn’t care who I was near just as long as I was near them. So I booked it over to them and I thank my lucky stars that we were on that barricade. Me and my friend from home were the last two that fit on the barricade but we were on it and thank goodness because it saved us during the show and I’m truly sorry that not everyone could have been as lucky, because almost everyone there deserved to enjoy that show. Like I did. But I can’t talk about that yet because I have to tell you more stupid things Hammerstein did.

So I felt secure in my spot even though we were almost off the barricade and it did dip down after my friend. I was concerned she might fall because of the way it dipped down and told her to hold onto me. But at this point we were there so all we had to do was hang on for dear life.

 Now it’s around 6:30pm so we have about 1 and a half hours to wait while everyone else filtered in.

Although I felt secure in my spot I was still in no way comfortable. What I noticed instantly was that it was extremely difficult to breathe in this room. Now I do not have breathing problems. I’m a big girl, but I’ve never had issues of asthma or shortness of breath. But even with the barricade to lean on and space in front of me rather than a human being I still couldn’t breathe. My friend was getting concerned by the look on my face because it was truly a horrible feeling.

 That’s when I noticed the smoke. There were smoke machines just blowing smoke up towards the ceiling and I can’t for the life of me figure out why they would do this. I don’t know whose decision this was either. Maybe this one isn’t the Hammerstein, I can’t be sure, but me and my friend asked the staff if they had the air conditioning on. Did we get a clear answer? No of course not. My friend also asked for water. Did she get any? Of course not. She even asked if he could give her one of the bottles from the stage that are meant for Infinite lmao. But of course that was a no as well.

I started to be able to breathe a little easier as time went and I just tried to ignore the immense pain in my feet and knees that were now weak from being forced to stand for the last like 6 hours. Also because of the situation outside pretty much no one was hydrated. You couldn’t leave the line to get water and those that already possessed some had it taken at the door.

Me and my friend were seriously concerned. It was hot, no one had water and it was hard to breathe and everytime I looked back there was just more and more people being piled in on top of each other. We seriously tried to warn the staff. We told them about what happened outside. We told them we didn’t have water for hours. We told them that people were pushing in line outside. We told them it was hot in there. I mentioned the smoke.

No one did a single thing.

And then came the news that someone had passed out. Now me and my friend had the best spot to listen in on everything. There were three staff members in front of us the entire time and we were chatting with them from the beginning. As soon as I heard one of them say that a girl fainted I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt this would be a show. The concert hadn’t even started and the immense amount of pushing and shoving hadn’t started, but already someone was out cold from pure exhaustion. That is how terrible the line was managed outside. It was to the point that people were fainting before anything even happened.

The music videos played and I could barely pay attention because I was in pain but that’s my problem. Too much weight on my poor feet and all. Also side note, I did notice that when Jin’s mv played with Xiumin in it he got cheers that were just as loud, if not louder than the cheers for Infinite. That really pissed me off I have to say. They would have heard that in the back as they got ready to come out. But thats a whole nother issue, but I was seriously disappointed.

Anyway the show starts and the bass was so high I once again couldn’t breathe, but it was even worse than before. I felt like my lungs were shaking the bass was so high. I don’t know if this is normal, but I saw Big Bang and I was on the barricade for that too and it wasn’t like that. I have been to rock concerts and even metal shows and never felt anything like that. It was frightening. Eventually my body either got used to it or they lowered the bass and I could breathe again. But I don’t know how people that weren’t on the barricade survived. Actually dumb thing to say considering most people were fainting.

Being in the front and on the far right I saw every person that had to be pulled out. And I wanted to just enjoy the show after all the stress of that day, but I couldn’t help but look at their faces. All I saw were tears and reddened faces, hair everywhere as if it’d been pulled, some people looked incoherent as if extremely drunk and then there were those that weren’t conscious at all. I saw one girl dragged and another carried limply over a security guards shoulder.

There was a lot of pushing. This is absolutely true. I luckily had made Woohyun a pillow which I used to cushion my ribs and my friend had one as well. The pushing was the worst I’ve ever experienced at a show without a doubt and I’ve been in mosh pits. I even felt the barricade move a few times and for a minute I thought maybe it would collapse and I’d be crushed to death. Inspirits were definitely not calm. It was like a bunch of wild animals

But it wasn’t completely their fault. This hysteria began outside with the terrible management of the situation and it only grew and grew. It was like a warzone instead of a concert and I was honestly horrified by it. I felt so terrible for these people because although some people there were at fault most of them weren’t. One sweet girl behind me that was shoved into my shoulder even apologized to me even though it was nowhere near her fault. No one could help it. No one could fix it. Everyone just tried to survive it.

I have heard from others that some people tried to steal from others in the crowd. I heard some people faked panic attacks to get closer. I heard some people stepped on others to get closer.  

I’m by no means trying to excuse these inspirits. They know who they are and the way they acted was wrong, but I do believe that this wouldn’t have happened if the Hammerstein Ballroom Staff had any idea what they were doing. They were the most unqualified staff I’d ever seen and many of them were rude on top of that.

Also I heard that many of the floor tickets sold were early entry and much less were GA. That makes no sense because people with early admission came there with hopes and expectations to be closer to the stage for spending more money. But little did they know that because of the amount of tickets sold their special ticket with the fancy name became a nightmare for them.

When Infinite performed I could see them sometimes look at the people being pulled out and you could see their concern. Dongwoo even attempted to calm down the crowd himself which at first only caused a surge forward. I think I can speak for everyone when I say this display was extremely embarrassing for those that weren’t the cause of the pushing and came to the show only with the intent to enjoy and see this band that they adore. I was sad Infinite had to see this and I wish more than anything I could explain what happened to them. I wish they could read this and not get the wrong impression of those in attendance because although some of them were crazy it was not like they came there that way. The venue put everyone in a panic ridden and agitated state. Even I snapped at a security guard and I don’t do things like that. Ever. I never talk back to authority figures.

I know that if it was handled better it would have been different. The pushing would have been at a normal level. People could have been better rested and hydrated and the venue could’ve put the air on to start with instead of half way through the show like it seemed to me. They could’ve provided water the moment one person fainted instead of waiting till more than half way through the show and after more than 20 people were pulled out.

 NAM WOOHYUN PROVIDED FANS WATER BEFORE THE VENUE DID. I filmed him handing his water bottle to a security guard to give to the fans. The artist took better care and had more consideration and foresight to know that these people needed help.

Anyone could have run the security better than this staff.

There were too many tickets sold.

There was no air.

There was no water.

There was no order, no management, no feelings of security. Only panic and desperation.

This is not completely Inspirits fault. This was a snowball of bad that just got larger and larger and everyone could feel it and it wasn’t handled well by anyone.

The Hammerstein Ballroom should not be allowed to hold any event of this nature ever again. And that is my final word on this venue and how they ruined what should have been the best night for so many people.