Jo has asked that this message be posted to explain the situation that occurred this weekend past.

Problems with Admission at Whitby Gothic Weekend April 2005

We managed to speak to most people who had problems getting into the Spa on Saturday. The main hall where bands are has a capacity of 1000, the foyer area where the WGW desk is has capacity of 0 people. Bearing in mind that the Goth weekend an average of 250 people stand in the foyer area at any one time we have previously negotiated an additional capacity allowance for the foyer area. A retired Fire Officer was in attendance a WGW October 2004 and made a complaint above the head of the venue manager direct to Scarborough Borough Council about the venue being over capacity. This was all communicated to WGW HQ a few days before the recent event meaning any agreement for an additional capacity was now null and void. We had however, already sold extra tickets. On Friday evening we encountered a small issue with over capacity and appropriate refunds were issued. However on Sat evening, around 100 people were kept waiting for up to an hour, as the new security at the event adopted a one in, one out policy.

We appreciate that have having paid £36 for tickets to WGW this is unacceptable and we sincerely apologise for the obvious inconvenience caused. We very much appreciate the understanding attitude of the majority of people who were kept waiting and whilst we feel this is a circumstance beyond our control we feel it only fair to offer some kind of recompense.

If you had a problem getting into the Spa on Saturday evening we’d like to hear from you. We need to know how long you were kept waiting, how many people were in your group, and approx time entered the event. It is going to take a couple of weeks to collate info and assess how many people were affected and once this is done, we will be in a position to contact you with an offer of compensation. If you have already given us your details to a representative on the night, there is no need to do anything more at this point. We will contact you within the next 14 days.

Any other parties can contact us preferably by Jo’s private e-mail jo (at) lazycatz.freeserve.co.uk or by post to:

WGW
PO Box 6
Moreton,
Wirral,
CH46 3WA

We will be in contact with everyone affected by 1st June 2005. If you contact Jo via e-mail please be patient as she is still in Whitby and will not have access to her e-mail until Monday 2nd May.