One of biggest nights in Hollywood last weekend, Calvin Harris at Lure, ended up being a big EDM culture catastrophe for many. Tickets were released in the $75-100 range which is somewhat accurate given the house music superstar DJ’s fame and the explosion in DJ club nights.
However, the price was not the problem; the overselling of the club was. The hard ticketed event, which sold out on Wantickets.com and had a very high sell-out risk on LURE’s website, was still somehow taking money at the door for admission. HMMMMM….
As I arrived around 11:00 pm I got my ticket all situated. My next move was to make my way in. Arriving in a party of 3, all of which were ticket holders, we approached the bouncer who said then that they were at capacity… Raising an eye brow to why I was not being allowed in with a ticket in hand, I pulled some strings and found a lady willing to help me get in. However, the same bouncer that told me the club was at capacity told her the same thing—we weren’t going to get in.
I waited for 2 hours outside, it didn’t seem that long… I didn’t feel pathetic for waiting. It was more of a principal kind of thing. During those hours, I watched 5 tables go into the “over capacity” club with 5 or more people in each party. I heard the same bouncer from earlier tell people it would be “an additional $150 to enter the club” while it was still “over capacity.” At the same time the bouncers were concerned that the crowd in front was too large and cops would show up and end the night early. They were more concerned about profits than patrons it seemed.
I gave up around 1:30ish, leaving a few choice words with the doormen. I later followed up with several people that I knew went inside, all of which vocalized their complaints before praises.
“Dancefloor was way toooooo crowded”
“It was so packed that you had no place to dance. I barely stepped into one guy’s table and a bouncer yelled at me immediately.”
“I didn’t even get to see Calvin, I was left outside all night. There was NO ROOM!”
If you are unfamiliar with LURE’s layout, it is not the most practical set up if you are going to oversell an event. The tables outline the boarders of the club with an additional set of tables in the middle. The dancefloor is small up front and to the left and right of the middle tables serve as aisles to the back bar. Those that cannot fit inside, or rather not attempt to, find themselves outside in a nice patio area but zero visual of the inside DJ.
So if you picked up a $100 ticket off our recommendation and didn’t get in, we apologize. Neither did we…
