The views expressed in this Opinion article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Narcity Media.
Over the weekend, I went to a brand new tequila festival in Boca Raton, Florida, called Sunset Fest. The venue was awesome, and there was tons of food and spirits to taste, however, my honest review has been tarnished with the way I was treated... in fact, kicked out of a place I had VIP tickets for.
Upon arrival, it was raining. I know, in sunny South Florida, who would have thought?!
We asked security where the VIP entrance was, and they told us it was shut down due to the rain. So, I proceeded naturally, as my tickets stated, "VIP TEQUILA TASTING & MUSIC EXPERIENCE."
At the specially reserved tent, I showed another guard my ticket and told her why I received a General Admission wristband, and she let me in.
After about two hours of enjoying the delicious food and tasty libations, a man in a pink button-down with a walkie-talkie and mouthpiece bee-lined straight to my friend and me.
"You don't have VIP wristbands!" He yelled. "You need to get out right now!"
He started to corner us at our chairs, screaming for us to get up and leave. In a calm manner, I tried to explain to him that we had tickets, we weren't sneaking in, and I was getting ready to pull up the email with my tickets.
Without even letting me finish a sentence, he aggressively continued his rant. To not cause a scene, we followed suit and left to get the wristbands at the front, just so we could go back in.
"Oh, and by the way," he screamed after us, "if you want to get back in this tent, you can pay $170!"
Now, I was insulted, especially because we had the proof of the tickets to show were allowed there. Though, we continued to the front of the venue.
The VIP and General Admissions band.Jenna Kelley | Narcity
We told the woman securing the glittery gold bands around our wrists what happened.
"Your staff rudely yelled at us without even trying to see our tickets or even asking us politely to leave, it was really aggressive," I mentioned.
"Good, he should have. That's what he was trained to do," she responded.
Appalled, my friend and I walked back to the tent. Later on in the night, that same guard came up to us, checked our wrists, noticeably stared at our faces and just walked away.
The customer service was terrible, and, for such a really well-put-together event, I felt extremely uncomfortable to even be where I was allowed.
I was told later on that security was hired through the park that held the festival. It might have been a good rule of thumb to have someone with the event coordinators strictly check the VIP list to avoid this from happening and making patrons feel uneasy.