Dick Pics, Mockery and Harassment

WThe hat that started out as a feverish children’s dream about a carnival is turning into a horrible mess that TikTokers have dubbed Fyre Fest 2.0. And for one woman, the When We Were Young Festival in Las Vegas has turned into a nightmare.

Cristina Amaya, a game director, is ready to spend $2,600 on a pop-punk nostalgia day for herself and four friends. She ended up canceling their entire trip after being called a “bitch” and a “cunt” and being mocked by a customer service agent who claimed to be from the agency. The festival’s third-party ticket seller, Front Gate Tickets, is owned by the festival’s Live Nation Hosts.

And when she finally spoke to the agent’s boss, the supervisor sent her a pornographic picture with multiple penises and stayed on the phone to make sure the viewer would receive the sexually explicit photo. erotic.

“The whole thing made me feel so crazy,” Amaya told The Daily Beast. In the end, she had to block the customer service number after the telephone operator tried to call her back on her cell phone, feeling that she was being harassed. “They say I deserve dick pictures because I have a squishy Karen accent.”

Amaya is not the only one who doubts the professionalism of the festival organizers. Skepticism arose when it was reported that some of the biggest names of Myspace’s 2000s heyday were gathering for one day and one single day — October 22 — at the Las Vegas Festival Grounds. My Chemical Romance and Paramore will serve as spotlight plays, with favorites like AFI, The Used, Take Back Sunday, Dashboard Confessional, Bright Eyes, Jimmy Eat World and The All-American Rejects performing perform all day.

It all seems to be just fine — that is, until the fine print is examined. For starters, it doesn’t seem feasible for concertgoers to catch even a fraction of the nearly 65 bands slated to play over a 13-hour period.

Plus, prices seem exorbitant for a one-day event, starting at $225 for general admission and rising to $400 for GA+, with the only added perks of dedicated admission and access to an air-conditioned bathroom. (It’s especially steep when compared to Coachella, a three-day festival featuring A-list artists across genres that starts at $449.)

Others questioned the way the festival was organized by Live Nation, the same entertainment company that helped organize Travis Scott’s Fatal Astroworld Festival in November—And is currently facing hundreds of millions of dollars in negligence lawsuits over it. It also didn’t help that organizers encouraged potential festivalgoers to shell out more than $20 as a down payment to book tickets, leaving viewers astounded as to why the festival was so popular. need cash immediately.

Still, many people were eager to attend — including Amaya who lives in Los Angeles and her friends.

But due to the frenzy of the festival, tickets for the first October 22 sold out quickly, so Amaya placed herself on the waitlist with five GA+ tickets. After the demand was so great, the organizers said they would add a second day on October 23. Then on Monday, they announced a Tuesday on October 29.

Amaya said she received an email on Monday informing that her waitlisted ticket had been approved for the new show date. However, since some of her friends bought tickets for the first weekend, Amaya wanted to confirm that she could attend one of the earlier performances.

Her attempts to contact the When We Were Young festival proved futile, as Amaya said she sent an email to the festival’s general information email address regarding her ticketing issue, but never received a response.

With only 24 hours to refund or cancel an order, Amaya thinks it’s best to contact Front Gate Tickets directly, Company owned by Live Nation which the When We Were Young festival website has linked as the point of contact for any ticketing issues.

Amaya said she tried to contact Front Gate Tickets, an Austin-based company whose other clients include Austin City Limits, Lollapalooza, Outside Lands and Rolling Loud, through other online links. but end up being taken to different pages on their site due to poor site navigation.

A message she sent on the site supposedly returned an automated response saying the email address was no longer active, redirecting her to fill out another form.

Frustrated, she tweeted about her ticketing issue, tagging the Front Gate Tickets Twitter account. She also sent another email about her complaint to a Front Gate Tickets support email, which previously sent her a confirmation email about her waitlisted tickets. Email is also listed on When We Were Young’s website as a contact point.

Minutes later, Amaya said she received a call from 1-888 from a man claiming to be part of Front Gate Tickets’ customer support team. (The Daily Beast reviewed screenshots of Amaya’s phone logs showing that she received four calls from a number linked back to the phone number listed by Front Gate Tickets, and also a number approved by The Daily Beast.) listed on the When We Were Young website.)

Amaya says the conversation started off quite friendly, but things changed when the agent tried to convince her not to cancel her booking, prompting her to accept five tickets for the newly added date. .

“He said, ‘Hey, I see that you want a refund? Well, congratulations, your ticket has been accepted for the 29th,’ she recalls. “At first it seemed like real customer support, he was trying to get me through it.”

Amaya said she reiterated that she just wanted to cancel the order because she couldn’t attend that weekend, which is when things go south.

“I said, ‘I don’t want to go on the 29th, we can cancel,’” she recounts. “I guess because I interrupted him, the guy was like, ‘Ah, you bastard.’ He went from 0 to 100, 180 degrees in the minute I didn’t clearly understand him ‘That’s great [spiel]. ‘ He just started berating me for a while.”

Amaya claimed the man repeatedly called her “Karen”, “bitch”, “cunt”, alluding to her job as game director, and even mocking her for not being able to do so. has 8,000 followers on Twitter.

Depressed, Amaya said she was later transferred to his supervisor because her ticket had not yet been cancelled. But when she was on the phone with the woman, the harassment is said to have continued, with the supervisor sending Amaya an email containing an explicit photo of several male penises.

The woman even asked Amaya to stay on the phone while she sent an email that was supposed to confirm her cancellation. The Daily Beast obtained an audio recording of the conversation, where the woman can be heard telling Amaya that the email might be going to her spam.

“Remember to check your spam folder,” the woman said. “Let me check,” Amaya replied. “OK, I saw it. Yes, I have seen what it is. Thanks for that, goodbye. ”

“Oh, you get it, OK,” said the supervisor, rather smugly. “Make sure you open, can you be sure it will open? Enjoy, goodbye! ”

Minutes later, Amaya said that a male customer representative called her cell phone. “We think you will at least enjoy these games,” he said.

“That’s a bit strange,” Amaya replied, confused. “I was just trying to cancel my ticket to the When We Were Young festival, I don’t know why you guys are harassing me now.”

“We are not harassing you. I just want to make sure everything is fine. Do you have dicks? ‘ the man asked before Amaya hung up.

When We Were Young and Live Nation did not return The Daily Beast’s repeated requests for comment. Meanwhile, Front Gate Tickets alleges that Amaya was a “victim of fraud” and that “based on the data, it appears that her email may have been hacked.” But this explanation doesn’t account for some of what happened, including her receiving emails from email addresses associated with Front Gate Tickets.

Amaya said she was disturbed by the encounter, particularly feeling uncomfortable about her personal details — such as her PayPal account — being in the hands of people who were clearly not using the information. professionally sensitive.

“I was really shaking,” she said. “I think I’m following the process to get myself off the waiting list. I don’t expect to be harassed on phone calls, sent dodgy photos, and ripped off for wanting cancellations. “

And even if Front Gate Tickets customer service representatives are somehow really just scammers trying to get into the company’s systems, Amaya says that even involves risk. security risk if they have access to people’s bank details and other personal information.

After The Daily Beast reached out to Live Nation and Front Gate Tickets for comment, Amaya said that someone from Live Nation eventually contacted her again. While they tried to take it as an outside “prank” and apologize, Amaya said she was still a bit surprised when Live Nation reps offered to put her back on the waiting list, but was happy in the end. the matter has been resolved.

“I insist, I’m not a special case and I hate that people don’t have a proper basis to deal with this,” she added. “When something happens to your fans and customers, do you have to make sure you’re protecting them? And if this is your employee, they need a long vacation or something.”