Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Those bagels look like Wonderbread.

An excellent idea, with far reaching demand given the thousands of people that showed up.

However, HORRIBLE execution.

First the whole payment wrist band thing failed right off the bat. whoops.

Then, the food lines were horrendously long, with no sense of order. Each vendor had only one tent, with lines that snaked in every which direction. I waited in line for almost 2 hours to get halfway (if even) through the line to the Philly Cheesesteaks before giving up and joining the hoardes of people at the ticket office demanding a refund.

The other stories I heard in the refund line included: The Pastrami sandwich vendor ran out of food, and after a 2 hour wait, people who were *that close* to their food were told that there wasnt any left and that they would have to wait for 3 hours to have a new batch of pastrami ready. The line was equally as long for Pinks, the desserts, etc.

If you wanted to pay $40 for no wait for beer, this was your place. Oh yeah, and the ice cream was in decent supply too since they had multiple booths around selling it.

As for the "music" part of the whole thing, I didnt hear any.

I was really looking forward to this, but in the end it was just 4 hours of time wasted. At least I got my money back (well, except for the nonrefundable parking).

Jeez! A class of pre-schoolers could have done a better job organizing this festival than the producers: Serious Eats and The Agency Group.. If this event had happened in Japan, the head organizers (that's you, SeriousEats.com!!!) would have already committed suicide, and that's with 4 hours still left in the event (not suggesting that the festival organizers need to take such drastic measures).

But even worse than the completely boneheaded planning and execution were these two astonishing and inexcuseable food crimes:

First, they didn't bring in the bread that Katz's uses -- they had an inferior rye that tasted more like whole wheat. Second and more importantly, they did not have Katz's spicy deli mustard -- they only had Heinz Yellow Mustard. Serving a pastrami sandwich with yellow mustard is like taking fresh pasta and using ketchup as the sauce. Why not put out some Miracle Whip while you're at it?

At least there is some rationale for totally botching the event (seriouseats.com is not an event planner), but there is no excuse for seriouseats.com to screw up the mustard. (Insert "food fest just doesn't cut the mustard" jokes here).

If the leaders of seriouseats.com have any sense of responsibility and/or possess cojones, the will be a huge apology in 96pt bold type on the front of the home page within the next hour.

WORST event I've ever attended. It's ashame, I really wanted to like this too.
Upon arriving, we waited over an hour to enter Shoreline. Then, it was about 1.5 hours to get some food. There was no organization, the lines were chaotic, and the food was way overpriced.
I finally got some Anchor bar wings after almost a 3 hour wait in line (with a crying baby), and they were UNDERCOOKED. I wanted to order a beer to go with the wings, but they said I had to wait in a DIFFERENT line for the beer!!

Come on people, this is a Food Festival. Waiting in line for *3* hours to get what you came to the festival for is BIG TIME FAIL.

What could have been a great festival turned into the biggest waste of time and money I've ever experienced.

I live in the bay area and didn't even hear of this event until a couple of days ago - where was the advance advertising? Also, knowing the event was at shoreline (horrible venue) we decided to skip. Given all the other reviews that seems to be a wise decision! Hold it at Golden Gate Park next time and advertise and we will definitely go!!

The refund line got so long (3 lines, many, many deep) that they just decided to stop issuing refunds, offering no reason other than "We can't just give refunds all day". I kid you not, that is what the events manager announced. I hope more people find this page and post their experiences, as I'll be including it in my credit card dispute. Thanks everyone!

droostring:

As with most of the event, the parking refund was very well organized ;-) To get the refund, you had to drive out of the parking lot and then drive in and get the refund from someone at the entrance, rather than the exit). If you lived in Bizarro World, you would have known.

this was one of the most memorable events i've ever attended.......for being an unmitigated DISASTER.

we stood in line FOREVER and got ZERO food. I wish someone would have started a chant saying " we want food.we want food. we want food". It was that bad. I waited in the refund line FOREVER too..out of principle.

My party and I felt that the entire event was completely unorganized,
due to the following factors:

1) It took about an hour to get from the parking lot to the front entrance
2) The wristband system did not work, all systems went down and most
vendors did not have cash for change (early in the day)
3) Tony Luke's Cheese-steak booth did not have any food when we
arrived at the festival
4) We felt that the entire event was totally unorganized, thus causing
chaos at every vendor's booth, we had no idea which line went to where
and everyone was confused
5) Katz Deli was complete chaos, we were told the wait was going to be
more than 1.5hrs long, as there was no more pastrami to serve (we did
not hear this from an employee, but from a lady who was at the front
of the line)
6) Junior's Cheesecake was sold out
7) The lines for all the big vendors was completely ridiculous we
ended up eating Ice Cream the entire day

Who can I talk to about a refund????

Does anyone know who we can contact for a refund?

I just attended the Great American Food and Music Fiasco (oops! was that supposed to be Festival?) at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California. It was such a disappointment to attend an event that I had looked forward to for weeks only to be totally inconvenienced by the lack of planning and shoddy execution.

As we were walking from our car to the venue in mid-afternoon, patrons walking back to their cars were warning us not go. They said that lines for food were hours long and some food was running low or gone altogether. I should have listened and turned around because not only were the lines ridiculously long and some food running low, there were way more people than I had ever anticipated. It was pretty much shoulder to shoulder. No wonder there was a problem getting food to everyone. I did see Guy Fieri's first demo (which was well done) squinting through at least a hundred heads.

We decided we needed to use our "free" food coupon somehow and found that the PB&J line was quite small. What the heck. I love PB&J. But what I got was dense bread covered in a oily paste that had a vague hint of peanuts coupled with strawberry slime. After one bite, my husband and both tossed what was left in the garbage. What a waste of food, my money and my time.

After such experiences we decided to leave because it wasn't comfortable or inviting enough to stay for the remainder of the day's events. It wasn't until I was back in the parking lot that I found out from another attendee that refunds were being given. If there had been any information about that back at the venue I definitely would have asked to be refunded my $70.00.

1. Tried to pick up a discount pack of 4 tickets early, was told that they were sold out. Not sure how that can happen when regular tickets were still available.

2. Waited in line for 3 hours for a cheesesteak, some people waited almost 4.

3. Tried to get a refund during the 3 hour wait, some were given...but eventually they stopped and gave people a # to call (don't know what it is offhand).

4. Some of the staff just left their post. I could have walked off with a roll of probably 1000 food tickets ($10/ea) if I had wanted to.

5. Cheesesteak was pretty "meh". Pretty much any cheesteak shop in the area serves much better.

6. Cheesecake sold out. Smores sold out.

Basically I've gone to concerts at Shoreline and had a much better dining experience with the generic event food (pizza, hot dogs, fries, etc).

I too had great expectations for this event. I would be angrier if not for this complete and epic failure being so astounding I can't help but laugh. Angry people were leaving as I walked in a 3pm. The payment system broke down. You could smell delicious food all around you, but you could not get any. I feel bad for the people that paid 110.00 for all you can eat and spent 4 hours in food lines for nothing. I at least got a bagel for my 20.00 admission. I have never seen any event crash and go down if flames so spectactularly. The really bad thing is that alcohol was readily available but no food and most people didn't eat before coming. Oh boy.

Thanks to ucscchick for posting the info, I greatly appreciate it!
I just called and they told me to mail in my tickets and expect a turnaround in about 2 weeks.

Thanks ucscchick - I called 650.967.3000 and they said I could get a refund if I mailed them a photocopy of the tickets. I told them I was so disgusted with the event that I threw the tickets away. They said in that case, I'll need to call back on Monday.
So it sounds like if you still have the tickets you should be able to easily get a refund; otherwise, call on Monday and hopefully you'll be able to show them your credit charge or something to get a refund.

Hi Ed,

What happened? We were just at the festival today, amongst 3000 others, and we felt short-changed. As bay area local who frequented Shoreline Ampitheatre for sold-out concerts, this event was a catastrophe. Organization wise, it was chaotic. To summarize:

1. The wait to get in (even for ticket holders) was 60+ minutes, snaking from the dusty parking lot. It was apparent at the gate that slow entrance was attributed to wristband-slapping process to each ticket holders.

2. Once in, there's another 40+ minutes wait to put deposit on wristband at ironically called "Fast Pass Stand". No one understand how the "hi tech" wristband works - one advised activation, others said not necessary. An agent at fast pass informed refund can be done at information booth, yet info both denied authority.

3. Then there's another 90+ minutes wait in line to order your food of choice. Since your first plate of food is included with ticket price, the choice was pretty obvious as there are only 2 vendors with a $12 price tag. We arrived at 12:20, and didn't have a single bite until 3:30. All the while, no music, drinks or announcement. Just standing in line.

4. Ofcourse, with all new technology and wired systems, there's a glitch. By the time you get to order your food, the scanning device failed. Your purchase can not go thru. Rendering waits you bear, deposits you made, stupid wristband start-up technology, major screw ups, all fruitless effort on an otherwise nice Saturday. This happens to most everyone I talked to. A lot of pissed ticket holders.

I've been to Shoreline multiple times, and I've never experienced worst. Surely the venue & employees was not the issue. Was it Live Nation got too greedy, over-selling tickets? Silly wristband technology company that doesn't work, lobbied by lowest bidder? Event organizers dropped the ball, not anticipating the outcome?

Whatever the reasons, I think all these could have been avoided by simply thinking it through. If you're going to make a rule that all first purchase will be free, you bet mass are going to swarm highest priced vendors. This was not anticipated as lines spiraled uncontrollaby at these vendors, creating little "riot" amongst by standers, ppl waiting in line and those trying to cut it. I suggest getting rid of the silly wristband rule, just good old cash.

Can I get my money back? Oh yes, there's also a line for that. It started few zip codes back and 2 days long.

i had a 2.5 hr wait for katz's pastrami (spent a whole 18 min just at the window, after giving the very slow livenation teenager our order) - it wasn't even sliced the same way as the original and the bread was not the same!!! completely unorganized. hubby had a 3 hr wait for cheesesteak. ran out of junior's cheesecake by the time i made it over at 5.
the whole event was just upsetting. i am shocked that such big names would allow themselves to be attached to such a disastrous event.
bobby flay and guy fieri should have fire their agents for talking them into such a poorly planned event.
we didn't have high expectations of the event - and yet it was still an awful experience. shame on the people who put on this event!!!

So, so disappointed in this event. Totally agree that the execution was terrible. Like everyone else we waited an hour to get in, then about another to get BBQ from some very "happy" workers who snapped at us for asking questions about how to order our food.
The payment system was so dumb... stand in line to put money on a band then stand in a longer line to buy food. Oh then have the whole system go down 90 minutes into the event. Then they don't even communicate to all the vendors to take cash or credit card. Perfect!
The location should have been larger and there should have been some kind of schedule printed so you know who was performing or who was doing demos. Don't know if they even did any of that.
We weren't going to try to get a refund since we were thinking this was the first event... but I actually called Live Nation (888-598-4299) and was able to get a full refund after waiting on hold for about 15 mins (what's another line?). Apparently they've been getting calls all night with people complaining. Wished we got a refund for our parking but oh well... we did get our BBQ, ice cream, and bouchons.
Did anyone even see Bobby Flay or Guy Fieri? Did they even show up?!
I hope they learn from this experience and make it better and change the location!! I had such high hopes for this event but I left SO disappointed.

My story:

3:05 pm Parking girl: * waves us by, without asking us to pay for parking*

My friend to parking girl : "um, gee thanks...? but if we don't pay, we can't get in..."

Parking girl: "do you want a refund?"

My friend: "no, I just parked but didn't pay"

Parking girl : "yeah, they ran out of food, so people are leaving and we're giving out refunds"

My friend: "annnd this is why I didn't want to pay for the ticket in advance"

3:06 pm Me: ..."wait, no lox?"

The amount of advertising for this event was substantial and covered all major media bases. What's funny (but not really) is that three hours in, the event had already failed miserably. And patrons, such as myself, were turned away before even stepping foot in the stadium. *I spent more time writing this, than I did at the event* I think that says it all...I still want my lox and wings :(

Both Bobby and Guy were there, and I saw them a few times. In between demonstrations and book signings they made appearances at various vendors and did their best to soothe the crowd (I think Bobby even cut one of his demos short to spend more time talking to people in the audience).

When I went to Bobby's book signing later he looked about 5 years older than he had a couple hours prior; he may have been running around all day, not standing in lines, but he knew this thing fell apart.

So, do we have to mail in our tickets or just call Live Nation now to get a full refund??? I'm confused...

And yes, I know that Katz's chef Kenny Kohn took it all seriously and went out West well-prepared...

Hey...SeriousEast...Livenation....Tom Levine..organizer of the festival.

THANK YOU for embarassing me and my friends.
Thank you for ruining my reputation as a host for mentioning
to my friends that they should come to this event.

THank you for letting us wait an hour to get into the event,
Thank you for not organizing the lines and letting people cut in on the long way in...aggravating everyone.

Thank you for then introducing a cashless food pass system that was NOT tested and you used us all as guinea pigs on the DAY OF the event. WHO does that by the way???

Thank you for making everyone go in endless lines that lead to overwhelmed food vendors who ran out of food, and also didn't know to accept cash or not, because your cashless system failed and you left the vendors, and customers unprepared. (Imagine if our country went into a cashless sysem and it crashed!!!?? This was totally a metaphor for many of us)

THank you for making THOUSANDS wait in energy sapping sunny weather. We got deyhydrated and were taken to exhaustion and ultimate frustration for waiting in these neverending lines.

THank you for misdirecting us when we all found out that we could get refunds We went from stand to stand, office to office, and finally went back to the ticket aisles.

The line for refunders outnumbered those who wanted to buy tickets.

We TRIED to warn those who were buying tickets to not bother..."it's chaos'..but like blind sheep...they all were willing to burn away their cash. What a sociological statement that was...the blind leading the blind.

We were the lucky ones...we only paid 21 dollars from our 4 pack and FINALLY got our money back after waiting an hour in the return line.

I could feel and sense the outrage of those who paid 200 plus dollars for your premium packages and got nothing in return.

You can keep the 15 dollars you stole from me for parking fees.

NO THANK YOU for ever trying to invite me again.

I'm sure you'll see a whole BUNCH of your angry patrons in court.

Nice job Serious EATS and Tom Levine.
Please don't spend my 15 bucks all at once.

Let me give another point of view on the Disaster at the Amphitheatre: I had two interests for this event. See the people prepare the food live instead of seeing them on the TV and eat the good food that I've heard about onTV and in the advertisements for this event. The entertainment: the Food Network people I saw were funny, entertaining and trying to keep everyone in good spirits, even though, they could see blood in a lot of eyes. Bobby Flay and Guy Fieri were especially good with the crowds. A real bright side for this event. Thanks Food Network people. That was the positive. Now I think it's time to complain, moan and groan about things too. I got there at a few minutes to noon. This was when the event was supposed to start. I was directed to get in the line because that was where general admission ticket holders were supposed to go. I didn't know the Amphitheatre grounds were so large until I reached the end of the line. It took another hour to get back to the front gate. Then they strapped us into the wrist bands. Staff people didn't explain anything about it except to say not to take it off. I then saw lines of people. Many lines of people. So many lines of people that all I saw was a gaggle of people. I tried to use the wrist band at a vendor-it didn't work. The worker said there wasn't enough money on the band.

I'd never before imagined that entering a Food Festival hungry could be a bag thing, but this event proved me wrong.

I waited in the Cheese Steak line for over and hour. The only reason the line was "moving" was because people were getting fed up and leaving. People in the line were getting food from sympathetic friends and loved ones bringing them nourishment to sustain them.

At the one hour mark, the husband of the woman in front of me said he went to the front to see what was going on.. There were five idle lines of customers.. a stack of sandwiches made that nobody was ordering, and just three people behind the counter actually making food. During the entire time he was up there, none of the customers at the fronts of the lines got any food. He mentioned that some people had gone through other lines twice while we had waited there.

I was so determined to stay in that damned line and get food but gave up when I heard no food was being served.

I ended up joining a friend in one of the BBQ lines. The BBQ stand had multiple lines, one had people waiting over 2 hours, another was more like a 30 minute lines.

We got to see Bobby Flay just in time to hear him say that nobody should EVER serve a burger without melting the cheese. Kinda like the sausage on my plate.

The funny thing was when I eventually needed to use the bathroom - *** NO WAITING *** I was really shocked given the attendance of this event. Probably because nobody was eating or drinking anything!!!

I did manage to get two items with no waiting: A TWELVE DOLLAR BEER and an Its-It (which I can get locally anyways).

I agree, give your money to the numerous good local Food and Music establishments in the bay area. Not these clowns.

Part two: I searched the grounds and found a place to refill the wrist band. The place was down (we live in Silicon Valley for crap's sake). I found two other locations-they were down as well. But, I found that a schedule of events, a map and a food and beverage menu existed in this venue. Standing in line was good for some things, not like people who worked there gave information out. I went back to the original location to fill the wrist band and from the sixth person back heard someone up front say the whole system was down and that everyone was now taking cash and credit. There were a lot of grumbles about cutting lines and trying to get the fast disappearing food. I finally got my wings after a couple of hours.
I went to one of the events and was told by an usher that I could sit in row such and such up to the top. I went to the row and was directed by another usher to sit at the end of the row --- which was two rows in front of the designated row. Just as the event was starting, another usher came through and said all people in the row I was in, had to leave their seats and move to other seats. The only empty seats were in front of me and so I stood and watched the show. I also had to listen to the ushers personal lives and how ticketholder such and such gave them problems, etc... I felt as if I was burdening the Staff working the event.
Oh, by the way only about 50 VIP's filled the 700 odd seats that we were ran out of.
This event was totally disorganized and the Amphitheatre Staff should be hung and quartered for being rude and unhelpful.
This was a food event--who runs out of food at a food event five,six, eight hours before the event is supposed to end?? Just to be fair the stage hands and most of the Culinary Institute people, I saw were working very hard at their jobs and overall they were good humored and courteous.
I would go to this event again if the disorganized aspect of it was fixed. It's a great idea (look at all the people who were in the lines that came to this event) and can be made to work. I live in Mountain View and I am not only upset but embarrassed that a whole lot of people from out of town were treated so shabbily.

Utter and complete disaster. Poorly run, poorly executed, poorly planned. An embarassment for Serious Eats, the Shoreline, and every person or organization involved with the event.

I'm personally embarrassed that I reccomended this event to quite a few of my friends and will be extremely disinclined to participate with other events that Serious Eats advertises or sponsors.

I intend to seek a full refund and urge everyone who feels like I do to register their complaints and to seek such refunds.

I cannot even imagine what sort of an apology would restore my faith.

A complete "Bust", I was only a little "Lucky", I got there about 11:30 and was only 120-150 people back. It took quite a while to get in because of the wrist bands. The readers were down more than operating. I could only stand it for less than 2 hours and left., and that was a round 2:00pm . The line to get in was all the way back past my parked car in the parking lot !!
I'll bet it those 3 hrs to get in. The only thing I had to eat was the Brisket/Sausage Twice !! It was very good, but REALLY SMALL portions
I usually spill more off my plate!! Never again !!!

Horrible experience, very unprofessional. This place OVERSOLD by a mile making it a miserable experience for many people. How do you not know how many people a venue can properly handle? Lines - lines - lines. That is all my family saw. We saw very little food actually being eaten, no music, no fun. The geniuses placed the hamburger grills up wind so that all the smoke engulfed the mile long line of people waiting for their food. I think I'm going to write Bobby Flay and Guy. They too deserved better than this!

For a refund, call LiveNation and ask to talk to customer service. They've gotten plenty of calls already and the process should be relatively fast with a confirmation code handy.

Wasn't overly impressed with the food lineup in the first place, but made the mistake of attending anyways. Line cutters need to be locked up in a room and forced to watch Bobby Flay reruns.

What is Live Nations Number?

Probably one of the worst organized experiences I have ever seen. Left a bitter taste in my mouth. Nothing good to say about it. Wasted a day!!! Got the 8 tickets over the internet. Arrived at 100. Paid 15.00 for parking a mile away. First stop was for Cheesesteaks. One of the main reasons we had come. Friends I know back east rave about them. Waited in line for 2 and a half hours for Tony Luke's cheesesteak. Finally get to the front and was told they had no cheesesteaks only pork sandwiches!! WTF!!! Considering the family was starving now at 3:00pm waiting 2 hours and nothing to eat I took it. Food was dry and bland. Nothing special at all about it. Doesnt say much about Philly's best. What made it worse, while standing in line here comes Bobby Flay and Susie Fogelson, one of the V.P.'s from Food network and a judge from the Next Food Network Star. They go walking by the mob in front of Tony Lukes, smile, wave and then disappear into the back. I was expecting Bobby to say something since he was one of the hosts, address the crowd, anything... but nothing. But wait it gets better. Tony Luke then comes out from the back and starts mingling and talking with the crowd. One would think he would be in back helping the staff try and pump out more food or apologizing since it has name on it . Never happened.
But the most dissapointing thing that happened was with my 3 year old daughter who is a big Guy Fieri fan. She had gotten a wrist band that she wears like guy on her right arm and all week had talked about going to see Guy. We waited in over an hour long line for his book signing, having already bought 2 of his books. We finally get to the front Guy barely looks up at her just signs her name. My wife asked him if we could take a picture with her. Guy response was "OK but i have to keep signing" which is understandable. We go to walk around for the picture since Guy said it was Ok, but one of his people standing on the side says sorry no pictures and doesnt let my daughter get her picture. So now I have an upset 3 year old who doesnt understand why she cant get a picture with her favorite Food Tv star even though he said it was ok. That was it for us we left. We had planned on staying for Bobby Flay's signing but had enough. Went to the refund line turned in our paperwork and was told they would credit our card and got refunded on our parking.
This could have been a great experiece. Organizers should be fired or made to wait in their own lines at the event!! Venue was not prepared or staffed properly, nor the right location for something of this nature. Cal-Expo maybe or even a county fair location. Have been big Bobby and Guy supporters and have eaten at their restaurants many times. Sad to see them affiliated with this mess. Suffice to say I am pissed off!!

Whomever has gotten a refund, can you please tell us what you did... I just called Live Nation and they said that I was the second call today about a refund, either they are lying to me or they dont want to give us a refund... any help would be appreciated...

This is not right, I called at 6AM this morning and they had no idea what was going on, now they are saying that they have not heard anything about this. What is going on???

For those of you unable to get refunds, don't forget the ol' credit card dispute. I opened a dispute while standing in front of the ticket office, as soon as they stuck three hulking "Events" guys to block the entrance to the refunds line. My "proof" will be this page, along with an SJ Mercury News blog about the event. I'm shocked there's been no official word on this from Serious Eats, Live Nation or the Food Network.

We were one of the lucky ones. We arrived at around 2:30 got into the lower parking lot and once we made it to end of the line at the gate, were directed to the opposite end of the lot for another line that had just opened, so we got right in. Then the nightmare began. As a professional food vendor, I have never seen such a fiasco. I have sold Philly Cheesesteaks at large festivals for the past 33 years ( if you go to festivals you probably have had one). We did the Outside Lands Festival at Golden Gate Park last year. The food was mainly by Great SF restaurants. Restaurant people have no more clue how to work a large event than I do to run a restaurant, However the folks who ran outside lands made the effort to work with the restaurants and train them to pull it off. It was a great success. Obviously the promoters of this event left the vendors to fend for themselves and remain clueless. Any way thank god I'm a music fan .
After my horrible PBJ ( it was the shortest line) and BLT that only took and hour and a half we retired to the vast confines of the amphitheatre to see Bobby Flay make a hamburger. My wife waited for Juniors cheesecake in the meantime and missed that only to be told that the person in front of her got the last of it. But Big Bad Voodoo Daddy was a blast. Guy Fieri as totally insane and very entertaining. The whole crowd should have got the Margaritas though. We wandered over to the wine tent and was told that while one of the tents was for the poor folks who paid $500 the adjacent tent was free. It was nearly deserted and free wine was happily being pored by lonely vintners. Who knew? Certainly not the thousands of desperate and disappointed folks still waiting in endless lines.
Little Feat played to about an hundred real music fans who stuck it out.

So if you plan to do this again find a bigger venue, train the vendors, hire some pros who know the festival food business to train the restauranteurs.

I hear all of you loudly and clearly, serious eaters. We just posted the following: http://www.seriouseats.com/2009/06/the-fest-4-hours-of-the-best-intentions-gone.html

i just got my money back. i received an email of my credit.

i've been to more organized RAVES then this.

What a freakin' mess this was. I can't believe that hey call this a food festival(without food) and music festival. It would've been less painful going to the DMV and then to the dentist than to this fiasco.

We held two VIP All Access tickets, and yes were disappointed as many were. Two elements from my vantage point fell apart: technology & communication to staff (staff within the food stand is what I mean), and training on how to handle customers. I don't feel that it was proper for the lady with the tatoos that directed many from the main office to gate 6 for refunds had the right to yell out to an irritated mob that she "...didn't need to hear from the peanut gallery..." More training on damage control is needed. My compliments to the gentlemen that seemed to head security as he maintained a cool composure, and immediately fired off tips to his subordinates on handling procedures, and quietly (I just happened to be in front of him). I would have stayed if I had someone to talk to instead of being rushed off to gate 6. All I sought were food passes since I was paying for beverages in any case, and could have dealt with the lines; food passes would probably have kept a lot of people happy, and continue their spending otherwise.

On a final note...I just received via LiveNation email, my credit confirmation for $1052.00, and am proof that the zerox copying of the ticket process and commitment worked. I did notify American Express prior to this confirmation receipt and recommend that AMEX customers do the same

How is everyone handling the refund situation? Should we send in the tickets or call Live Nation, because I've been getting two different stories when I call Shoreline and Live Nation, which is the correct way to get a full refund (including the parking fee?)

Interesting to see these comments.

I got there around 5:30...there were lines,but they moved along ok.
Had Southside Market,Ton Lukes and the bacon sampler,all fantastic.
Thought Flay was really good...
And Little Feat were fun to hear.

Hope you try it again...I'm sure much was learned from this outing.

How can it be all their fault in one breath, and entirely that of another company in the next? The failed wristband system was not responsible for the mile walk to the gate, the hour wait to get in, overselling of tickets, food shortages, inadequately staffed vendors, overpriced water, poorly considered venue, uncontrolled chaos in line-ups, lack of programs, and on and on. I'm sure the refunds are appreciated, but have some integrity--own your mistakes, apologize sincerely, and don't try to place blame elsewhere.

I've been to a lot of festivals and to Disneyland, and this was by far the most colossally disappointing event I've ever attended. We were there at noon with tix in hand, but left at 4:30, hungry and spending over an hour in the refund line. I won't repeat the details as most of these posts seem to be very similar to our experience. I must add that when we finally got inside the gate around 1:00 and asked a group of employees where we could get a menu and event map, one of them said, "There are no maps and menus - this is a green event." When I said, "Oh...where did they get them?" and pointed to the folks walking past us with them, she replied, "Oh! We have menus??" Sigh (I ended up finding them at a small booth off to the side).

Best thing about the festival: the good humor and camaraderie in the crowds, as everyone was in the same pathetic situation and you couldn't help but laugh a sad, ironic laugh (beats crying, which we did see in the refund line), or cheer whenever someone actually got food and waved it over their heads to the rest of the line as if it was some sort of rare treasure - well, in this case, I guess food WAS a rare and coveted treasure .

Things to think about, should the "organizers" (a generous title, at best) ever attempt this festival again:
- Check out the event site beforehand, and plan out physical space and amount of food to accommodate the large crowds you were expecting...and don't oversell.
- Communication to all employees before the start of the event. There was a plethora of conflicting information.
- Stanchions, and enough employees to control the size, flow and direction of lines and to keep people from cutting in.
- On the back of the Menu, put an Event Schedule and Map, not the Ticketing Options and Prices. We're already in the event - we already HAVE tickets and don't need to know the prices! Oh yeah, and hand them out at the entrance.
- Ditch the "cashless" wristband system that doesn't work.

My boyfriend and I love yummy food, summer festivals, and were really looking forward to a great day of entertainment. We ended up getting Wing Stop hot wings (with an Advil chaser for the hunger-headache), making cocktails at home and reading how much other people felt burned by this festival, too. Awesome.

I would recommend to anyone having a hard time with Live Nation regarding a refund to call your credit card company, explain the situation and dispute the charge.

I'm a PR guy and a major foodie. The only reason I didn't attend this past weekend was because of a bum knee awaiting surgery. I'd really wanted to go, but couldn't.

In retrospect, I am glad I didn't.

But even moreso, given my job in PR, I'm stunned.

First off, even great "PR" can't make up for a lack of execution. The product is what the product is -- in this case, it was the GAFAMF, or whatever they're calling it now.

For all of those of you who routinely dismiss PR as some sort of fake balm, here's what my firm would've recommended:

An apology of SE a LOT sooner than Ed's. Comments were spiralling out of control by mid-afternoon Saturday.

An apology better than Ed's. Sorry, but I don't care about your dream or passed blamage.

A direct, easy to use guide on how to get refunds, with numbers and names, right here on SE.

An suggestion box email address (to get some of the bitching offline!) that connects people directly with SE and Ed.

That's it for now. I get paid to do this stuff. But yeah, um, those would be good starts.

SE and Ed, if you want to start to turn it around, email me. Apparently, the douches you've already poured money into haven't help one single bit. Agreed? :)

Good luck!

I was in envy of folks who had the opportunity to attend this event and am appalled at how it failed. I feel so badly for anyone who spent money/looked forward and worked hard to try and make this happen.

But I must say I agree with foodpr - I didn't even attend this thing and I think the response from SE has not been up to snuff. Clear instructions for getting refunds are obviously in order and have not been provided. Ed, your apology wasn't strong enough and you need to update it - NOW. I know your heart was in the right place, but your execution wasn't and you need to suck it up - particularly if you want to try and rework this and do it again. How you handle this failure will determine if you have a success scenario in the future. Best of luck.

I thought this would be a great event - obviously it wasn't and I'm glad I didn't travel or spend any money on it.

I tried to go to our city's chili festival this year, and not even halfway through the event, all vendors ran out of food and they cut ticket prices in half...basically, they still wanted you to pay half for absolutely nothing. We politely declined at the gate. Unfortunately the city refused to give parking refunds, so we walked a few blocks and ate at a great restaurant.

What is it with events these days?

I just had to add something. After waiting hours and hours to get to the Katz counter, the kid running the counter has the nerve to put out a tip cup. Are you kidding me? I just had to laugh at that point.

Thanks to those of you who posted Live Nation's customer serivce line. I called as well and the transaction went smoothly.

Call me crazy, but if they do this again I will possibly attend. I 'm sure what we experienced Saturday was close to the worst it could have been. They have some time to attempt to redeem themselves.

Without question a complete disaster. I am so glad my party figured it out and left after standing in line to get in and then trying to get some food. We only wasted 3 hours. The final insult was being told to stand in line for a refund. No way - we left.

I just got off the phone with Tim Anderson, the manager at Live nation. Nedless to say he is not having a good day. For a refund make a copy of your ticket, mail the original to:

Tim Anderson
Live Nation
1 Ampitheater Parkway
Mt. View, CA 94043
650 967-3000

Good luck!

This event had a lot of potential... too bad it didn't turn out the way it should have.

I don't feel that I need a refund for my tickets- I went, I had a good time w/ my friends, I was able to eat. HOWEVER, I checked my credit card account last night and found that these guys charged me TWO apparently flat fees of $75. I had linked my credit card to two different wrist bands, but we didn't spend anywhere NEAR $75. How could we, when the whole damn system wasn't working? We paid cash for most of our items.

Anyone else have this problem? Any idea on who I should contact regarding being over-charged by the vendors/wristband people/Great American Food and Music Fest? The website itself does not have a contact # or anything.

I'm pretty easygoing and I am prepared to let a lot of thing slide. But come on, people. This is getting beyond ridiculous.

I was there all day, from 8am - 11pm, working on the music half of the festival. And for our part, I think it was a good day. The sound and tech crews were professional and friendly, and I think the music performances were almost flawless. Ok, one glitch with a band who didn't all fit on the small stage. But for such a large event, people truly did a fantastic job from the planning stages to the end.

I do hope Serious Eats and all involved give the food half some further consideration and try again. I did have one of the bagels mid-afternoon. It was a tasty snack.

If we all work together, people we can get our refunds and maybe even network to the point of doing a class-action suit against the promoters of this event. I am in the process of looking for a law firm that will take the case. Stay tuned. Don't let them win!

I ran a race last year that was botched up beyond belief. The course was poorly marked, the volunteers weren't there in time, and people all ran different courses, making it such that times and places meant nothing. Runners were understandably upset...there were people who had put months and months of training into this event. The race director expressed his apologies, and offered to let anyone who participated in last year's event into this year's event at the price of their choosing (they could pay anything from nothing to the standard price, based on what they felt the race was worth). The race will likely lose money next year, but it's setting itself up for future years, and it's better than having no one show up and folding altogether. Ed, maybe you could consider something like that? I wasn't at the Fest, so I have no idea how poorly it went, but based on what I'm reading, it sounds like unless you do something, no one's going to return next year. If this is truly your dream, a little incentive for people who got burned this year might get them to come back next year. It sounds like a bear to organize, and I think people are being a little harsh, but then again, as I said, I wasn't there. I wish you the best of luck with future Food and Music Fests, and hope that you take the lessons you learned this year and use them to make next year a success.