The Pat Benatar at the AMP Debacle

I attempted to go see Pat Benatar at the AMP in Northwest Arkansas Saturday and got to enjoy some of the storms that the folks at Rocklahoma suffered through earlier in the day.  I got to see how AMP management deals with storms and was thoroughly unimpressed.

Local meteorologists had been predicting storms to cover pretty much the entire day.  There were dark clouds in the area several hours before the event.  The show was supposed to start around 7, with the headliner going on between 7:30 and 8.  When we got there, a sign said Pat would be on at 8:15.  Fine.  I figured since there were still well over 1,000 tickets available for the small venue ten minutes before we left the house that maybe they were stalling for more people, but I couldn’t say.

After Pat’s opening act, the storm came.  And it was one thunderbumper of a storm.  A guy came on stage and said they were powering down to wait out the lightning.  Meanwhile, the little structure that was covering a smaller stage on the lawn blew off, the AMP (which is a big tent) started to shake, and the place where parts of the AMP are brought together over a lighting truss started coming off and the stage got drenched. My mother looked up at the steel and lights above us and got scared so I moved her to the outside part of the tent (thanks to the guy who’s name I don’t know who helped me lift the wheelchair over an obstruction, you were a big help).When we saw the sky we made the decision to make a break for it and I ran to the car so fast mom swore the wheelchair didn’t touch the ground.  We were SOAKED.  But we made it home without catching a cold, and I got to experience what it’s like to run through rain so hard and fast that you simply can not breathe.

The weather was not the AMP’s fault.  How they dealt with it was.

Like I said, storms were predicted throughout the day.  We knew they were coming.  Now, if I were running an outdoor music event in a big tent, and I knew storms were coming, I would do the following:

1.  I’d use sandbags or some other method to try and funnel any water  away from the seating area so hopefully it wouldn’t flood.

2.  I’d have a laptop with a wireless card or at least a computer waiting in JC Penney so I could keep an eye on the radar.

3.  I’d make sure the tent pieces above the stage were pulled down into the truss instead of just connected to the top of it, so if there was wind it wouldn’t separate as easily.

The people at the AMP did none of those things.  Water rushed into the seats within minutes of the rain starting.  I put mom back in her wheelchair so her feet at least would be out of the water.  As I said, the tent above the stage started to come apart while we were there.  And as we were leaving, a security guard said they were trying to find access to radar.  Knowing that storms were coming, they should have made sure they already had access to radar.  In my opinion, any outdoor venue should have it built into the budget to have some method of checking the weather at any time.

That wasn’t the only problem we had.  Whoever set up the parking situation must have been on something.  If you turned into the first row of cars and got to the end without finding a space, you could not turn to go to the next row.  You could not exit.  Your only option was to do a VERY interesting job of turning around (like we did) or drive backwards several hundred feet and hope no one was behind you (as I saw a few attempt to do).  Plus, a woman told us to park in a handicap spot, but there weren’t any that I could see anywhere in the general vicinity.

I thought the whole thing was handled poorly overall.  Add to that the fact that the people at the AMP handle advertising like they hate it (ie you’re lucky if you even find out about a show…we saw one commercial the night before and a friend said she might have seen an ad in the paper.  Not even any signs around town.  It’s almost like they don’t WANT you to come.  Maybe that’s why over 1,000 tickets, not counting the lawn, were left when we left the house).

So that’s a Heart concert I’ve missed due to a bronchitis/flu that kept me off the airlines and a Pat Benatar show that storms shut down.  2008 is not my year for concerts.

Update: And to top it all off, they would not give me a refund because our tickets were destroyed by the rain, even though I ordered online and they have complete records of my purchase.