Save Hunahpu's Day! (positive/constructive feedback only)

I think a draft event with bottles in distro is a great idea. I think any CC event is a great idea, so long as they can properly secure and police the event.

 

I think had there been just 3500 attendees the police that were there would have been enough. I saw 4 differenct cops walking around as I was jostling in lines to get beers thtourght the day. They had 2 others at the front.

than is 6 off duty cops (at least the start the day).. When it became a shit show I have no idea how many ended up being there.

 

Yeah if I was out of state and couldn't go I'd be happy with my catador bottles.
I hope I can get in the crooked stave reserve someday.

 

2. Update Regarding Hunahpu’s Day Refunds
Posted on March 13, 2014 by CCB Admin
Here’s the current status regarding refunds for Hunahpu’s Day attendees:
Our credit card processor is currently pulling all of the credit cards used to purchase a ticket through Eventbrite. This process will be completed by the end of today, March 13th. Then our staff will have to go through and make sure that each transaction is correct, which will be done by end of day March 14th. The next step will be authorizing the returns. Once the processor begins these refunds, it’ll take 24-48 hours to show on your credit card account.
Following this, we will begin the process to refund purchases that took place in the tasting room.
Also, stay tuned for an announcement regarding the silver wristbands. Keep them. We will find a way to get you bottles of Hunahpu’s (we’re brewing a new batch soon).

 

A couple of points meant as constructively as possible:

1) I keep seeing "if it would have been kept to 3500 people, this would have worked out great!". Do any of us really definitively know how many people were there Saturday? Do we know how many real counterfeit tickets there were? I just don't like accepting the narrative that it went to hell because of counterfeiters as opposed to a lack of planning. Who determined (in a scientific and logical manner) that 3500 people was the optimum number of people to allow into the event? Was this even determined in a logical manner? I haven't seen an explanation for this being the chosen number.

2) What we do know is that supposedly there were 9000 people there the whole day in 2013. How many would you say were in the lot at one time? 3000? 4000? Joey Redner stated in the tbt* article that there was supposed to be 4000 legitimate people there for the 2014 event(revised from the earlier 3500 that we all assumed due to the fact that we were told that was how many tickets were allowed to be sold). All of those people (unlike last year) would stay in the event as they wanted to get their money's worth. This would make it just as horrible as 2013 when we complained it was overcrowded.

3) Have we ever stopped to think that the reason the ticket scanners got overwhelmed was because there were like 3 of them and about 4000 of us? We were explicitly told to be there at the same time and told not to come early as "there was no point". Maybe the sudden influx of attendees on 3 people doing tickets is to blame for the gates breaking down and not because there were a couple hundred people who got in unscrupulously.


4) Let's find out the real number of fake tickets! I would hope that the hard tickets turned in at the gates were kept by Redner and crew? Let's analyze that number to see if that was the real culprit. It is easy enough to blame the unsavory portion of our craft beer community for totally ruining something when we don't have any real numbers to back that assertion up. Let's do some real analysis and examination to see maybe if the real reason was actually the planning and not totally these counterfeiter boogeymen.

Maybe in the end, after some examination, Joey Redner would find out "oh wow, there were only a couple hundred counterfeited tickets....that shouldn't have made everything go to hell. Maybe it was the way that the event was structured that led to this mess. Wow, this really might be doable again in the future with some proper planning/an event coordinator". I just think that if we stop all of the conjecture and finger pointing and get to the real root of the problem in a logical manner, we may be able to save Hunahpu Day after all. In the end, maybe we do find out it was the counterfeiters adding thousands of attendees to the event that was the culprit, but until we definitively find that out, this is all just speculation and conjecture.

Let's make informed decisions people on real facts! That's the first step in fixing this mess.

 

The funny thing about PDF tickets is, it does not take much to change the name or any other information on it.

I've seen concerts in past years where scammers were taking cheap lawn tickets, changing the seats to say PIT, and then selling them at a premium. The ticket scans in fine because it is a legitimate ticket, but the PIT area would get overcrowded because there were a lot more people in it than space allowed.

 

Well that wasn't the case here. Again, we are conjecturing without ascertaining the cold, hard numbers. There could have been some really sophisticated scammers and you are right. You could also be wrong. All I am saying is that some serious analysis should be done here and we can get some real numbers here if we analyze the hard copies taken at the gate.

 

I brought it up only meaning, it may not be as simple as looking for duplicate names on tickets; sure there could be "Dick Fitzwell" on 100 tickets, but one could also make 100 of the same ticket with a different name on each.

My larger point is that PDF tickets suck. IMO they should never be used for any event, no matter how big or small. There are ways to fake hard tickets, but there are exponentially more ways to fake a PDF printout. I was concerned before this even happened that we might see issues with duplicate tickets; I never imagined it would be to the magnitude it was, however.

 

@Hopscotch

You're right that I could be wrong, but I at least want real numbers here to debate about. My post is not based on conjecture. I am simply raising the question: was the counterfeit issue really what brought this event down or should we put more blame on the planning? Planning entails setting the attendance cap to begin with, ticketing, entry system, etc. Until we get real numbers though, we can't make that determination.

@RayUF

Good point. My point is though that we don't even really know the magnitude of the counterfeiting. Was it really the culprit for Saturday or was the culprit poor planning? We can't definitively determine that unless we see what the real vs counterfeit ticket numbers are

 

As the meaning of my post was not to submit a theory on what happened, but more to raise the point that we need to gather facts before conjecture as what lead to the chaos, I am reluctant to waste your and my time getting into a back and forth on this. The bolded statement though caught my attention as I am sure you can realize why beer lines were much longer this year.....last year it was a token system where you had to pay for each taste. Less people wanted to buy 20-30 tokens each for all the tasting they wanted to do, thus the shorter lines. This year it was all you can drink, resulting in more people wanting to line up for tastes = longer lines.

As far as the giant mass of people is concerned, I feel it was more of the location and number of distribution points that led to that. Multiple points in years past spread people out around the compound, whereas this year there was only one spot to get your beer at. Add to that that this distribution spot was literally RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE of all the best tasting tents and you get your giant mass of people.

Again, educated guessing, but still, you get my point here.

Anyway, I again reiterate that my purpose here is to merely raise the point that we can't say it was because of CCB's incompetence or was because of the bad apples that this event went badly until we get some actual numbers to base our arguments off of.

 

We see breweries collaborate all the time on beers. Reach out to Surly and ask Omar how he has consistently done it. Attended Darkness for the first time this year. Smooth as a pocket full of warm butterscotch. Beer for sale, bottles for sale, incredible bottle shares.

Have been to multiple Huna this year had family problems. Just seems to get more about the cash and less about enjoying beers and bottles. This needs to be preserved and handled correctly. I know it can make it if the proper steps are taken. One more vote for keeping it going.

 

I support the keeping of huna day. All events run into trouble, and as dim as it seems the obstacles can be overcome. Let us not give in to the new influx of craft geeks lacking the ethics that we have come to expect in our culture. Start the learning curve now.

 

Frankly, they don't have to give us actual numbers and we don't have to debate it. They'll make the decision they're going to make regardless of us wasting time with conjecture and internet squabbles.

In reality, we're just trying to show support for a brewery that has given us the greatest Florida beer contributions in history, and done so in just 5 years. Of course they screwed the pooch on Hunahpu's Day, regardless of the reason (intrinsic or extrinsic forces or a combination of both). I'm saying we have to look well beyond the distance of our bruised beer egos and support them.

 

it seems there was shitty planning and there were shitty people taking advantage of that shitty planning. not a whole lot to debate there. regardless this isn't the thread for that.

 

at least the people running the event know the problems. that's half the battle. the other half is adjustments, and I have no doubt, you guys will find away. Keep it alive! you guys deserve your annual party as much as we want you keep it going.

 

I'm in support and yet still unsure why we're all hollering Save Hunahpu Day. It's Tampa Bay Beer Week, dudes. They're not gonna do NOTHING. It may not be what we're used to seeing, but it won't be nothing. I won't argue against divorcing the bottles from the event. It's the easiest, best way to change where everything went wrong. Stick with charging admission and ramp up the number of people at the gates, put a cap on it, no bottle purchases, and done.