Zouk Fest @ Genting, Saturday, 5 March 2005 Part II

4pm, time to get the ticket, the ticket counter is right at a corner of the first world plaza. According to the notice, the counter was supposed to open on 6pm, but there're a few hundred ravers queueing there already! The queue is getting longer and longer every minute, so we have no choice but to join the crowd.

2 hours gone... the crowd started to get impatient. At about 6, they finally open the counter, inch by inch, we moved closer to the counter but there're still more than a hundred ppl in front of us! We could see fellow ravers covered in sweat struggling out of the queue 1 by 1 with the much prized ticket in their hand. But after 20 minutes, we noticed those who were supposed to come out of the queue victoriously with the tickets, came out empty handed, they told everybody that ticket sudah habis! The news spreaded, everybody started to shout and complained, but obviously, the counters were all closed, black curtains pulled over, with the huge 'TICKETS SOLD OUT" sign sticked on the glass.

There was this special queue that was for some kind of privileged 'Recharged' membership that sold tickets to the members who had a special sms that was sent to them previously by the organizer in their phone, with a special discount rate, but this special counter was closed as well. Well, me and my friend have no choice but to leave the place, I guess I was out of luck tonight.....

So we went back to the room to join the friends, had some drinking games at the room and then dinner at the hai nan restaurant downstair. At about 10pm, I thought maybe we should go and try our luck at the ticket counter again. So we were at the counter again, there were still hundreds of stubborn ravers waiting there, hoping the organizer will somehow start selling tickets again. When we asked around, some friendly ravers told us that there were rumours that the 'Recharge' counters would be opened soon. But alas, I didn't have the needed sms to buy the ticket, but my friend told me she got it, forwarded by a friend to her. Hmm... perhaps we could try something stupid here, so I asked her to forward me the sms, and I changed the receiver name to the required number of the organizer. We didn't know how long it will take to get the ticket, so my friend decided to join back her friends first, when I got the ticket, then only I joined them.

Off I went ahead to squeeze through the crowd, I notice alot of people around me were trying the same stupid trick about the sms. Hehe, I wondered how many of us were able to pull the trick, it was just too easy to spot the scam by just checking the contact details. But everybody just gave it a try anyway. Another half an hour gone, the organizer finally opened 3 counters, annuoncing that tickets were for 'Recharge' members with the sms only.

This is the funniest ticket selling scene I've ever seen, everybody tried their best to squeeze to the counter, and handed their handphones to the staff behind the ticket counter. As I expected, all handphones were checked if the sms was genuine, so much time was wasted because of checking sms. Some people were really rejected and handphones handed back to them, poor fella.... I wished I won't end up like that. Finally, it was my turn, I handed my Motorola E398 with the modified sms and contact info to the staff, she started to checked through. At this moment, I was grateful that I was not using a nokia, because everybody and their mother knows how to use a nokia to check contact details! Things were quite different for a Motorola phone. Perhaps she was quite confused with the different interface of Motorola phones, after about 30 seconds, she finally handed me back the phone, and asked me for the money! Thank god I was able to pull the trick, I happily paid the money, got my ticket and off I pushed my way out of the crowd, with lots of envious eyes staring at my ticket!

Hmm, guess I can't finish the story today, stay tuned for the next part.