I have mixed feelings about the PIsstburgh line. First, I am absolutely thrilled overall b/c I decided to go last minute, ended up number 4 in line and got into the ellipse, front row center. My main complaint is that NO ONE from the venue EVER came out and gave us any official instruction. It went something like this:
10:30pm April, Miroslava and I show up. It's dark, rainy, we did not expect to be the first there, but we didn't see any people and had no where to go. We finally found a place to park and walked around the arena. The only person there was a security guy in a booth with a sign that said General Admission. Miro introduced us and the guy, Jim, was really nice and totally cool with us camping out right there on the street corner. He showed us where we would be let in through the gates, but that was really all he knew. By the time we came back w/ camping stuff, Brad/Super Fan was there and he said he would run the line. I've heard mixed responses about his lines in the past, but we didn't really want to do it and he seemed to want to do it so that was fine w/ us. A few people showed up to spend the night and despite the weather, things went well and we were able to get to know each other and have some pizza.
I don't have a lot to say about what happened during the day b/c being so close to the front of the line, we fortunately didn't have to deal with people trying to cut or let others in. I think a lot of the problems were because of the weather (it was cold and raining so not great for just chilling all day, people had to leave to get dry and no one was in a mood to relax and have fun) and the venue. The location of the line was really awkward. I swear we told at least 100 people that we were the front of the line, not the back. Tons of people asked about the fan club line, but we were having enough trouble keeping track of the numbers and said "the venue is responsible for the fan club line". Like I said, not once did anyone from the venue come over and say anything. Jim left his post at 8am and the woman that replaced him was very nice (I asked her about the camera policy, etc), but didn't know anything about the line or a fan club line. The only time the line was ever officially addressed was when Alison came out after 6:30 and by that time, the weather was just getting colder, windier, rainier, darker and it was too late to split a fan club line.
I heard of many instances where people were confused, frustrated, or others were trying to cut farther back. It sucked b/c Brad/Super Fan was gone more often than he was there and April, Miroslava and myself had made it clear we were not going to police that line (though we were perfectly willing to take down names, give out numbers, and explain the process for a couple of shifts).
It seems the problems themselves were pretty normal (people trying to cut, people trying to let people in, etc), but the weather and no official leadership just perpetuated these problems.
So yeah, that's how I feel, but my opinion is somewhat jaded since I was number 4 and didn't have to deal with cutters and the whole going in in groups.
