2nd November 2012, I attended the Nicki Minaj ‘Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded’ arena tour. On this date she played at the newly renamed ‘Manchester Arena’ (Previously known as the MEN) and she was outstanding!The tickets cost me £39.50 plus a whopping £5.80 for booking fee, but it was well worth the price.
I arrived at the concert at 7.45pm, where we saw the last 10 minutes of one of the supporting acts which was Misha B. Tyga was the second supporting act for Nicki Minaj and he entered on the stage at 8pm and ended his set at 8.45pm. Both acts performed well and seemed to be running on schedule.We then waited an HOUR for Nicki Minaj to grace us with her presence.
I was extremely angry at the fact she kept her fans waiting for so long! During the hour, you could tell the crowd was becoming increasingly angry. This wait was proved to be dangerous for the audience as you could see fans passing out due to the heat and over crowding. I explained what I saw to a friend of mine at university the following week. She began to tell me how in the past she has attended gigs where people where passed out in the crowed and was passed back in the style of a ‘crowd surf’. This really shocked me. Yes it was a solution on how to get the injured out of the crowed quickly but this was certainly not safe.
Tarlow , P (2012) notes that event risk managers are expected to have invested a great amount of time understanding crowd control . If this is so, in this case did the risk manager think of the scenario of people passing out? and was there original plan to crowd surf the injured out to safety? I don’t think this would of been the case but if they had a plan in place then why wasn’t this taken?
Manchester Arena on the other hand , handled the situation well. As they had security walking around the venue on look out for people who were injured or were coursing trouble. If an audience member was seen to be passed out, then they would carry them to safety and sit them down on the seats in a cooler section of the arena. This allowed the attendee to be at a safe distance to be able to calm down. For the rest of the show he/she would be offered the seat for the rest of the concert as a safety measure so they don’t enter the crowd and pass out once again, but still having the option to enjoy the show.
I also noticed on the ticket which granted us access to the concert, there was a number of company logos featured on it. Such as: Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn Express, Ticket mater, and SMG Europe. These companies will be the ‘Manchester Arena’s sponsors, I know this because Goldblatt (2008) lists typical types of sponsors which could be associated for a variety of events such as:
Festival: department store and record store.
Sport: athletic wear manufacturer, brewery and a hospital or health-care related.
School Program: children’s toy shops, kids clothing stores, and theme parks.
Meeting/conference: printer, bank, and insurance broker.
The listed companies on the ticket are all related to the arena For example: The Crowne Plaza and The Holiday Inn Express are types of accommodation available close by to the venue. Ticket Master is the company where the tickets are sold and distributed.Finally SMG Europe is the world leader in venue management and operation, which clearly fits nicely as the arena is a large well known venue.
“Sponsorship is now used to drive sales as well as develop favorable brand associations and awareness”. (Masterman, G 2007:11) Therefore the companies based on the ticket will hopefully gain brand awareness which will then expectantly increase their sales. The Manchester arena will ask for a fee from each organisation as space of advertisement, this will allow the venue to raise additional profit. Overall both the Manchester Arena and the featured companies will gain benefits by helping on another.
On the whole the concert was enjoyable and seemed at a high quality of health and safety. I believe this as the staff came across as they really cared about their customers. I would definitely be returning to the Manchester Arena when another concert comes to the venue which I would like to see, due to this successful experience.
Events Operations in Context 
Is an hour wait for the headlining act not about par for concerts these days? I’ve certainly waited longer, but I’ve definitely seen it managed better than this, with drinks being passed around through the crowd, and there being lots more space generally to move around in rather than having to be carried by other concert goers, certainly doesn’t let a customer have the kind of experience they would expect from a concert!