Now, Goa has pretty wide set of offerings for NYE ranging from Beach Parties to Underground night club parties. We learned about few of them from radio, word of mouth and locals and talked to organizers of 3-4 different events. We were a total of 11 people ranging from age of 17 to 60.
And, as the fate will have it, we come across White Farm Party.
Q: Is this Party suited for family setting?
A: Yes, totally. Actually, stag entry is prohibited and no stray person will be allowed.
Q: What are the charges for the event? Does it include food, drinks and performances?
A: Two options: Silver (INR 2,000/-) and Gold (INR 2,500/-) on December 30th. On 31st the charges will increase by another INR 1,000/-. Gold has more options regarding premium alcohol (Scotch) and food. Latter also includes seating for everyone in contrast to the former and gives you access to a separate segment for Gold tickets.
Q: What is the expected population size at the event?
A: This is a huge event, might go upto 7K – 8K people.
Q: Who are the performers at this event?
A: Among others, Remo D’Souza and group, Abhijeet Sawant, Russian Dancers. The party goes till 4 AM.
At this point, we thought this sounds pretty good deal and will be a fun thing overall. We buy 11 Gold tickets from the sales guy paying him in cash of total INR 27,000/- (11 * 2,500). Unfortunately, we didn’t ask explicitly for a receipt after getting the entry tickets as everyone was pretty chilled out around (Hint: That is always a big mistake).
Now, on evening of December 31st everyone is ready for a great night and off we go and you might have guessed, everything goes spiraling downwards from there:
After some address searching, we reach at the mentioned location around 9:30 PM only to find an average sized 2-floor house at a farm, although well decorated. First realization, this place can host 200 people, at best, with current strength of around 100. Never Minding the size, we think even better that smaller set of people are here, implies better quality (Boy, what was I thinking!). We collect our wristband tickets in exchange of passes and proceed.
Next, there is no family around at this event. I could barely spot 3 couples, other than us, out of entire population. Say What?
Next, The two floors are split for two different classes of tickets. We proceed to 1st floor only to find there are barely any seating options as affirmed. Now, We have 4 people in 45+ age range and definitely can’t go for a straight 6-hour party haul. We grab a small corner table and go to talk to manager. He explains that there are no seats for Gold class and there is a higher class with reserved seats. Meanwhile, another event staff goes to table and asks people sitting to clear it out. We are baffled by this. We explain the things discussed at point of sale but, they are not listening.
Next, couple of people go to bar to get drinks only to find there are no starters along with drinks, again unlike the confirmation, which further reveals that food charges completely exclusive of the entire ticket amount! Another parallel debate begins about the difference in the way it was advertised and reality. We’re appalled at this point and everyone’s mood is off.
Next, background music is being organised by some local DJs and bands and no real performers as advertised. We have no hope that any of the good ones will actually turn out.
Meanwhile, I try to get hold of some starters from the event kitchen only to find a single person handling everything with a single cooking setup. It takes him almost 25 minutes to get me a single plate of Chicken Tandoori Kabab. We have come to hopeless realization within an hour of arriving here that this is not working out.
Next, out of several shiny white clad russian women, few of them get up on the table for their dance performances. I would have loved to be there by myself but, not everyone is going to like this.
We need to get out of this place.
Next, I go to the ticket counter to tell him how ridiculously we were duped into something completely different than what’s happening here and ask for refund. And, sure enough that guy has stopped listening. In retrospect, I would also not have believed someone saying they want refund during the event. But, then he goes one step further and starts threatening that either go “enjoy” the party or he is going to “kick me out” of there. Now, this attitude totally pisses me off and have a very high pitched vocal argument. I’m rather chilled out person who totally tries to avoid any sort of violence but, within a second of that statement 5 thoughts cross my mind on how to hurt this guy ranging from breaking his nose to burning this place, which is already covered with clothes all over, down.
We were way beyond our point of frustration and embarrassment at this point and walked out to somewhere else. We not only just wasted a good chunk of cash on this but, that made this the worst NYE experience compared to what we had originally in mind.
I still painfully remember how this entire thing made me most helpless and duped I ever felt filled with shame, embarrassment and frustration. And, I couldn’t think of anything I could do to get even.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m a highly reasonable person with rather logical brain and totally understand how the event organizer could have seen this entire drama in a different setting from other side of table. My utter anguish was because what the sales guy promised us for the event in contrast to reality. Because, these agents are paid on per ticket sale basis, that guy went as far as it took for him to sell as many tickets as possible.
I would have been totally fine if I was sold ticket with explanation of what’s exactly going to be here. Be it no seating option or, a small event or, mere russian dancers or, food is extra or, stag friendly place.
It might have been foolish of me to listen to the sales guy other than what was written on pamphlets in the first place or, not verifying authenticity of entire thing independently. But, during such vacation travel and high state, I doubt anyone really thinks about these things until later and most people would be vulnerable to such.
I dropped a mail to Goa Police later on with details in the hopes that someone looks into this matter and takes some strict action to put up preventive measures against such fraud in future.
Do you have any suggestions on who else can be told about this?
Filed under: General
This post first appeared on Life, The Universe, And Everything | Just Another Blog. . ., please read the originial post: here
