sleepy queue

[TheDukeAbides]

Lets get the bad stuff out of the way first:

I got 4 tickets - but not everyone can get down. Buying multiple tickets is fine by me (and not because I did it) - its no different to buying multiple online, or taking the last bog roll in the shop. Though I am now philosopically looking at whether buying multiple for not sleepy attendees is a form of cutting - *hmmmm, strokes chin*

There are always going to be queue jumpers. It is a fact of life that even though you think a certain group have people who are nice and have an ethos (nice word) there are always on or two wazzocks that will ignore simple human kindness and politeness.

Who gives a fuck if you always sit together and are coming from different parts of the country - if you want to get good seats, then be at the front of the queue and to be at the front of the queue, if this means taking a day off work, travelling a big distance and not getting 24hrs+ sleep then you do it.

And if you are meeting people, why not do it before hand and get in the queue together? Surely planning ahead is not foreign to FFer's?

If that is unworkable, there should be no problem with getting your place in the queue and then walking backward and forward between your place and your mates.

The other thing about the queue is when it moves outside the Empire and starts going round the corner, those who can't see the front then can't see any unethical behaviour, especially because of the gap left of the Tat shop made the queue look longer.

The giant elephant in the room suggests that those who are at the front are the most committed and long term attendees of the festival, so it is actually them that are shitting on any FF ethos.

[TheDukeAbides]

The good stuff:

Thanks to all those in the queue. I like to entertain I'm an anti-social twat, but I know that given the right about of booze, some time and biggest of all, most personalities who go to FrightFest, that chatting will be inevitable.

Thanks to all those near me and all those "queue experts" walking the queue with advice and conversation.

And as physically messy as I may feel, I'm a lot better off than that pigeon.

It may be a shorter posting, but the good stuff of the sleepy queue far outweighs the bad.

[Critter Egg]

I joined the sleepy queue about 7am on Saturday (earliest I could get there on the first train out of Portsmouth) and managed to get the seats we wanted for me and my fella. In my experience there's always been queue jumpers in the 4 years since I've been queuing, but as I couldn't see the front I will admit I don't know if it was worse this year or something. I do wonder if there was a lack of FF ethos in the free film as well though, as some empty seats seemed to be mysteriously missing their free goodie bag ....

Anyway, I'm not hear to complain, I'm posting because I'm wondering how the online sales went? I stared queuing in 2010 after a couple of years on panic buying online, and have always felt this was the right decision after seeing the meltdown posts from people who did buy online / over the phone. But this year there's been no comments - did online purchasing go smoothly? Or did everyone decide to queue?! (The queue did seem very long this year )

[sherbetbizarre]

Who gives a fuck if you always sit together and are coming from different parts of the country - if you want to get good seats, then be at the front of the queue and to be at the front of the queue, if this means taking a day off work, travelling a big distance and not getting 24hrs+ sleep then you do it.

Is this any different from you buying three tickets for people who were never there in the first place?

If your three mates turned up an hour after you did, I'd never dream of asking you to join the back of the queue!

[zur-an-arrh]

I do wonder if there was a lack of FF ethos in the free film as well though, as some empty seats seemed to be mysteriously missing their free goodie bag ....

Probably. I mean, one Conjuring flashlight just isn't enough...........

[TheDukeAbides]

Is this any different from you buying three tickets for people who were never there in the first place?

That is the philosophical quandary worth debating, limiting people to 1 per person can't happen

If your three mates turned up an hour after you did, I'd never dream of asking you to join the back of the queue!

Nor would I expect you to.

Like I said, if that occurred I could either make the choice to move to where they were, or happliy walk backward and foreward between my place and them.
What wouldn't happen is them standing with me.

[EvilAsh]

Many thanks to those who arrived at the sleepy queue, said Hi to friends that were already in the queue & then took their own place at the back of the queue! Total disrespect was shown from those that turned up, many hours into the sleepy queue, & thought it acceptable to join their friends near the front of the queue, regardless that many people, now behind them, had been there several hours already! Also to those queue jumpers that managed to advance themselves from their original order during the ascent of the stairs in the Empire!! Its disappointing to know that your respect for fellow Frightfesters is non existent!!!!

There's one guy who does this every year, he wonders up and down the queue until he sees someone he knows and jumps in. No one ever picks him up on it.

That wasn't me - I was there at 3.30 and I have the Boris Bike hire ticket to prove it! Though I did do a lot of wandering up and down, I kep going back to my approximate point in the queue. I think places might have got shuffled a bit when we moved over from the Odeon.

It wasn't you Sir,awesome PDF btw.
No this guy does it each year and other people point it out. After he queue jumps and gets his ticket he stars telling people in the queue how many tickets are left and how many people should get in. I ignore him and his counting now as I'm used to it but the couple behind me started to panic about not getting a ticket.

[Wulfster]

Awesome Good/Bad posts by Dukeabides... and I agree with him.

For my part, from next year onwards, I've just kind of now accepted that queuing for more than 6 hours is not for me anymore.
I salute you guys that continue the tradition and you deserve the plaudits that you get.
Now I've just accepted that I will just try for the best that I can get online and not my first choices. But I'll still be there, which is the most important thing.

As for queue jumpers...
There are lots of acceptable scenarios that are valid. The only situation that annoys me (and does happen) is represented by the following imaginary conversation;
Cool Fright-fester: "Well it's 6am, and here I am in the sleepy queue. Only 4 hours to go. I wonder where my mate is? He said he would be here at 4 on the dot. Ah well, I'll save his place."
Uncool Fright-fester: "Hey! Here I am! I know it's 8:30am and you've been standing in the queue for 2 and 1/2 hours. Basically, I just got so wasted last night that I overslept! What can you do, huh? Anyway, just let me slip into the queue with you, ahead of the 200 people that have gathered since you arrived. Good times, eh?"
However, on the plus side, I have seen people in that scenario literally put their hands-up and say that it's not fair, and do trudge off to the back of the queue.
Your conscience will judge you...

More importantly...
That bloody Pigeon!!
I've worked in London for more than 25 years and I have NEVER seen that happen before!
For those that missed it, a healthy-looking pigeon literally fell out of the sky and thumped dead on the pavement in front of the queue.
After seeing "The Conjuring" I'm wondering whether it wasn't a publicity stunt by Ian or Alan chucking bird corpses of the Empire roof!

[Wolfshade]

As for queue jumpers...
There are lots of acceptable scenarios that are valid. The only situation that annoys me (and does happen) is represented by the following imaginary conversation;
Cool Fright-fester: "Well it's 6am, and here I am in the sleepy queue. Only 4 hours to go. I wonder where my mate is? He said he would be here at 4 on the dot. Ah well, I'll save his place."
Uncool Fright-fester: "Hey! Here I am! I know it's 8:30am and you've been standing in the queue for 2 and 1/2 hours. Basically, I just got so wasted last night that I overslept! What can you do, huh? Anyway, just let me slip into the queue with you, ahead of the 200 people that have gathered since you arrived. Good times, eh?"
However, on the plus side, I have seen people in that scenario literally put their hands-up and say that it's not fair, and do trudge off to the back of the queue.
Your conscience will judge you...

So the person walking into the queue is uncool, but the person saving the place and allowing him to do it is is cool? Surely he's just as bad for allowing it to take place?

This doesn't really make sense, by this logic the 3 people who had tickets bought for them by the person above are basically just "polite" queue jumpers...in fact they're worse than a person who sees one of his friends in the queue and joins them, because the person who walks into the queue with a friend has at least made the effort to come to the Empire in person and support the fest.

Groups of people who are friends like to sit together at the fest, and the fact these groups may live in different areas means it may not be possible to completely synchronise an arrival time (although to be ethical people should aim to arrive as close together as possible) thus instances were a person sees one of there friends and goes into the queue with them are bound to happen - why should someone not be allowed to sit with friends just because the logistics of their journey mean it is not possible to arrive at the exact same time as their friends? This is a different situation to where a person just sees a FF acquaintance in the queue and jumps the queue and stands with them even though he/she has no plans to get a sit with them.

[bump3r1]

Apart from people turning up & randomly pushing in the rest of this debate is ridiculous, I live in south wales and there was no way I could make the sleepy queue due to both work commitments & financial restraints so I got a fellow frightfester who lives in London to buy me 2 passes. I go to Frightfest every year and in no way, shape or form do I feel guilty about getting my tickets in this manner, there should be a limit to how many people can buy bt it definitely shouldn't be 1 and I actually think there should be a guaranteed number of passes put aside for online purchases only so people who can't make the sleepy queue don't have to panic.

[sherbetbizarre]

Like I said, if that occurred I could either make the choice to move to where they were, or happliy walk backward and foreward between my place and them.
What wouldn't happen is them standing with me.

Then you would spend the weekend sitting alone?

[TheDukeAbides]

As for queue jumpers...
There are lots of acceptable scenarios that are valid. The only situation that annoys me (and does happen) is represented by the following imaginary conversation;
Cool Fright-fester: "Well it's 6am, and here I am in the sleepy queue. Only 4 hours to go. I wonder where my mate is? He said he would be here at 4 on the dot. Ah well, I'll save his place."
Uncool Fright-fester: "Hey! Here I am! I know it's 8:30am and you've been standing in the queue for 2 and 1/2 hours. Basically, I just got so wasted last night that I overslept! What can you do, huh? Anyway, just let me slip into the queue with you, ahead of the 200 people that have gathered since you arrived. Good times, eh?"
However, on the plus side, I have seen people in that scenario literally put their hands-up and say that it's not fair, and do trudge off to the back of the queue.
Your conscience will judge you...

So the person walking into the queue is uncool, but the person saving the place and allowing him to do it is is cool? Surely he's just as bad for allowing it to take place?

This doesn't really make sense, by this logic the 3 people who had tickets bought for them by the person above are basically just "polite" queue jumpers...in fact they're worse than a person who sees one of his friends in the queue and joins them, because the person who walks into the queue with a friend has at least made the effort to come to the Empire in person and support the fest.

Groups of people who are friends like to sit together at the fest, and the fact these groups may live in different areas means it may not be possible to completely synchronise an arrival time (although to be ethical people should aim to arrive as close together as possible) thus instances were a person sees one of there friends and goes into the queue with them are bound to happen - why should someone not be allowed to sit with friends just because the logistics of their journey mean it is not possible to arrive at the exact same time as their friends? This is a different situation to where a person just sees a FF acquaintance in the queue and jumps the queue and stands with them even though he/she has no plans to get a sit with them.

Ethics and the Sleepy Queue - how very British we all are.

No one can really know who is a friend and who is an acquaintance of a group of people.

The 'worst' I saw was a couple arrived (forgot the time) and were happily headed to the back of the queue and someone nearer the front beckoned them to join them.

Some daft hypotheticals to appease all could be:

Signs in group of people saying "Warning, we are expecting a good friend to join us but they are travelling from Ulan Bator, please do not get offended when they join us ahead of you"

Or one person carrying a sign saying "I'm just talking to my friends, I'm not stopping"

In most instances I just shrug my shoulders. I mean I can't even have a zero tolerance policy in mind, because I'm not going to get as wound up by someone cutting in at 5am as I am about someone doing it 3 hours later, there should be no difference, but what, because the sun is still down I think its more acceptable?

The Sleepy Queue is a special queuing case, maybe we should just all agree to disagree that, shall we say normal queuing etiquette doesn't necessarily apply.

Maybe that pigeon tried to cut and someone just couldn't take a flying rat pushing in front of them.

[TheDukeAbides]

Like I said, if that occurred I could either make the choice to move to where they were, or happliy walk backward and foreward between my place and them.
What wouldn't happen is them standing with me.

Then you would spend the weekend sitting alone?

Yes.
I'm watching films.

[Rue-morgue Jay]

I do wonder if there was a lack of FF ethos in the free film as well though, as some empty seats seemed to be mysteriously missing their free goodie bag ....

There was alot of empty seats near me near the front that still had the conjuring bags there, but some were gone with no-one in the seat? That kind of thing happens critter egg. It also comes down to the t-shirt size. my seat had a medium, the empty one next to me had a large. some people just swap bags until they find the right size t-shirt and some like to hoard free stuff. But when it comes to free stuff, it's a dicey situation. i remember one year when free stuff was being put out, it turned into the car scene from THE HORDE (were they are all on top of it with the zmbies surrounding them). I also remember it might have been glasgow or london, that i'm sure it was either paul or Ian got SCRATCHED by someone trying to get free stuff!

That was scary stuff.

That's why there's more helper's doing the free stuff rather than Ian and Paul, perks of being the organiser, get someone els to do it!

Unfortunately, the 'que jumping' thing is a fact of life and is something that's hard to stop. (i could say that contributed to me not getting an isle seat- i got two from an isle so hopefully i can shuffle with the two next to me who DID get it) but i won't. i could have been there earlier, but i was dog-tired and needed atleast a few hours sleep, though THE CONJURING certainly woke me up!

[Wulfster]

By Jiminy! Those Conjuring flash-lights are of good quality!
Accidentally shone it in my face and was wandering around the house like this for 10 minutes, bumping into walls and furniture!