A woman who claims she was assaulted inside the VIP section of a concert in Trafford says the experience has put her off ever going to a gig again.
Charlotte Wood paid over £350 for four tickets to watch Ne-Yo at the Bowlers Exhibition Centre last Wednesday (21 September), which she branded as the 'worst concert she's ever been to.'
The 26-year-old from Ashton claims she was dragged by the hair and punched in the head by another reveller as she tried to stand in the way of a confrontation.
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Ms Wood had paid £84 a ticket for the event, which had been arranged to for her birthday, but claimed she was dissapointed to find the VIP section was packed with hundreds of other concert-goers and had a blocked view of the stage.
Another woman attending the event said she'd been left in "disbelief" after claims her £300 VIP tickets paid for a obstructed view of the stage, a stream of 'hot sweaty people' and a 'fight.'
Bosses at the exhibition centre said security staff and medical teams had been on hand to deal with any disturbances, and claimed the VIP section had been organised by promoters of the event.
"I was with my partner and sister, it was a birthday present for me. We were in the VIP area and had paid £84 per ticket. Everyone else in there said they’d paid £40," Ms Wood said.
"We got there at 6pm. We went in and my sister was asking security if this was VIP as we were a bit shocked and thought is that it. It completely blocked the stage and everyone just kept coming in. It was really busy and we were all squashed. There was no air.
"We couldn’t see the stage. Two women came in at about 9.10pm trying to push their way to the front. One of them started on this other girl who was younger than me so I stood in the middle."
Ms Wood claims the woman grabbed her by the hair and punched her three times to the head before security got involved and reportedly told the concert-goer to leave.
"Security told me to come with them but I hadn’t done anything wrong so I stayed put. My head was sore and I felt dizzy but I didn’t want to miss the concert," she said.
"We were getting beer thrown at all of us. It seemed like they were just letting in anyone even if they didn’t have VIP. My sister walked out. It was the worst concert I’ve ever been to.
"It was my sister’s first concert and she never wants to go to one again. It was that hot people were using hats to cool themselves down. We were sharing a handheld fan around us all. Most of the people who didn’t pay for VIP got a better view of the stage."
Ms Wood claims her partner wrote a letter complaining to the Bowler's Exhibition Centre about the event, but said she had not received any form of response.
Another concert-goer, Sarah Taylor, said she arrived at 5pm and went into the VIP section at 6pm, which they quickly discovered had a view blocked by stage equipment.
They then paid £18 for three Strongbow Dark Fruits and were left in sweltering conditions until 9.30 when Ne-Yo finally came out - by which time they’d had enough.
"There were hot sweaty people so close to you that we couldn't move, we were using our tickets to fan ourselves down. It was just ridiculous," she previously told the M.E.N.
"There was a fight in the VIP section, security came barging through and removed a couple of girls. We were so close to leaving we decided to move towards the back where the VIP entrance was because people were literally squashing us."
Managing Director, Simon Colderley told the M.E.N: "Unfortunately these things do happen. If that happens we have security staff and a medical team there to help. Unfortunately with big events like these you can’t control what people do. We have a fully qualified team on hand to deal with any incidents. As far as I’m aware the police were not contacted.
"We set up the VIP area with the recommendation of the promoter. We set that VIP area up on their exact word and the way they wanted it. Anybody that had to go in the area would have to have had a wristband and gone through security. Customers would have had to jump over to get in there without being checked and given it was a predominantly female crowd this seems unlikely.
"We had about 50 members of security who were manning that area. There were about 300 people. It’s more about people's expectations of what they class as VIP and what the promoter promised them."
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