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Pride Glasgow ‘profoundly sorry’ for ticketing farce

Organisers of this year’s Pride Glasgow have issued an apology stating it is “profoundly sorry” after last month’s festival ticketing debacle.

An open letter posted on Pride Glasgow’s Facebook page on Tuesday said it “had let Glasgow down.”

This year’s Pride took place on July 15 in the Scottish city’s Kelvingrove Park, with more than 12,000 people taking part. Some 600 people with pre-paid tickets were turned away after being told that the event had reached its full capacity.

Many people criticised the organisers’ response to the issues after being slow to react to the uproar and issue refunds to those affected.

Pride Glasgow claims it has responded to 665 requests, providing refunds totalling more than £6,500, as well as accepting requests for 278 VIP tickets for the 2019 event.

The letter from Pride Glasgow was written by the newly appointed chairperson on behalf of Pride Glasgow Trustees, Chris Lang. It read: “We’re sorry for the ticketing problems which meant a significant number of you were delayed or unable to access the site in very hot conditions.

“We’re sorry to all those performers, hosts, stallholders, sponsors and guests for whom we didn’t live up to expectations.

“We’re sorry for the reputational damage done to the LGBT community in Glasgow and the Pride movement in Scotland by our actions.

“We also acknowledge the frustration and anger that many of you have expressed about the transparency of Pride Glasgow and have made a number of internal governance changes, staffing changes and have appointed a chartered accountant to help ensure we meet our obligations as a Scottish charity.”

However, Scott Agnew, this year’s event co-host said in the comments section of the Facebook post, that the statement is “clearly a smoke and mirrors move.” 

He added: “This is merely a reshuffling of the pack of the same organising committee who oversold the event, endangered the LGBT+ Community’s safety and failed to respond in a timely fashion to concerns and complaints and requests for refunds.

“This is the same group of people who breached GDPR rules when attempting to arrange refunds and then have potentially breached Trading Standards rules by offering only half refunds or VIP tickets for an event they cannot guarantee will go ahead next year.”

Image: Naeimasgary