Gaming events are very popular right now. Like science-fiction conventions, people will buy tickets and turn up to browse the merchandise on offer, see the game studios’ latest projects, meet with friends and just generally have a great time. There’s really nothing like it. Unfortunately they don’t always go to plan.

GamerCon Dublin is a two-day event that is happening right now and billed itself as “Ireland’s largest gaming event” but today ticket holders were left queuing outside in the wind and rain before being turned away at the door being told that the event was ‘too full’ for them to enter.

@ferdi_roberts @GamerCon_Europe “people were not expected to spend the whole day” oh. Sorry about that. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? #GamerConDublin pic.twitter.com/2ojylzwjgq

— [ Sparda’s Angel ] (@LPgirl612) March 18, 2017

While it is possible for events to oversell ticket numbers for a venue and still be able to manage, reports are coming in that the venue was only meant for 7,000 people and yet over 3 times that were sold with reports of around 24-25,000 tickets having been sold. There are also reports coming in from people who are queuing or have already been turned away that no one is currently managing the queues, and that the line was out there for 4-5 hours before being turned away by convention staff calling the crowd ‘unprecedented’.

What’s more, some people have looked into the terms & conditions for the ticket sales and are now accusing the company behind the event, GamerCon Europe, of having changed them to read that entry was no guaranteed and that there would be no refunds. Since then GamerCon have tweeted out that they are trying to get the crowds moving as quickly as possible and said that full refunds for the tickets would be given.

Apologies for severe delays, we are working through the Queue as quickly as poss. Refund requests processed here https://t.co/pUCXnbREjX

— GamerCon (@GamerCon_Europe) March 18, 2017

In a statement they said: “As a first time event we underestimated the traffic flow that we forecast for the event and have very strict health and safety related capacities which we must adhere to. That temporarily impacted our ability to process the queue which resulted in longer than expected wait time for our attendees. We are managing this proactively and expect the situation to ease as the day progresses.

We have offered full refunds to those who decide not to attend and have communicated this to attendees via mobile app and all social media channels.”