Slow lines ‘a real pain’ as fans miss part of sold-out Boise concert. Why? ‘Demographic’

Concertgoers who attended Sunday night’s Bonnie Raitt show wound up with something to talk about.

They had lots of time to do it, too.

Waiting to get inside.

Long, slow entry lines tested fans’ patience at the Idaho Botanical Garden’s Outlaw Field.

I wasn’t there. But concerned, politely disgruntled emails awaited me this morning.

“(Opener) Mavis Staples was stunning,” concertgoer Phil Neuhoff wrote, “at least the part we caught. We got to the entry lines 20 minutes before showtime, but were not inside until 15 minutes into her promptly started set. … It’s a great venue with great shows, but this makes me reticent to buy tickets to future shows.”

The concert itself? “Amazing,” emailed Sue Myers. That said? “I attended the Avett Brothers concert a couple weeks ago and getting in the gate was a breeze despite being a sellout. Tonight? Another story … all lines, including the Garden member line, (were) slow-moving and really, really long.

“Is this what we can expect at future events at Outlaw Field?”

The short answer? No.

There’s a reason the lines were brutal, Boise.

How do I put this delicately. Yet speak up loudly enough for you to hear me.

You’re old, Bonnie Raitt fan!

You don’t go to enough concerts! When you do, you roll in too late! You don’t know the rules! You haul in too much stuff! You can’t figure out your phone!

Please don’t smack me with your cane. You might hurt me. I’m gettin’ a few gray hairs myself. Besides, I’m laughing as I write this — as I hope you are.

Erin Anderson, executive director of the Garden, was more diplomatic in her email responses.

“We are aware there were some challenges with the concert ingress last night. Our team has met and determined the factors to be based on the demographic of the concertgoers,” Anderson explained.

“For the Staples/Raitt concert we saw an older-than-average demographic of guests. With the demographic last night we experienced:

• More vehicles (and less bike riders) causing backup on Warm Springs and many people arriving at once.
• Most guests were excited to see Mavis Staples, the opener, so (they) came at door open time causing congestion. Often guests arrive over the course of a two-hour period. Last night, all seemed to arrive at once.
• Because of age demographic, more chairs and coolers were present which slowed entrance lines. Often for other shows only about 50% of guests bring in these types of items, others opting for blankets, and food truck meals.”

“It is difficult to assess how each concert will be different for each show, but we try our best,” Anderson said. “For example, we tripled the total amount of ADA space for last night’s concert, which did fill up, and we increased volunteers to assist with seating placement for guests.

“In comparison, the Avett Brothers had over 1,000 bike riders (we count bikes at each show), significantly less chairs and coolers, and there was no opener (which led to a longer time from gates opening to the artist beginning their set).”

Another factor? Promoter Chris Moore of CMoore Concerts explained via email: “Our standard operating procedure for a show that is sold out is to open up gates an hour and half before show time. However, it’s the artist’s call. In this instance Bonnie’s tour has a lot of moving parts, and the tour only was able to give us an hour before the show time. If we had our normal hour and a half, the folks that got to the venue early would have most likely been in, and it would have alleviated the lines.”

Sunday night’s slow-line controversy reminds me of the Great Willie Nelson Drama of 2010. It, too, occurred at Outlaw Field. And, yes, with a perhaps older-than-usual demographic. About 200 fans in front of the stage decided to stand at Willie’s show, causing fans sitting directly behind them to go a little berserk. It was a huge debacle. Letters to the editor rolled into the Idaho Statesman afterward.

Slow-moving entry lines are nothing compared to people who dare stand up and dance at a concert!

(Full disclosure: My official stance about the standing-or-sitting etiquette debate is that there’s no absolute, 100-percent-of-the-time rule, but that we all know impoliteness when we see it. And if you’re not doing what everyone else is doing at a concert, you’re probably being impolite.)

In the end, it’s all about perspective. And accepting that getting 4,000 people together often comes with annoyances.

As for that entry situation at the sold-out Raitt show?

“Everyone was cordial and understanding, this being Boise,” Myers wrote, “but it was a real pain.”

This story was originally published August 15, 2022 at 2:23 PM.