Frustrated Luke Bryan concert-goers bail on Atwater show after 3-hour waits

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Jenny Hickman and a radical of friends expected to walk Thursday nighttime singing, dancing and having a memorable acquisition astatine the Luke Bryan Farm Tour 2025 halt astatine Castle Airport.

Instead, their girls’ nighttime turned into meal astatine Chili’s successful Merced.

After waiting 3 hours successful enactment to get into the concert, Hickman and her friends decided to permission and ne'er made it done the entranceway for the show.

“We could not wait, we had been talking astir the performance for months,” Hickman said. “We were truthful excited to go. We were with a younger girl, who was starting to get frightened with everything happening astir america truthful we decided to leave. We turned Chili’s into our girls’ night.”

After selling 20,000 tickets for the concert, the performance organizers were ill-equipped to accommodate that ample of a assemblage and usher the concert-goers safely and efficiently into the make-shift venue astatine Castle Airport, according to Hickman.

Social media started getting flooded with posts from radical who had akin experiences of three-hour waits earlier giving up and leaving.

Merced County Sheriff Vern Warnke blamed Bryan’s performance squad for having conscionable 1 VIP entranceway and 1 wide admittance gross for radical to participate the venue.

“(Bryan’s) radical did not person their enactment together, arsenic acold arsenic that was concerned,” Warnke said

According to Warnke, the performance unit told Undersheriff Corey Gibson that they would beryllium capable to admit 1,000 radical per hr done the gate.

“My undersheriff pointed retired there’s 20,000 radical coming, let’s bash immoderate math,” Warnke said. “My undersheriff benignant of took the bull by the horns and opened 14 gates and started screening radical in. There was thousands of people, literally, that near earlier the performance started due to the fact that they couldn’t get in.”

People that showed up later, person to erstwhile Bryan went connected signifier astir 9 p.m., didn’t person to woody with the issues of agelong lines erstwhile much entrances were made available.

Pushing and shoving

Jarrod Pimentel, his woman Myshel and their group, which included their 2 kids, were portion of the earlier radical that couldn’t get successful with excessively fewer fates open.

The Pimentels were excited to bring their kids to the concert, but aft waiting hours successful enactment their nine-year aged girl started getting frightened erstwhile the enactment turned into a mob adjacent the entranceway and determination was pushing and shoving. astir them.

“That agelong enactment conscionable turned into, similar a monolithic mob astatine the gate,” Jarrod Pimentel said. “People were just, benignant of making their mode to the front. We waited for different 45 minutes to an hour, and I, my woman and my girl were conscionable benignant of done due to the fact that they had been retired successful the prima for 3 hours. We ne'er got in. We conscionable left.”

Instead, the Pimentel’s went to their ranch adjacent and climbed up connected haystacks and listened to the Luke Bryan Farm Tour 2025 astatine home.

“We were ace excited, conscionable due to the fact that it’s successful Atwater and connected the basal and however overmuch the basal means,” Jarrod Pimentel said. “If we didn’t person our 9 twelvemonth aged it mightiness person been a small spot different, but we wanted our kids to acquisition it.”

For many, the performance was a large experience.

However, galore radical pointed to getting done the entranceway arsenic the main problem.

“As with immoderate ample standard lawsuit astatine immoderate venue, determination volition ever beryllium challenges,” said Merced County Supervisor Daron McDaniel, who attended the concert. “Our nationalist information professionals did a fantastic occupation and the economical interaction to our assemblage volition beryllium to beryllium significant. This was a large accidental to item our region and amusive was had by thousands upon thousands of people.”

McDaniel said he’s heard from galore radical who had a large time, and he’s besides seen the posts connected societal media from radical who had a horrible experience.

“I consciousness truly atrocious for them,” McDaniel said. “You ne'er privation to spot that for anybody. But I was watching people, full families, having a blast. Once you were successful and everything was going, it was a truly bully event.”

McDaniel said Merced County officials rented the installation and Luke Bryan’s squad ran the event. Castle Airport is the archetypal of 3 stops connected the Farm Tour. Bryan, an American Idol justice and five-time Country Music Awards Entertainer of the Year, is scheduled to execute astatine The Ponds astatine Harland Ranch successful Clovis connected Friday and Sillect Farms successful Shafter connected Saturday.

According to Warnke, lone 3 radical were arrested astatine the event.

“Out of 20,000 radical showing up, I deliberation that’s a occurrence to me,” Warnke said.

Warnke said determination was astir 100 to 120 instrumentality enforcement officers determination from the sheriff’s department, Atwater Police Department, Merced Police Department, CHP and members of the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s mounted unit.

Warnke and his unit enactment retired postulation advisories days starring up to the performance that determination would beryllium agelong delays successful the country of Castle Air Force base. Warnke says determination was postulation congestion for radical leaving the performance until astir 1:30 a.m., but that was expected.

The entranceway fiasco was not anticipated.

“I deliberation it could person been better,” Warnke said. “I deliberation the occurrence of this lawsuit is simply a archer communicative motion astir however the radical felt. And erstwhile you person that galore radical that are disgruntled, something’s not right. They request to tweak it up, due to the fact that I volition archer you that the atrocious quality is going to question a batch faster.”

“From my perspective, their promoters sold the tickets, they made each their money, and it was similar they didn’t attraction astir the radical that were waiting successful line. They don’t attraction however they dainty these people, and that’s wrong. The radical successful this assemblage deserved a batch better.”

If different akin lawsuit comes this mode the Pimentels volition person to deliberation agelong and hard astir whether they’ll attend.

“If they determine to travel backmost adjacent twelvemonth we’ll astir apt conscionable enactment home,” helium said.