Fans show up to see Shaquille O’Neal DJ, but many don’t get in. ‘We all need refunds’
Fans are demanding refunds for a concert featuring NBA Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal, who performed at a Nebraska venue many said was oversold.
The Royal Grove, a Lincoln, Nebraska, concert hall with a capacity of around 1,000 people, hosted O’Neal for a June 29 show it called “history in the making.”
But some fans had difficulty witnessing that history, including Yahir Bernal, who said he now plans to sell his tickets to an upcoming show.
“Very disappointed in last night’s concert,” Bernal said June 30 on Facebook. “Waited in line for two hours because they weren’t letting anyone in due to ‘over capacity.’ What kind of ... owner sells more tickets than the venue capacity?”
Under his stage name Diesel, O’Neal has sold out club venues nationally — many of them larger than The Royal Grove. The popular DJ often draws more than 10,000 people when he performs at music festivals, making him one of the biggest names in electronic dance music.
His Nebraska show was referred to by the Lincoln Journal Star as one of The Royal Grove’s “largest events to date.”
Kayla Burke told the Journal Star she arrived at the venue at 10 p.m., more than an hour before Diesel’s headlining performance. She said fans chanted “Let us in” as Diesel began his set, with many still outside.
“There was no way we were getting in by the time his set was over,” said Burke, who left around midnight with 100 people still in line in front of them.
In a Facebook comment, the night club said all attendees were let in by the end of the night.
That doesn’t mean they got in easily, however. One concertgoer said it took her longer to get in to see Diesel than it did to enter a Taylor Swift concert last year.
A Reddit poster estimated 400 people were waiting in line after the show started, including some who were in line for more than 90 minutes.
April Froot, a Lincoln-based producer, believes the show “was a HUGE oversell” and said she understands frustration from concertgoers.
“All I know is someone from Royal Grove has got to refund me,” Trav Turner said in a Facebook post.
The thoughts were echoed by Bernal, who said, “We all need refunds.”
But according to its website, The Royal Grove does not offer refunds. The venue says ticket holders are not guaranteed entry, which is “subject to the venue’s capacity limits.”
The venue has “sincerely” apologized for issues during Saturday’s show, including for what it calls “long wait times and uncomfortable conditions within the venue.”
“As this was our first event of this scale, we have gained valuable insights and are committed to making improvements. Ensuring the safety and enjoyment of our guests in Nebraska is our top priority. We are actively working on solutions to address these concerns for future events.”
Alexandru Grigorescu, the owner of the venue who took the stage for his own DJ set after Diesel’s, considered the event “an extreme success,” while noting “not everything was as good as possible,” the Star Journal reported.
He said a late-arriving crowd provided challenges to getting concertgoers inside the night club, which he said was not oversold and never reached maximum capacity.
“If 500 people decide to come at 11 o’clock, it’s impossible to get them in one to two hours inside, assuming we’re still doing our job and checking their IDs and wanding them for all the safety of the people that are inside,” Grigorescu told the news outlet.
This story was originally published July 2, 2024 at 7:32 AM with the headline "Fans show up to see Shaquille O’Neal DJ, but many don’t get in. ‘We all need refunds’."