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What Really Happened at the Youth Ball?
The Youth Ball was one of the hottest inaugural tickets in town. But what happened that night at the Hilton ruined the evening for hundreds of attendees.
By
Matt Carr
The scene at the Youth Ball, which attendees claim was grossly oversold.
January 20 was a memorable night for the 3,500 campaign volunteers and supporters who made it inside the Hilton Washington’s ballroom for the official Youth Inaugural Ball. They were mere feet away from the newly inaugurated President of the United States, who personally thanked the roomful of twentysomethings for believing in his campaign and delivering him to the White House. >> See our original coverage of the ball here
But not everyone had the same experience.
Kimberly Misher arrived at the Hilton at 7:30, just 30 minutes after the doors opened. The ball didn’t even begin until 9 and the line was already around the block, but Misher had hope—it was moving fast. A few days earlier, she had bought a ball ticket off Craigslist for $400—more than five times the original $75. It was expensive, but she wanted to be a part of history. After navigating through a maze of tents, passing the security check, and checking her coat, she was finally in. Or so she thought.
“A police officer called it a holding area,” says Misher. “That’s how I learned that we were just in the antechamber. The main ballroom was across the hall.” There was one door leading to the main ballroom, and people were lined up 100 people across and 100 people deep, she says. “There was a lot of pushing, and it was hot.”
When the door finally opened, she ran smack into another line—at the entrance to the ballroom. Earlier in the day, Misher had been denied access to the inaugural parade. She had a ticket but was told to go to the wrong gate and wound up at the end of an insurmountable line. But again, she had hope.
“We stood there like cattle, shoulder to shoulder and breast to breast, for an hour,” she says. Eventually, people started to chant, “Let us in!” But to no avail. A fire marshal got on a blow horn and announced that the room was full. Not only that, but he announced that the exits were clogged and no one could leave.
After waiting in yet another line, Misher eventually found an exit. “We also found a line of people anxiously waiting to get into the building,” she says. “The line snaked through the tents, exploded onto the street, and wrapped around the block, stretching down to the far corner.” The main ballroom had to have been double-booked, Misher guesses.
According to Melanie Roussell, spokeswoman for the Presidential Inauguration Committee, the event was not oversold. She said the ballroom never even reached its capacity of 4,200.
“As sometimes happens at large events, a determination was made by the fire marshal to temporarily stop letting people into the ballroom for safety reasons,” says Roussell. “This was an unfortunate situation that kept many guests from enjoying an otherwise wonderful event.”
Roussell and the Presidential Inaugural Committee are in the process of investigating what happened at the ball. When the investigation is over, they’ll determine a response to guests unable to attend. For now, disgruntled ticketholders will have to continue to wait.
Karl Johnson, an Obama staffer, spent three hours in the line outside. He says most of the people around him had worked on the campaign for close to two years. They never even made it inside.
Deanna Zandt, a 33-year-old progressive media organizer, made it inside but was no better off. She described the night as a weird shunting-and-herding of people. Zandt, who has already started a Facebook group, is also starting a Web site to demand an apology and refund from the inaugural committee.
“We’re youth organizers,” she points out. “What did they think we’re going to do?” >> Were you at the Youth Ball? What was your experience? What do you think went wrong? Let us know in the comments below. >> See all inaugural balls coverage More>> Capital Comment Blog | News & Politics | Society Photos
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Comments
IT WAS CLEARLY OVERBOOKED!!!!! There is a sign on the ballroom wall that indicated capacity; it WAS NOT 4200!!!! I will get a picture of it and post it. It is on the wall in the ballroom. I personally witnessed at least 1000 people outside in the cold and another 300 stuck inside but above the stairwell. The PIC is clearly to blame...they sold the tickets and used the proceeds; they should issue refunds at a minimum. Unlike the purple ticket holders, we PAID for our tickets (some at scalped prices). Irrespective of the fact that 18-35 year olds don’t vote at the same % at 36-75 year olds, this was a complete outrage and incredibly unfair. Something must be done and soon!
Posted by: JIM, Feb 04, 2009 12:06:06 PM
IT WAS CLEARLY OVERBOOKED!!!!! There is a sign on the ballroom wall that indicated capacity; it WAS NOT 4200!!!! I will get a picture of it and post it. It is on the wall in the ballroom. I personally witnessed at least 1000 people outside in the cold and another 300 stuck inside but above the stairwell. The PIC is clearly to blame...they sold the tickets and used the proceeds; they should issue refunds at a minimum. Unlike the purple ticket holders, we PAID for our tickets (some at scalped prices). Irrespective of the fact that 18-35 year olds don’t vote at the same % at 36-75 year olds, this was a complete outrage and incredibly unfair. Something must be done and soon!
Posted by: Jim, Feb 04, 2009 12:05:21 PM
My friends and I got in and had a ball. We had no idea there were any problems on the outside. Things seemed to move smoothly, at least for us and most of the other people I expected to see. It was great!
Posted by: Steph, Feb 02, 2009 03:04:34 PM
I got in, however was locked in the overflow room and didn’t get in to see Obama or the concert. My brother was in line for over three hours and only got into the ball at 12:30am. It was horribly planned and executed. I also was one of the thousands of purple ticketed people that did not get into the inauguration. Talk about a big let down.
Posted by: me, Jan 29, 2009 11:38:52 AM
In that case, the hotel manager and the PIC staff I spoke to that night both lied to me. The former was the one who told me about the overflow room, and the latter about the overbooking and the split level capacity. I wish I had got their names, but according to the PIC staff (who were wearing badges) they just "open the doors" and had left ticket sales to Hilton.
Then again, who really cares? In the end it was only 18-35yr olds, and only a small number, not exactly a significant population, right?
I honestly don’t want anything out of this, least of all a refund (can you really refund a once in a lifetime event?) I would just like someone to stand up and admit they screwed over a lot of people, some of whom sacrificed a great deal to be there. And sorry "me," but Hilton should have known better, their space is NOT "out of their control." If you think this makes me an idiot, fine, but for the record I’m not the one hiding anonymously.
Posted by: Andrew Sempere, Jan 28, 2009 06:22:14 PM
How could anyone possibly say it was not oversold? There were definitely more then 1,000 people who did not get in the ballroom. It was a horrible, horrible evening. I am really concerned that people who worked for the PIC have jobs in the new administration, because they don’t have a clue, and what’s worse, they don’t seem to care about all the complaints because it was just a "bunch of kids."
Posted by: Vic, Jan 28, 2009 05:42:10 PM
The sad thing is that people who work for PIC or OFA did not even get in, that’s the real sad part...
Posted by: Jermaine, Jan 28, 2009 02:19:02 PM
I went to the Youth Ball and had a great time! We arrived around 7:30pm. Although the line was long and slow moving (and stopped for 15 minutes at one point) in the freezing cold, once we got in, we had a smooth experience. Coat check, food and drink tickets were easy. We happened to see the line of people waiting at doors in the back of the "antechamber" and joined the line. We only had to wait about 20 minutes to get in the main ballroom and we had a blast! It was wonderful to celebrate with so many people and see Obama’s speech to young people live. I feel badly for those that did not get in, but it would be wrong to assume that it was a bad night for all attendees!
Posted by: Laura, Jan 28, 2009 02:17:26 PM
It was definately oversold. The line from the Hilton wrapped all the way down Connecticut around to T Street near Florida Avenue. After waiting nearly 45m to get into the hotel then an hour at the escalator to the ballroom, the police and fire marshalls made it worse when the suggested people should "GO HOME". I havent heard any issues with any other official inaugural balls. If so please correct me.
Posted by: Disgruntled Ticket Holder, Jan 28, 2009 01:23:54 PM
andrew is an idiot for thinking this had anything to do with hilton...the hotel was merely a client of PIC - they didnt sell tickets or make any claims that werent true - the space is what it is...out of hilton’s control
Posted by: me, Jan 28, 2009 12:13:51 PM
i work there and I feel bad for those who werent able to get in the ballroom - they definitely stopped well short of the max though it was known from the start that not all 7500+ ppl would be able to get in
it didnt help that MTV had taken up the upper balcony for production (of what?) and for VIPs...
not a pretty night for most...
Posted by: me, Jan 28, 2009 12:11:39 PM
It was the most misleading and disappointing $250 I have ever spent. Everyone who purchased a ticket did so with the assumption they would be seeing Obama in person. I felt extremely taken advantage of during such a celebratory event. Furthermore, it was the most incompetently managed event I have ever attended- stuffing angry people into hallways like herded cattle on the way to the slaughter house. No wonder the police had to intervene. Absolutely ridiculous. Who was in charge and who should be fired? I heard they oversold by 4,500 tickets.
Posted by: Lauren Barnard, Jan 28, 2009 11:42:24 AM
Craziness. Thank God I didn’t attempt to go!
Posted by: Emily, Jan 28, 2009 10:47:03 AM
The 4,200 capacity number is accurate. You can confirm the number and check out the floor plans here (it’s the International Ballroom): http://www.hilton.com/en/hi/hotels/meeting_space.jhtml;jsessionid=RBBCOTRV3AMRQCSGBIX222Q?ctyhocn=DCAWHHH
Posted by: Matt Carr, Jan 28, 2009 10:42:49 AM
Seriously? They are going to investigate this when thousands of people did not make it to the inauguration itself due to poor planning? I guess money talks.
Posted by: liz, Jan 28, 2009 10:29:44 AM
Melanie Roussell has no idea what she’s talking about. The event was overbooked, in particular because the ballroom does NOT hold 4200, the entire space does, on two levels. The ballroom itself holds 900-1000, so the idea was to admit most people to a big empty space with TVs. PIC is absolutely to blame for not doing their due diligence, but ultimately I think this mess is Hilton’s fault. They know the size and configuration of their hotel - someone got greedy and realized they could sell a lot more tickets if they included "overflow."
Posted by: Andrew Sempere, Jan 28, 2009 09:39:11 AM
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