Web Summit 2016: People Who Paid Five Grand For A Ticket Left Outside

The Web Summit, never shy of controversy, has done it again, only this time in Lisbon, Portugal.

The hugely anticipated tech event of the year launched last night leaving a bad taste in the mouths of thousands of ticket holders.

Crazy queues @WebSummit this morning. #WebSummit pic.twitter.com/9aVOM6jpO2
— Stephen McMeel (@SMcMeel) November 8, 2016

The MEO arena's capacity of 15,000 was nowhere near sufficient in size for the 50,000 ticket holders which were hoping to attend the first event of the gathering. Thousands were left outside to watch it all unfold on a big screen outside the arena.

It has been reported that some people were literally fighting to gain entry into the event with some climbing fences to do so.

'Late late' ticket holders had paid in excess of €5,000 for a chance to attend the Summit.

And the disappointment did not stop there.

Oh god... Paddy Cosgrave is doing a "Look how the wifi is working" thing on stage, but it's not working. Awks. #websummit
— Jess Kelly ????????‍???? (@jesskellynt) November 7, 2016

This just in. Enda Kenny detained by #websummit security in Lisbon after being caught pulling plug out of WiFi router
— Annie West (@anniewestdotcom) November 7, 2016

Issues with the Wi-Fi were also reported. Even founder Paddy Cosgrave himself experienced the mishap when he attempted a Facebook live demo on stage.

The Summit is in its sixth year, expanding from 400 to 50,000 attendees in that time. After five increasingly successful years in Dublin, the world's largest technology event decided to leave Ireland behind, only to make Lisbon its home in a bid to improve the quality of the event.

First reviews of #WebSummit seems to be huge queues, over crowded, and wifi fails (even for Paddy on stage). So situation normal then :P
— James Mayes (@James_Mayes) November 7, 2016

People had complained of the poor Wi-Fi when the event was located in Dublin.

All eyes shall be on the Portuguese capital for the next three days to see if there are any improvements in the internet connections.

Today's main complaint seems to be about registration queues.

#WebSummit experience so far: queuing to get into queues. pic.twitter.com/HYLJPe86Hs
— Hazel, but colder (@Hazel_ok) November 8, 2016

Meanwhile back in Ireland we're having a field knowing all is not running smoothly for Paddy and his team in Portugal.

Somewhere, Enda and Richard are watching the #WebSummit WiFi fail on repeat! pic.twitter.com/qQfVpMVIXL
— Brendan Redmond (@brendanredmond) November 7, 2016

entertainment

Web Summit 2016: People Who Paid Five Grand For A Ticket Left Outside