K is for Kids Ch. 16

The next day we all met at Kronos to hash out some ideas.

"Ok, we have to keep the head count under 35 for this show." I said feeling hopeless.
"So what does that mean for us? Does that mean we only sell 35 entries? Should we presell them? Should we make them cost more to cover our costs? Should we not worry about the money? What do you think?" I asked looking around at Mandy, Mae, Zane, and a handful of other Kronos kids.

"We should do wrist bands instead of X's on their hands." Mae said. "Only have 35, that way when we reach the end of them, we will know we only have 35 people."

"That's a good idea, but what if people leave after one band. Do we let them come back? Is their spot reserved? Is that fair? Should we let some one come in their spot?" Mandy asked.

"If we let people come in all night, to fill in the spots of people leaving they will be standing outside waiting to come in." Zane said concerned. "There can not be anyone outside."

"See what I mean!" Kris chimed in. "It is impossible. There are going to be people outside. No matter what we do!"

We all thought for a minute. If we allow people to leave, and allow other people to come in, there will be people waiting to come in outside. AND what if those people, who already paid want to come back? Then what? If we allow people to leave, but don't let other people come in we would solve those problems, but would not only lose money but risk not having an audience at some point. Which is lame.

"What if we just don't allow re-entry?" Kris said. "If you leave, you can not come back. Do you think people wouldn't leave then?"

"It might deter them." I said. "We'd have to provide some sort of food/beverages. That is why people usually leave."

"Maybe we can get the Dungeon on board with us." Zane said. "You know, like what if we direct people to go there to wait until there is a spot. Tell people if they leave there is not re-entry, and then we can text or call the dungeon to tell someone there is a spot open?"

"That could get really messy." I said. "How do you chose who gets in then?"

"The first one to the door gets in." Kris said.

"What if it breaks out in a fight?" Mae said concerned.

"What if the fight happens on our doorstep?" I asked.

"Maybe we should have a reserved list and go according to that." Mandy said. "Make the list ahead of time, based on who is in line when the doors open, and then when a spot opens try to contact people on the list in order they were in line."

"That is a great idea!" Kris said. "Will you take care of that?"

"I'll do my best." Mandy said.

So now the game plan was this: We'd run the show like normal, but instead of putting X's on people's hands, Liz would give them wrist bands. Once we got to 35 wrist bands, we'd close the doors. Then Mandy would get as many contacts as possible from the people still in line. Then Zane would suggest or re-direct those people to hang out nearby. Either the coffee shop, or the Dungeon, or anywhere else down town that wasn't our front steps. That way when we did contact them, they'd be able to get here quickly. It was sort of a half baked, omg I hope this works kind of plan, but it was all we had. So we ran with it.

"You only have 35 of these. When you give out the last one grab me or Kris and we will get things moving with the line, ok?" I explained everything to Liz.
"Got it." She said taking the wrist bands.

We opened the doors and everything seemed to go pretty smooth. Just like we had planned, we gave out 35 wrist bands, and then Mandy either got Facebook information, phone numbers, or waiting location of anyone still waiting in line. And Zane helped re-direct people away from our doors.

"That went really smooth." Mandy said amazed. "I have 20 people on the list." She said showing me.

"No one is outside." Zane said looking out the window. "I think we will be ok."

Ok good. We are good. Everything is going to be fine, I thought.

We had posted online about our no re-entry policy, and also explained it to people while they paid at the door. But we decided to make one final announcement before the show. There were a couple pissed off people, but we reassured them that we had sodas, monsters, teas, and coffees available for purchase, as well as snacks. So that there would be less need to leave. And people seemed to calm down. We also took $1 off the door price to help ease the sting if someone did have to, or decide to leave.

The first band played their set, and everyone seemed in good spirits. As they were packing up a handful of people left the venue.

"Mandy, we have 5 slots open, can you contact the first five people on the list?" I asked.

"Yea I got it." Mandy said pulling out her phone.

Zane went down stairs to watch for people.

A few moments later Mandy grabbed my arm. "Hey I can't reach this girl." She said pointing to a name on the list. "She said she'd be at the Dungeon, but they are not answering their phone. Should I just go to the next name? Or what?"

I looked at the name. "Oh! That's Zane's friend. I'll get him to contact her."

Zane didn't have her number, but decided to walk down to the hoard to get her.

"Hey Liz!" I said climbing back up the stairs. "We have 5 open spots, so here are 5 more wrist bands. Once these are gone that's it ok?"

"Okidoki!" She said smiling.

Cool, I thought as I watched the next band set up, this isn't so bad at all.