PARK CITY, Utah - More than 30 fans attending a concert at Park City Live were suddenly escorted out of the building just before the headliner took the stage.
"In an instant, there was flashlights in our face and people drawling lines with their bodies pushing us out the door," said Mary Nothumb, who was pushed out.
Nothumb and five of her friends were in Park City to see the artist, Nelly.
"We're St. Louis natives," Nothumb said. "So, of course we got to represent Nelly."
Nothumb says they didn't get to hear even one of his songs because fire code officials demanded the venue kick out as many as 50 people because of alleged overcrowding. Ironic, since one of Nelly's biggest hits is "Hot in Here."
"We laughed about that," Nothumb joked.
But she wasn't as happy when she explained what happened in the aftermath. She said the venue handed them refund bracelets and gave them email addresses to reach out to the venue later to get a refund.
However, after a handful of emails and phone calls, Nothumb says she never heard back. She also said Park City Live went out of their way to flag comments she left on the venue's Facebook page as spam.
"There's no excuses," said Dustin Esson, Managing Director for Park City Live. "We feel terrible. We want people to know they will get a refund."
Esson said they had planned all along to give the refund out, but they were weeding out people who claimed to be victims and weren't.
However, the owner of Park City Live says the real problem is an employee who stole admission bracelets to the event.
"We are investigating," said Kathryn Burns, owner and founder of PC Live.
She said they order the novelty concert bracelets well in advance and have to buy them in bulk. She believes an employee went into a box containing 'extras' and either handed them out to friends or sold them.
In any event, Park City Live says they will reply to refund emails by Thursday and will look to hand out refunds by this weekend.
