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catastrophized t1_j1wyp01 wrote

Reply to comment by displacedredneck in Was ZooLights worse this year than in the past? by Dukester1007

Big agree; not sure I’d go back for another zoo event after that. Would rather just go visit the zoo on a normal day.

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DCSubi t1_j1x21cn wrote

FONZ had a small but mighty events team. Event planning is one of those thankless jobs that when you do it well, it seems easy and effortless. Everyone thinks they can be an event planner. And then, they eliminate the people who did it for 15-20-25-30 years and realize it’s not so easy. It’ll be interesting to see how long it takes the zoo to fix their ways.

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catastrophized t1_j1x5z4i wrote

I was really sad when the email came out that they were breaking up with FONZ :(

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DCSubi t1_j1xstfh wrote

It's not that they "broke up" with FONZ. They dissolved FONZ. 100s of people lost their jobs.

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displacedredneck t1_j1x03m9 wrote

September's Brew at the Zoo crushed any chance of me paying for another event there. Visit the zoo? Hell yeah.

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annelmao t1_j1x8to9 wrote

What happened at this event?

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displacedredneck t1_j1xaua5 wrote

They shoved all of the breweries, and thus all of the visitors, into this little clearing.

This was chosen instead of spreading the breweries along the paths/trails as they had done with Brew Lights in the past. It caused a major choke point, with a lot of crowding. Lines got pretty crappy with the crowding. The ground was already wet from an earlier rain, so when drinks started getting spilled and ice started melting, it became a soggy mess.

And this is at the bottom of the hill, which sucks for anyone that has difficulty with that walk. There was no signage or messages that informed guests of the location. Just random workers yelling "Keep walking! Keep moving! You're not there yet!"

That crappy beer fest at Nats Park is a comparable event.

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annelmao t1_j1xh9xf wrote

I am such a hater I’ll admit, but I didn’t buy tickets to Brew or attempt ZooLights because I knew it would be a catastrophe! Sad to hear the Nats Park one sucks too. What are the good crowd-controlled events in DC, man? Clockout does such a good job finding the best out there, but I’d love a good beer festival or light park without insane crowds! I guess we’re lucky to have the Mall

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