Thousands of disappointed fans have been left outside London Olympia, as RuPaul’s DragCon organisers, World of Wonder, oversold the tickets for the event’s UK debut.

​

Olympia London this weekend held the world’s biggest drag queen convention, RuPaul’s DragCon. However, excited fans faced a huge disappointment on the first day of the convention, after having to queue for hours in the cold, eventually not making it inside.

 

As the organisers informed, the tickets have been oversold. The official number of sold tickets has not been released, however some sources speculate about 11,000, with Olympia’s maximum capacity being 10,000.

​

World of Wonder released an official statement on Saturday: “We apologize for the wait as Health and Safety required us to slow the flow of people coming in”. Holders of Saturday tickets were assured that their passes will be valid on Sunday. The solution, however, received a lot of backlash, as it did not take under consideration the weekend tickets’ holders, as well as a possible overcrowding on Sunday.

​

Beth Cherry, one of the fans with a Saturday ticket, who wasn’t able to make it on the next day, informed that she asked for and received a refund. The refund, however, doesn’t cover any additional costs. One of the fans, Dafydd Evans commented “Have you got any idea of how much it’s cost with transport and accommodation? We’ve spent hundreds to get here for today! We can’t come tomorrow”.

​

Some fans who managed to get in weren’t too pleased with the organisation either, complaining on overcrowding and massive queues to meet the queens, or even to buy food and water. On the other hand, Dina Wold, a fan from Norway, was really satisfied with her experience: “There are always queues on those events. But I’ve managed to see everyone I’ve wanted and had so much fun”.

​

On Sunday the fans reported the queues moving much faster and everyone with the ticket also managed to get inside the convention centre. World of Wonder did not release any additional statements about the overselling issue, while RuPaul herself did not comment on the situation at all.