'Heartbroken' mum left in tears after forking out £1,000 for disaster Co-Op Live concert

A 'heartbroken' mum was left in tears after spending over £1,000 on tickets, travel, accommodation and merchandise for her and her daughter to see Melanie Martinez at the Co-Op Live

A mum and daughter shelled out around £1,000 for a Melanie Martinez concert at the Co-Op Live Arena but it all ended in disaster.

Jade Bryant and her 16-year-old daughter Arwen spent £375 each on Trilogy Lounge tickets and £40 each on the 'Backstage Club'. They also spent a lot of money on travel and accommodation after travelling over 240 miles for the Melanie concert at the arena in Manchester - which has endured a few hiccups in the past.

However, Jade - who lives in Bromley in Greater London - was left 'in tears' as she wasn't able to get into the VIP lounge and couldn't access the merchandise she spent so much money on. She revealed there was a lot of confusion about which queue they needed to join with the tickets they had.

They arrived at the venue where a number of people were already queueing around gate C, with doors ready to open later that day. The Ticketmaster app said Gate C VIP Lounge Experience so they joined that queue, but the Warner Music Group confirmation email said Gate G.

“I asked a woman working there and she told us to stay there. Later on a different supervisor in orange came to check tickets to make sure we were in the right line so I explained that on top of the lounge tickets we purchased the backstage one but we didn’t want to get mixed up in general admission," she told Manchester Evening News.

“He said we had to go to a different gate but I said I didn’t want to get mixed up with general admission - it was very confusing. He then said he didn’t understand the different packages so I asked where I needed to be to get access to the floor first and he said stay put."

As they joined the queue early in the day, the same person reappeared multiple times to offer water and claimed they would be through the gates at 2:30pm but people were confused as their emails said 4pm. A staff member said they were in the wrong queue but told them they couldn't leave to join the G queue as those people already gone in.

Jade claimed they didn't get through until 6pm and couldn't go to the lounge and pick up their VIP merchandise. She said she spent hundreds of pounds for merch for her daughter to replace the ones they couldn't get. Once in, their view was obstructed and they couldn't see the artist properly.

In total, Jade and her family spent £111 on an Airbnb for two nights, around £100 on petrol, £16 on food and drink at the venue, and £854.50 on the ticket package. The lounge passes came to £777.50 while the backstage passes were £79. "I think because of the stress of it I just started crying constantly," she admitted. "It’s the last time she’s going to be performing these songs and I really wanted my daughter to see it.

“This artist means so much to her and she had been so excited to see her. It broke my heart, they just don’t care. I explained my concern to staff and I obviously just wanted to be in the correct queue. We chose Manchester because for last year’s Portals tour we went to Wembley and had a really bad experience."

The Mirror have reached out to Co-Op Live for comment.

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