Crowded Bend NYE party leaves some guests unhappy

A Bend business is feeling the effects of a New Year’s Eve party that ended up with many more guests than expected.

The River Pig Saloon’s New Year’s Eve party was advertised on Facebook, as well as through Bend Magazine and Visit Central Oregon, and it worked a little too well.

Hundreds of people who didn’t purchase tickets online showed up to ring in the New Year.

The line to get into the party stretched from the saloon on Arizona Avenue to the Strictly Organic coffee shop.

That long line meant a couple things. First, people who actually purchased tickets were not able to get in.

Secondly, complaints were made to the Bend Fire Department about safety and capacity.

City Fire Marshal Larry Medina said he’s working with the owner of River Pig Saloon and investigating the complaints.

“Try to get the facts straight on what did occur on New Year’s Eve,” he said Wednesday. “And then the main focus would be to prevent the occurrence and make sure the owner knows the (fire) code and what avenues they can take if they anticipate a larger crowd than normal.”

Ramzy Hattar, the owner of River Pig Saloon, said he did not expect such a big turnout, and he’s reimbursing anyone who bought a ticket but was not able to get into the party.

“We’re new kids on the block, so just learning the process right now and working with the community and making sure the next party’s even better and managed better than this one,” Hattar said.

He also said they’ll continue to hold events, but will do it differently moving forward — possibly by eliminating online ticket sales.

“We’re just going to learn from this and better manage the next events, security-wise and tickets. I don’t want people to have expectations and have those expectations not met by us, so just working on all that,” Hattar said.

A portion of ticket sales went to Bend Fire’s community assistance program.

Medina said the fire department prefers to work with businesses to figure out a way to fix the problem, rather than handing out fines and citations. However, he said fines could result if it happens again.

The reason capacity is such an issue is because of risks posed by fire. Customers need to be able to safely escape from a burning building.