...we ran out of change

At work we have a radio in our work space and that radio is always tuned to a specific station. It's one of the more popular (?) stations that plays both retro music and recent hits. You could have a song from the 70s followed by Justin Bieber's latest 'hit' and there's not much talking which suits us just fine: wouldn't want to listen to a talk show while trying to help an overweight patient walk. I think it would just be distracting. But why did I even start talking about the radio? Well, because they play a lot of Robbie Williams... and every time I listen to a song of his I'm reminded of the one time I kind of went to a concert of his.

The year was 2013. It was Summer. And I decided to volunteer again. A friend recommended that I could try to volunteer at a concert - they were always looking for people to work in the booths serving drinks - and as it happened Robbie Williams was coming to Estonia that summer. I'm not a huge fan but I generally like his songs. He is this weird kind of artist for me in that I don't particularly love any of his songs but he also doesn't have a single song that I dislike. I could probably listen to most of his songs without wanting to switch stations but I don't have any of his songs in my playlist. But I can't deny that he is a pretty big name and I was pretty pumped that I would get to see him for free. Sure, I had to work during the concert but if I was lucky I could maybe work in a booth close to the stage so I would still get to see the concert. Besides, I was still getting payed for this so I was content.

When the day of the concert arrived I headed to Tallinn and got my free T-shirt and coin purse. The organizers showed me to my booth which was right on the side of the stage. It was a pretty good spot: not too close but I could still see what was going on onstage. Perfect! The day was starting off just great... and then they introduced me to my booth-buddy. Yeah, we had to work in pairs because the workload would have been too much for one person. My booth-buddy, however, didn't look like he'd be much help. He had no experience serving drinks and was shocked when he found out that if the keg of beer ran out we had to switch to a new one on our own. I had been working in a bar for a while so I knew that switching kegs was a pain in the ass but it was not rocket science. I offered that I'd do it myself if it was too difficult for him and he looked relieved at that.

Before we even begun serving drinks I noticed a few... issues. In addition to serving beer and cider we also had bottled water, lemonade and energy drinks... that we had to pour out into cups. It was strictly forbidden to serve anything in bottles. Even water. It seemed a bit... odd, considering most people don't usually down a 0.5 L cup of water in one go. You want to save the bottle so you could take a sip every now and then. But no. Apparently plastic bottles are a tremendous safety hazard and thus were completely forbidden in the concert grounds. I could already tell this was going to create some issues.

Another thing I noticed was that the organizers had given us about 50 euros worth of change. That didn't seem nearly enough. We could only take cash and most of the drinks were around 1.50-2.50 €. I had a feeling that we were going to run out of change pretty soon. But the organizers assured us that if we ran out we could just call them and they would bring us some more. Okay then... I guess I had no other choice but to trust them.

Sure enough, just a few minutes after the gates were opened we ran into our first 'What do you mean you don't sell water in a bottle?!' person.

'Sorry, but we're not allowed to sell bottles.'

'But that's stupid!'

'I know.'

'But I don't want you to pour it into a cup!'

'I understand but-'

'I'm going to another booth!'

Well, good luck with that... None of us were allowed to sell bottled drinks but people kept going in circles, trying to look for a way to get water in a bottle. I had several people come to me going 'Hey, the girls in the other booth wouldn't sell us a bottle of water. But you guys will, right?' No, we couldn't. We weren't allowed to. But nobody seemed to believe us. They seemed to think we were doing this on purpose. Like we were just mean people who didn't want anyone to have bottles because... reasons, I guess...

Soon enough we ran into our second problem: we didn't have enough change. Sure enough everyone was paying with 5 and 10 € bills and we ran out of change pretty quickly.

'What do we do now?!' my booth-buddy asked with a panicked look in his eyes, 'Do we close the booth? We can't serve people anymore!'

I suggested we call the organizers. After all, they told us they would help if we ran out. So while he was making the call I kept on serving people. I told them we didn't have change and most of them were understanding of the situation. A lot of them went through their wallet and found the exact amount to pay for their drinks. Some of them told us to just keep the change and not worry about it. And then there were the assholes.

'What do you mean you don't have change?! I want my drink and I want my 50 cents back!'

'I know and I'm sorry but we just don't have anything to give back. If you could just find 4.50 in your coin-purse-'

'Why should I?! You guys should have organized this thing better! Didn't you consider that you might run out of change?!'

'Well, we're just volunteers here. We didn't organize anything...'

'Sure, sure! I bet you were payed to say that.'

'Uh... we are actually being paid to serve drinks-'

'Then why aren't you doing that?! You know, you really suck at organizing this thing! Next time you should put more work into it!'

Yeah... sure... except there wouldn't be a next time. I understood that people were angry - they just wanted their drinks and we weren't being very helpful. But at the same time there was not much we could do. We weren't the ones organizing this event and all the booths had the same problem that we did. We were just as upset about it as our customers. But angry people rarely care about who to take their anger out on - they just want someone to know how they're feeling and are willing to tear out anyone's throat to do so. It's easy to take your anger out on some powerless server who's only crime is to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

As I was trying to calm the angry mob gathering in front of the booth, my buddy ran to me in a blind panic. Apparently the organizers had also run out of change. They had had 300 € worth of change and that was all gone already. We were on our own. My booth-buddy, who turned out to be terribly neurotic, decided to solve our problem by taking money out of our tip jar. You can guess how happy that made me.

Relief came when the concert actually started. Nobody wanted drinks anymore and the booth was pretty much empty. I took the chance to take a little walk and see the concert. I could still hear everything from my booth but I wanted to get closer. The concert was actually pretty awesome. I remember there was a lot of gold, fireworks and shiny things. People were loving it and honestly, it was pretty awesome. I don't regret going to volunteer in the slightest, even though it was a pain in the ass for most of the time.

The worst part was yet to come, though. After the concert was over we were not allowed to serve drinks anymore. Any drinks. Yes, that meant water. People were still on the concert grounds, looking for a sip of water, but we weren't allowed to give them anything. We were supposed to stop selling drinks exactly at 23.00. I decided to push the limit a bit and at 23.10 I was still selling bottles of water... until our supervisor came along and told us to stop... We did, but there were still people around and those people were not happy campers. Some actual quotes from these thirsty people:

'What do you mean you can't serve me? I just want some beer, you heartless bitch!'

'Okay, I get how it is. Name your price. Everyone has a price.'

'What if I jump over this counter now and choke you for a bit. Would you give me water then?'

Yeah, lovely people. Honestly, I was called a bitch several times but the most offensive quote was from the guy who asked me what my price was. I was so pissed that I just threw a bottle at him for free and told him to get lost. We weren't supposed to sell water but nobody said anything about giving stuff out for free.... I think that was a given but I hoped two bottles wouldn't be missed...

Honestly, I think it was idiotic that we couldn't even sell water to people who were obviously thirsty after several hours of jumping up and down. The nearest store that had water was several km away and it was only natural people wanted some refreshment before heading off. Still, rules were rules and we were meant to follow them even if they made no sense. I guess sometimes that's just how the world works. In the end we managed to avoid getting choked (or stabbed) by our customers and as the dust settled we realized that even though my booth-buddy had given out a sizable amount of our tip jar, we still had a bunch of money left.

'What should we do with this? Should we just give this to the organizers as well?' he asked with a look of confusion.

I think that was the most idiotic thing I'd heard all year and that was the year I was working in a sleazy bar. I tried my best to make my face look blank and explained to him how tips worked. I'm sure he wasn't a complete moron - he'd probably (hopefully) tipped someone in the past as well - but he'd never received a tip and didn't really know how to handle it. In the end though we split the meager amount of money we'd accumulated during the course of the night and I had enough cash for a bus ticket back home.

So, in the end I think the night was largely a success: I got paid, got to see a concert for free and I even had enough cash in the end to get back home. Would I do it again, though? No. Not unless it was organized better. You wouldn't believe how angry people get when you deny them bottles, water or change. Really, people! Just relax and don't shoot the messenger! It's easy to take out your anger on the person standing in front of you - even if you know they're not the root of the problem - but one must always remember that venting on someone powerless to stop you is kind of a asshole thing to do. So just don't.