SCOTS comedian Scott Agnew has said he will never host another Pride Glasgow while the current management is in place.
It comes as more than 1,000 people have signed a petition calling on CEO of the annual event, Alastair Smith, to stand down.
Event organisers were forced to issue an apology on Saturday after hundreds of people who had bought tickets were denied entry and told it had reached capacity.
Long queues formed at Kelvingrove Park with tickets seemingly oversold and many people took to social media to complain about how they had been waiting for hours with no water in the blistering heat.
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Some even reported how those waiting passed out in the warm weather.
Having originally spoken early on Saturday saying it had “been a wonderful day at Pride and an absolute delight” working alongside the other hosts, Scott issued another lengthier statement on Facebook on Monday.
He highlighted the difference in treatment local performers received compared with outside, big-name talent.
READ MORE: Calls for Pride Glasgow CEO to resign after ticket holders are denied entry to event
Scott wrote: “Last year I expressed concerns about the treatment the hosts received backstage. There was no rider - no food or drink made available to us.
“On opening a fridge last year to help myself to a plate of sandwiches - we had been on site since 11am and it was now approaching 4pm without any sustenance - I was barked at to put them back as those were ‘the performer’s food.’
“A little later I was reprimanded for having taken a can of Sprite out the fridge as that was ‘Bewitched’s Sprite.’
“It was clear that the local performers who were giving their time for free were somehow different or other and not to be treated the same as the paid talent brought in from outside.”
Scott said he didn’t realise the scale of the ticketing chaos until Saturday night.
He rounded off: “I could deal with and suffer the contempt they had shown local performers and acts by not paying them and not even attempting to look after them back stage - after all it was our choice to be involved. But this year that contempt has spilled over to the LGBT community and beyond.
READ MORE: Pride Glasgow apologises over ticket problems
“That 48 hours later there is still no explanation or apology or information from Pride Glasgow as to what went wrong or how people can be refunded or compensated is a disgrace.
“My fellow friends in the LGBT community I’m sorry I didn’t speak out sooner because I had feared something like this would happen in previous years.
“I will now never host another Pride Glasgow whilst this management team is in place - I can only hope for change and that in future a team will be put together that respects its' performers, pays them a fair wage for a job done and treats them well.
“But more importantly Glasgow Pride gets a new management team that respects the community it is there to serve, listens to what it has to say and acts appropriately.
Organisers have yet to reveal whether refunds will be issued to those who were blocked from entering the site.
In a statement on Monday, organisers said: “As Pride organisers, we are devastated we have let down so many people within our own community and spoiled their pride plans.
“We know many thousands attended Pride Glasgow this weekend without incident, enjoying the huge range of entertainment on offer but that won’t be of consolation to those we let down.
“We are currently de-rigging the festival site and we will be responding to all those affected directly and make sure we can try and make it up to them. We ask those affected to contact our special email address ticketsupport@pride.scot (or hello@pride.scot as previously mentioned)
“We will work tirelessly to ensure that what happened at the gates this year doesn’t happen again.
“We are working to expand our production team and our board, while improving transparency and communication to ensure the organisation, with only two part time staff is growing in scale with the festival.”
The Evening Times has contacted Pride Glasgow for further comment on refund plans and on the change.org petition.
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