Secrets of the non-event

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Summer Water Park Cambridge, Secret Summer Solstice Party in Cambridge, Project X House Party Cambridge, Wipeout in Cambridge, and most recently, Secret Woodland Party Cambridge. 'Wow', you may say to yourself, 'this sounds amazing, I thought my city was a great place to live but now it's even better with so many events happening!' Sadly, not one of these events is real.
 
We've all seen these event pages pop up, we've all got excited, already liked the page, shared with our friends and being the like-minded souls they are (after all, they're our friends and friends like to party) they do the same. Not all is as it seems though, these events never seem to transpire.
 
Upon closer look, it's easy to see why. These events aren't just happening in Cambridge but in several cities across the country, many on the same day. The logistics and money to make this happen would be a struggle and risk to even the most proficient events company let alone pop-ups 'Woodland Events UK' or 'Summer Solstice 17' (to name a few).
 
So why? Well, as Jessie J once sang, 'it's all about the money, money...'! With every like, share or post they are building audiences. You know how it works, the hype, the fear of missing out and the fact most of these are a 'secret', makes you and pretty much everyone else want to get involved. You don't want to be the one missing out, do you? Like the page then. You want your friends to get involved? Share it and soon you'll be ready to have a fantastic time at something that's well... nothing but a fantasy.
 
By building these audiences, they now have a list of user ID's that in the best case scenario disappoint by never holding the event. What will probably happen is that they will take your details and sell them on to marketing services and that's all, if you're lucky. Think a little bit of info doesn't matter? Evidence has proven that this kind of 'big data' collection has been used to influence countries and political outcomes (but that's a whole different blog post).
 
The more information you give, the greater chance you have of having your identity cloned and, fear mongering aside, the possibility of your bank account being hacked and credit score affected. So don't be dishing out your digits!

So, things to look out for:

  • How many events are they planning and when the dates are.
  • Where is the location? Is it a secret? I wonder why.
  • Google the name of the 'events' company and see if they actually exist.
  • Be very wary if they tell you that tickets aren't available yet but to sign up to be kept in the loop (you are handing over all your info here).
  • If it has been posted by a brand, check out that the brand name is legit. Some crafty buggers out there add a very minimal change to a name (sometimes even just a full stop e.g. Virgin.).
  • Check out how many people are actually interested in the event. Is it plausible that 15k people out there are interested in the 'all you can drink, rock and roller, social cheese club of Little Thetford'? (Actually, scrap that, that sounds like an awesome event!).

So, sorry to be the bearer of bad news, however, if you have seen a fake event that you think would be great, please do get in touch. We may just be able to make it a genuine reality!