Andrew Mellon Auditorium

This was by far one of the BIGGEST RIP OFFS ever.
This was my first NYE experience in DC. My boyfriend described to me, as did others, that NYE in DC comprise of huge galas, black tie events, and utter class. After perusing the many events happening for New Years, we decided on this event. For general admission, you get hor’douerves, champagne, party souvenirs, a countdown, a photo souvenir, and endless drinks. It was advertised as a black tie event as well. Considering that the Andrew Mellon Auditorium is right by the White House, and seeing pictures from last years event, I was pretty stoked.
Upon coming to the event I saw two lines, one for VIP and one for general admission. The line went by smoothly and we checked in our coats. There were two photo opt areas, one with souvenirs and one with just a backdrop. The souvenir one did not open until 11:30pm. Not sure why it happened so late but thankfully we went when the line wasn’t long. The souvenir photo was a nice takeaway and probably the ONLY good thing from that event. Also, NYE souvenirs consisted of a top hat and a headband with Happy New Years. Not bad.
So let’s just proceed with how terrible everything else was. Over 1k tickets were sold to this sold out event. Yes there were private areas for paid Vip admission, but given the majority of participants were general admission, ONE BAR with FIVE bartenders is NOT GONNA CUT IT. I mean, it took 2 HOURS to just get one drink. Everyone was clearly angry or shall I say thirst-​gry (thirsty + angry). If you’re planning for more than 1k participants, you need to spread out MULTIPLE bars to not congregate thirsty people in one area. Five bar tenders for over 1k people. Yea, let’s go make a riot happen in our lovely outfits. Granted, the one bartender we received drinks from was super nice, but that’s not enough to justify he situation.
Now let’s talk about hor’douerves. Or shall I say… What hor’douerves?! ONLY VIP received them although it was advertised that general admission also get hor’douerves.
And champagne toast? That was a clear joke because there was no champagne in sight!
And countdown?! There was NO ANNOUNCEMENT about the countdown. People only noticed because they put the countdown on the projector silently and the crowd counted down on their own.
After the countdown, we just went to a bar in Georgetown. Thankfully, coat check out was quick.
After speaking with some people, who were VIP, on the Facebook event page, even VIP had a similar experience as mine. What was funny, is that a few of us complained on the Facebook Event page, but that event was deleted within an hour of us all posting on it.
Overall, if you plan to do NYE in DC, this is NOT the event to go to. Unless you want to just throw your money away, then proceed.

I attended the 2015 NYE Gala held at the Andrew Mellon Auditorium on December 31^st, 2015. The place is beautiful and this is not a review of the facility but a critique of the organizers Eventbrite/​Liton Events DC.
So I paid $ 1570 roughly for a VIP table of 8 which included 2 bottles of premium liquor and two bottles of champagne. The liqueur was sponsored by Grey Goose so that was ok. That was the only good part of the night.
Our «table» was a bench seat that at best could only seat 5 of 8. Three times I brought it up to «promotors» who said they would fix it but nothing was done. They must of expected everybody to be on the dance floor but it was too small for the number of people who attended. The floor was disgusting and they should not of allowed drinks out there.
The hors’ devours were fair at best but nowhere near plentiful enough for the size crowd in attendance. They had vegetables enough to feed the starving in America but no meat. Or if there was it was gone before we could even make it there.
In this area I feel we were ripped off. You had to pay extra for the VIP treatment. What utterly sucked was that there were so many VIP’s that no one was. It was a joke. They pocketed all that extra money to treat everyone the same. I should of just got tickets for 79.00 each instead of the $ 179 per ticket and hefty gratuity that they added.
The full access bar took forever to get a drink. Again, far too many people for anyone to be considered a VIP. The bartenders were nice but since I only saw them twice its hard to give a solid review on that one aspect.
There was supposed to be a dress code of black suit or Tux with tie. I know I’m older (46) but the hipster painted on dark jeans look is not a black suit or tux. The dress code was not enforced. My limo driver even commented on how inappropriately dressed many people were for an event that was being advertised as classy.
The music was decent but I will say that unless you buy basic entry tickets, it is not worth the money. DO NOT BUY VIP TICKETS!!! You will be seriously wasting your money.