The two best answers are : Get to the square early and have a seat - read a book, enjoy conversation, meet new people. AND bring your own chair. Put your own chair down and go off to RJ Gators, City Fire, or vendors. Your chair will not be touched.

I am one who has cut the strings and the tape at a SS event. When the group finally arrived, 45 minutes after the entertainment had started, I told them I cut the tapes and told them why, I also suggested that they seek out a Villages entertainment person to confirm the rule. They did every thing but spit on me for taking the seats they had reserved at 3:30p. They finally left after loudly announcing that we had "stolen" their seats, most of those around us applauded us for standing up to them.

Confirmation is not for every one or the faint of heart, but if enough of us take down the strings and the tape, we might get the message through their entitled heads that we all want to enjoy the nightly entertainment and are willing to play by the rules.

Nothing wrong with your action. Admirable is a good word.

It is ridiculous for any group to string chairs together at 3:30 and leave until 5:45 and to believe their chairs would still be unoccupied.

Not sure what the problem is.
 

I would be happy that someone roped off an entire section for ME to get a spot in. Why are you not just sitting in that area/:crap2:

So evidently, the saving of seats is allowed as long as one person from your party is there. To me this means that I can go there when the chairs are put out, sit in the middle of a section and claim that I'm saving all the chairs in this section.
IMHO, this needs to be changed to one person is allowed to save one additional seat. This would accommodate someone who is waiting for their spouse who si coming later or a couple that is waiting for another couple.

This publication from the entertainment department does say however that roping off or taping chairs together is prohibited. If that is their rule, then I believe that it is incumbent upon the entertainment department to enforce it. If any off us see chairs roped off, we should call a member of the entertainment staff to remove them. If that person doesn't want to do it, they should be reported to the entertainment department for failure to enforce the rules.

It also states in this article that we are not allowed to bring alcoholic beverages into the squares because, Yet I see people with their own beer all the time. The announcements only that that coolers are not allowed. I have seen people and know people that keep beer in a cooler in their cart and walk back to their cart every so often to get a beer.

Do the state laws actually prohibit the drinking of alcohol on a public place or is the entertainment department saying this in order to keep the bar business going?

Saving seats for more than one person is rude and obnoxious. Just like they say about "stupid", apparently you can't fix "RUDE" either.

Take the following FWIW...

Tonight it finally happened. My wife and I went to LSL just after 5:00 for Uncle Bob's Rock Shop. It was crowded as we knew it would be. My wife picked a spot to stand while I walked around to see if there were any seats available. I happened to spot a line of seats with trash bags tying them all together. I politely asked the lady on one end if she was saving the seats. She said no. I asked the gentleman on the other end if he was saving the seats. He also said no. They were both very friendly, so I asked if they knew if people had left the seats to dance. They said not since they were there.

It appeared to be a classic case of what this thread is about. After considering the situation a bit, I took my knife and cut the trash bags to free up two chairs and called my wife over. About 20-30 minutes later, two ladies came by and said they had reserved the seats. I asked if they had been dancing...and I was fully ready to give them the seats if they had been. But they said "no...we reserved them before we went to a restaurant at 4:00."

As politely as possible, I said sorry, but that is against the published rules (thevillagesentertainment.com/faq) and we were keeping the seats. The ladies were understanding, obviously unaware of any rules, and made no fuss. A few minutes later a gentleman came by and quickly said that there was no such rule. I showed him, on my phone, the FAQ's listed above. He wasn't particularly happy, but walked away. That was the last we heard from him or anybody from his group. Several people who overheard what was going on expressed in respectful ways their support for me and my wife.

The rest of the evening was uneventful and enjoyable.

Everybody blast them on the Annual Survey.

Hooray for you and your wife. Count me as one more supporter!:BigApplause:

Yes, you are right.

TO: THE VILLAGES ENTERTAINMENT DIVISION

DON'T TRY TO PRETEND LIKE YOU DON'T MONITOR THIS WEBSITE! CAN YOU SEE THERE IS A PROBLEM HERE? AND IT'S GOING TO GET OUT OF HAND IF YOU DON'T FIND A SOLUTION, AND SOON. FAIRNESS FOR ALL IS WHAT EVERYONE HERE WANTS. WE DON'T WANT TO START COMPLAINING TO THE MERCHANTS IN THE SQUARE WHO SO GRACIOUSLY SUPPORT THIS ENTERTAINMENT.

ONE SEAT TO ONE PERSON. FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED. NO SAVING. ANNOUNCED AT EACH SQUARE EACH NIGHT. SIGNS POSTED IN EACH SQUARE IN MULTIPLE LOCATIONS. AND MOST OF ALL.......ENFORCED BY EITHER YOUR PERSONNEL OR THE APPLICABLE SHERIFF'S OFFICE. PLEASE.

WHEN THIS GETS OUT OF HAND, IT'S GOING TO BE YOUR FAULT.:mad:

I can understand your frustration but as you saw in a previous post, a man did sit down in "reserved" seats after the entertainment started and had no problem explaing the situation.

Seating enforced by the Sheriff? Not going to happen - and it is on private property, too.

You are anticipating violent behavior? It has not happened in the 5 years I have lived here and I am not expecting any.

Basically, get to the entertainment early enough and sit down. Great alternative is to arrive early with a folding chair.

Enough said on this never ending trivial matter.

I applaud you for confronting the situation and for attaining a peaceful resolution. But as a woman, I would not do that.

I've seen big, (apparently) drunken, foul-mouthed men get into near fist-fights twice, once at Spanish Springs and once at LSL, and these obnoxious things would not have hesitated to punch somebody--male or female--in the mouth or slam a head against a stone/concrete wall.

Event staff/management has to be in charge of enforcing the rules, not audience members.

Actually, I tend to agree with you. I did not take the situation lightly. And I was very polite and careful in my actions. I just feel strongly about the principle involved.

I don't believe actions such as charging for seats, having enforcement staff on hand, or similar expensive, manpower-intensive actions will ever be implemented. And I can't say I blame management...I don't think it's practical.

But one step that I do believe could help is simply posting signs in very conspicuous places...possibly on the stage structures or someplace similarly visible and obvious. The folks I dealt with (at least the ladies...heheh) were very polite and made it apparent that they thought they were violating no rules. I think those who might be prone to violate the rule even though they know it exists might be less likely to do so if a sign clearly stating the rule (as worded in the FAQ's cited earlier) was staring them in the face and apparent to all present. The cost and effort would be one time and minimal.

We wen't to Brownwood Sunday to see Rocky & Rollers. Got there early (about 3:45) because it was so packed last time we had to leave. From our favorite "bleacher" seats I noticed a row of 6 seats with place mats on them down in the chair area. At 5:15 or so I was really annoyed at the 6 vacancies (with people looking for seats) that I was considering just going down there and removing the mats. Then they showed up. It was an elderly couple with two middle-age ladies and two small boys about 6-7 years old. It's clear that they were "showing off" the Villages and the boys and their moms spent the evening dancing and having a good time. Someone could have just tossed their mats and taken the seats (or just tossed the mats) and creating an awkward situation for the old folks and a poor impression for the (probably) daughters. It's clear these weren't "chronic offenders."
I actually feel bad that I was 2-3 minutes away from ruining their evening. Signs about no reserving seats would probably help some. They probably would've gotten there earlier.