LAMPE, Mo. – Thousands were waiting for over an hour in the heat for the Nelly concert to begin this weekend at the Black Oak Amphitheater.

Concertgoers say there were many delays and not enough preparation by the venue, with reports of multiple people passing out from the heat.

Melissa Flinn and her husband left the concert shortly before midnight before Nelly even made it to the stage.

“If you were having these difficulties, then cancel the concert and don’t make us wait that long in that heat and expect us to be like, ‘Oh, you’re amazing. We think this is just the greatest thing ever.’ And it wasn’t,” Flinn said.

Flinn says her biggest problem was the lack of communication from the venue.

Owner of Black Oak, Johnny Stauffer, said the delays were due to technical difficulties from the production company.

“There were a lot of rumors that were flying,” Stauffer said. “I personally, myself, staff, everybody heard all different types of rumors. The biggest reason that there was nothing announced from the stage is the sound system did not work.”

On top of the doors opening over an hour after they were scheduled to, Flinn says there were at least 30 minutes in between each artist’s set.

“It was hard to really enjoy the concert because it took so long in between and it was so hot,” Flinn said.

Stauffer said the issues started during initial soundchecks, which caused the delays.

“They temporarily got the stuff to work after the soundcheck, so we were able to open the doors,” Stauffer said. “First artists performed, they continued having issues which drug into each set, taking longer to switch from artist to artist as they were trying to patch the stuff together to be able to get the next artist to perform.”

Black Oak has used this production company for two seasons. They say they will now be looking for other production teams.

The concert was supposed to end at 11:30 p.m. but instead finished closer to 1:30 in the morning.

“I don’t feel I will ever go back there,” Flinn said.

“Everybody has issues,” Stauffer said. Everybody messes up. I believe in second chances and I hope she can give us one as well too.”

Black Oak is not offering refunds.

“I personally, as the owner, if you would like a pair of tickets, if you bought three tickets or 10 tickets if you’d like to email the box office, I am happy to give you tickets to an upcoming show to let you come back and experience the venue again and show you what we really can do for you,” Stauffer said.

The venue says they did check the weather beforehand and are creating plans if this issue happens again, like letting people go back and sit in their cars with air conditioning.