One day after arguments broke out and tensions increased in a crowd waiting to buy Bruno Mars tickets at Aloha Stadium, many fans walked away Saturday morning with a spread of tickets in their hands, joy on their faces, and a glow of accomplishment.

Dory Frantz, 53, of Makakilo said scoring floor seats to Mars’ second show in November was worth camping at the stadium with friends for three nights, but she would never do it again.

She said she and her chihuahua-terrier Kimo were exhausted.

On Wednesday, Frantz, a self-described “karaoke Bruno Mars,” said she was heading out for her daily surf session when a friend called and told her people were already lining up at the stadium. Frantz dropped her board, grabbed some camping gear, and set up about 20 spots from the front of the line.

“I haven’t slept for three days,” said Frantz, an Army veteran. “The cars on the road are so loud.”

Then on Friday, after fans were allowed into the gates of Aloha Stadium, Frantz had to keep her spot in line by standing for five hours in a crowd of people pushing back and forth.

Stadium Manager Scott Chan said Saturday that he came close to canceling the queue for tickets on Friday because of a concern for public safety with the crowding near the entrance.

Some said arguments started breaking out after the crowd gathered near the entrance to the stadium with people pushing forward and ignoring instructions to back up. Then when people did back up to make room toward the front, other people rushed in and cut in line.

Fans started lining up on the street outside of Aloha Stadium on Tuesday for tickets to the second show of Mars’ 24K Magic World Tour, which was announced on June 9, after the first show was sold out in just over two hours.

Aloha Stadium sales and marketing specialist Samantha Spain said the stadium had expected a large crowd and had police on hand to help with security when the gates opened at 7:45 a.m. Friday. But management decided to allow the fans into an area near the locker room to ease the pressure from the crowding near the door.

Eventually tensions settled down and the stadium closed the gates to those who were already in line. About 850 people stayed overnight near the locker rooms and administrative offices waiting for the box office to open at 10 a.m. Saturday. Anyone else who showed up had to wait outside the turnstile until those who stayed overnight had purchased their tickets.

Spain said the concert sold out at about 2:20 p.m. All those who showed up at the stadium were able to buy tickets, including about 200 who showed up Saturday morning and waited outside. About 36,000 tickets were available exclusively for local residents in the first 48 hours.

Sylvette Cullen, 23, said the queue was disorganized, but it worked to her advantage. She arrived in the stadium parking lot Friday morning just as the gates were opened and ran to the ticket line. She was able to get in line because people were walking from the gate to the line, she said.

Lisa Starrett of Moiliili was able to get two tickets for her and her daughter with help from a stranger in line. After staying overnight, her 14-year-old daughter Carys began to feel sick in the heat and Starrett decided they had to leave because she was worried about her daughter’s health.

“She was literally in tears,” Starrett said by phone.

Waianae resident Maysana Lopes said she saw the girl looking pale and sitting down in the shade outside of the line to take a break. She heard Starrett tell her daughter they were leaving just minutes before the box office opened and ran after them, offering to use two of the four maximum tickets she could purchase for Starrett and her daughter.

“She’s so excited,” Starrett said. “It’s the most amazing and unexpected thing.”

Chaz Mangca said she felt as if she had come through a war just to get her four ground tickets for $125 each.

“We beat the bots!,” she said, referring to software that was blamed for the quick sellout of Mars’ first concert when tickets went on sale a week before.

Spain, the Aloha Stadium official, said it wasn’t clear why some fans said they had an easier time buying tickets in person rather than by going online or calling in. She said the box office was connected to the same system as people trying to buy tickets online, but the ticket agents were directly connected to Ticketmaster’s server, which could have made a difference.

Some said they saw tickets being sold online before the 10 a.m. start time.

Makiki resident Sarah Kim Shubert said Ticketmaster was selling tickets for more than $600 at about 9:05 a.m. Saturday. When she called Ticketmaster to find out why tickets were already on sale, she said an agent told her tickets went on sale at 7 a.m., three hours before ticket sales were supposed to start. After 10 a.m., she spent more than an hour waiting with a notice that she was in “the queue” then kept getting the message that someone else had beaten her to the seats. She said she was upset about what happened with the early ticket sales and bots buying up tickets.

“I just want to understand what’s happening so we can figure out how to avoid things like this happening again,” she wrote to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.

A Ticketmaster spokesperson could not immediately be reached for comment.