QR code concert programs are like watching the Dutch news without subtitles - why?

For reasons TCTE (Salman Rushdie's term - Too Complicated To Explain) I have been watching the Dutch News live on SBS. So - no subtitles at their end and no Dutch at my end. I do get a whiff of what's happening, but it's a whiff.

Is that good enough for a concert?

I was running close to time, and feeling very smug that we made it into the seats just fine. There were no handouts at the door (aka room sheets) and no printed programs. Too late, I remembered a tiny A4 notice on a stand in a dim spot on the stairs that I had run past, mentioning a QR code.

It's my fault I didn't have time to download it - but here's the thing. I had NO idea what was going on - less than the Dutch news in fact.

There was no interval. Quite a long concert. The lighting was substandard (aka pitch black on the audience) and the opening announcements forbade the use of phones or devices during the performance. That would be the very same phone most of the audience have been forced to download the program onto. I saw exactly one person who had printed at home.

While the musicians were wonderfully expressive in so many ways, they spoke not a word to us, the audience. So how the hell do you work out what's going on?

I get it - you are as present as possible, concentrate, listen and take it in - but that's not just a big ask, it's the ultimate insider / IYKYK move. What if you don't know - would you ever come back??

Of course the environment. Of course the time and the $$$ and the cleaning up.

But surely we can do better than this - insiders with a 'what can you do' shrug and newbies literally left in the dark.