Families’ fury after £30 fireworks display turns into ‘shambles’ leaving kids disappointed
A FAMILY has been left furious after paying £30 to attend a fireworks display that became overcrowded and unmanageable.
Mum-of-two Stacey Sewell revealed she had to queue for nearly two hours to get in and out of the event, The Sky Magic, held in Driffield, East Yorkshire.
Ms Sewell attended the event with her two sons, her partner and in-laws on Saturday night.
Families had to pay £30 per car in advance for the event which would allow groups to enjoy the firework display from the comfort of their vehicle.
Organisers billed the pre-booked tickets as an easy way to pre-book a slot for the show.
But the organisation, Sky Magic Events, faced backlash from the Sewell family and others who claimed the event turned into a "shambles".
Upon arrival to the grounds, Ms Sewell said she was forced to queue 50 minutes on the way in and another 50 minutes on the way out of the area when the display was over.
"The parking on the website when you pre-booked was a bay that you could sit in and watch the fireworks but when we got there it was just the car park with other people that hadn't booked so they were squeezing all the cars next to each other," she told Hull Live.
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"You probably could have watched the display from there if you all sat in single file right next to someone else's car."
The fireworks display was advertised as an "unforgettable evening of live radio entertainment, competitions and giveaways, quality local catering and an outstanding professional firework display".
But the mum-of-two said she missed most of the fireworks due to the long queues for food.
"While we were in the queue there was someone doing a fire display in the distance but we didn't know what was happening because the PA had broken and there was no sound," she said.
"They'd just let far too many people in, they said they'd been told by health and safety that they had to let people in that hadn't got a ticket but had turned up but that doesn't sound right to me.
"In the end, it just felt like a money-grab and they'd ignored any capacity that they'd planned for and at the end of the day it is the people that had booked that had really lost out."
Sky Magic Events took to Facebook to discuss the "feedback" they had received from disappointed attendees.
"We received overwhelming numbers who arrived without pre-booking tickets, we had no option following health and safety guidelines to allow entry to the cars and public," they said. "This unexpectedly doubled our attendance to the event.
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"Catering teams were advised based on our attendance last year and the amount of pre-booked tickets at the beginning of the week with an increase to cover those who had not pre-booked. We were let down by two other caterers at the last minute.
"We employ a professional security team to manage the car parking and movement of vehicles, this is the same team we used at this event last December with no issues, however, there were double the amount of vehicles to move this year.
"Great Driffield Radio suffered problems with their wifi connection and were unable to broadcast live at the event.
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"They have never encountered this problem before, last year at our Sky Magic Driffield and Scampston events there were no problems and earlier testing in the day produced no issues.
"We will be taking on board all feedback and will be making significant changes along with our teams regarding the display for next year."