Can we go home now mummy?
Woeful Winter Wonderland ‘had melting ice sculptures and a flaming wheelchair’
VISITORS to a winter wonderland event are demanding refunds after parents branded it ‘utterly pathetic’ and ‘absolutely dreadful’.
Ice sculptures advertised as being created by awarding-winning sculptors were said to have been melting, while the promised animated fire sculptures were likened to a wheelchair on fire.
The Luminaries Woburnensis event at Woburn Abbey in Bedfordshire on Saturday was charging £10 entry for adults and £4 for children but it was troubled from the start after huge tailbacks left people queuing in their cars for up to 90 minutes and led to many turning back.
Families who persevered were not rewarded and parents took to the event’s Facebook page to complain and demand refunds. One read: ‘This was possibly the single most embarrassing “event” I have ever witnessed. It was completely and utterly pathetic.
‘Massive queues, no signage, a few melting ice sculptures and the odd candle does not make an “extraordinary” light show.’
The fire sculpture was also slammed in the posts, with one attendee writing: ‘It looked like you burnt a man in a wheelchair.’
A parent claimed that many of the advertised attractions were missing. She said: ‘No ice wall, no black light trail. No boutiques or lantern launching – in fact very little that was advertised in the event listing was delivered.’
Another wrote: ‘What a waste of an evening. Four hours of our life we will never get back. Two of them spent in the car getting through Woburn village and the rest of the time wasted on a farci- cal event which was certainly not the event that was advertised.’
A new mother called it ‘one of the worst nights of my life and we paid for the privilege’. She said she left in tears.
Upsets over winter wonderland events are becoming something of a Christmas tradition. Last year Lawrence Llewellyn-Bowen was forced to shut his show in the West Midlands following complaints that included Santa’s Little Helpers smoking.
In 2013 an event in Milton Keynes was dubbed ‘Winter Blunderland’ when families turned up to find ‘reindeer’ without antlers.
Woburn Abbey was unavailable for comment last night.
‘Completely and utterly pathetic’