Fizz festival left ‘VIPs’ feeling flat
VIP guests said they were left “devastated” by the food and queues at a prosecco festival after paying up to £35 a head for a ticket.
The Prosecco & Fizz Festival was held at City Hall in Cardiff on Saturday.
But Rhian James, from Cowbridge in the Vale of Glamorgan, said she was left “devastated” when she and her friends arrived at the festival.
The 32-year-old, who bought five VIP tickets, said: “It was my decision. I saw it advertised on Facebook and I thought it would be one of those brunches. There wasn’t much marketing on it so I thought it would have nibbles with stands or a bottomless brunch type of thing.
“We paid £30 each for VIP tickets. It was myself and four girlfriends who went, and we all paid the same,” said Rhian.
She added: “When I arrived I was given two free drinks tokens and a free glass of prosecco. But two girls in my group didn’t get the free tokens. We arrived at different times and I was the last to arrive.
“It was really bizarre. It was like we were waiting for something to happen.
“Our group shared a table with some strangers. We were served some Italian canapés in a plastic tray. It was embarrassing. We had to share this with strangers on our table. There were 10 people on our table.
“For any other food you had to pay for that separately. I saw people with pizza and chips.”
VIP tickets were advertised as having seats in their own VIP area, own VIP bar and keepsake glass, as well as drinks tokens and food.
But Rhian claimed that wasn’t the case.
“It was badly organised,” she said. “There was no VIP section. Everyone just had to sit where they could get a seat. It was such a disaster.
“We left after about an hour-and-ahalf. It was really bad.
“We did try and complain and were told to email an address on the flyer.”
Lisa Morgan, 49, from Nantgarw, said she paid £80 in total for three early bird tickets.
She bought the tickets as an early birthday present for one of her friends, but said she was shocked at what she saw.
Lisa claimed they waited in a queue for VIPs which was longer than the one for general entry.
Lisa said: “We were home by 9.30pm eating toast and crumpets because we were so hungry.”
She added: “I’m absolutely gutted because it was a present. I’m a stickler for researching things and I thought she’d like it. But from the moment we had to queue it felt wrong. “It was not what we expected.” One woman, who did not want to be named, said: “We spoke to the organiser at Cardiff who insisted he hadn’t heard any complaints.
“Everyone we spoke to thought was terrible.
“I was one of the lucky ones who only paid £15 for a ticket, but some paid £35 plus. It was the cheesiest thing I’ve ever been to in my life.”
WalesOnline attempted to contact it the organisers of the Prosecco & Fizz Festival but has had no response.
The Prosecco Festival, which is being held in Cardiff in October, said it was in no way connected to the event held at City Hall on Saturday.
Jessica Rice, company director of Prosecco Festival Ltd, said: “The event at City Hall run by the Prosecco & Fizz Festival is in absolutely no way connected to, or affiliated to the very successful Prosecco Festival Ltd which travels across the UK to more than 40 locations, including the very successful Prosecco Festival at Portland House in Cardiff and Swansea’s Brangwyn Hall.
“The organisers of Prosecco Festival Ltd are saddened to be confused with an event containing such feedback.”