Coal in their stocking!
Patrons slam limp museum festival
A festival at the Brooklyn Museum that bills itself as a highend holiday affair is getting a frosty reception from wellheeled patrons, who are panning the shindig as a low-rent snow job.
Instead of pricey wine tastings and fancy hot chocolate, mortified WinterFest attendees had to endure powdered cocoa, cheap candy and cut-rate exhibits — including a “North Pole” that was closed.
“The ‘paid attractions’ are a complete scam,” sniffed one woman on the Bklyner blog, griping that the chocolate experience consisted of “a cup of instant cocoa and a Tupperware of fun size Halloween candy.”
A promised “Snowzilla” slide didn’t even exist and an “enchanted” maze was simply a boring line of Christmas trees.
Meanwhile, WinterFest was promoted as a “Santa Outdoor Museum,” with wine “experiences” charging up to $79 for a “romantic date package” for two.
A $50 VIP wine tasting touted no less than five wines — plus champagne and access to the chocolate tasting and other “North Pole” events.
But on a visit to the market on Tuesday, the tasting consisted of four wines — one that retails for less than $10 — plus mulled wine and nothing else. The “North Pole” was closed due to “technical difficulties.”
The WinterFest Web site sold tickets during the week for features that weren’t open — and passes to avoid nonexistent lines. At least two vendors have bailed.
Libby Farrow, who works with her husband, Nick, selling handdesigned shirts in a business called Rockstar Revolution, said besides the lackluster attractions, there were no signs to the market and there were power problems for the vendors’ stalls.
“We would never have agreed to participate in that market had we known what it actually was,” she said. “It was a shock.”
She said organizer Lena Romanova agreed to refund her $6,500 — and then reneged. Romanova refused to comment on refunds.
Pamela Barsky, a veteran of the city’s holiday markets who sells small bags with quirky sayings, closed her booth on Tuesday and took her concerns to the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office.
“Everybody got scammed,” she said.
Farrow and Barsky blamed the Brooklyn Museum for its lack of due diligence in selecting Romanova to run the market.
It’s not the first time someone has had issues with Romanova.
One of Romanova’s companies, Boston Winter Village Inc., ran into trouble in Massachusetts, where it operated a holiday market for the Boston Garden Development Group, which sued it for breach of contract.
“We sincerely regret hiring [Romanova’s company] as our subcontractor, as over time it became quite clear that the company was unable to deliver a market to the standards that the City of Boston deserves,” Amy Latimer, president of BGD, wrote to a Boston city official in a letter obtained by The Post. Boston Winter Village countersued BGD in actions that were settled earlier this year.
The Brooklyn Museum issued a statement saying it had licensed the use of its parking lot for the festival, but would not say for how much.
“We are extremely disappointed that the organizers have failed to live up to their promises and we have conveyed our concerns to them,” the museum said, adding that it had “demanded” that all attractions be free and refunds be given to “frustrated visitors.”
But Romanova said the attractions would only be free during weekdays for a few hours from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
She would not comment on any refunds to vendors, claiming instead “vendors have done very well” and claiming the electrical problems were fixed.
“We remodeled the attractions and added more decor,” she added.