Screamania event is branded a shambles
PARENTS say a Halloween event which promised to be the biggest in Greater Manchester was ‘an absolute shambles.’
Organisers of Screamania promised to transform Reddish Vale into Spooky Vale for a family friendly immersive event featuring live actors, a spooky maze, ‘amazing special effects’ and lots more.
But families who attended the opening day on Saturday say the event was ‘a disaster’ and not the sort of ‘shocking experience’ they had hoped for.
Entertainment company Redmox Leisure has apologised for ‘letting people down’ and said it ‘just wasn’t ready.’
It is issuing refunds to people who went along on Saturday and to anyone who has bought tickets but no longer wants to go.
Dan Rees paid almost £46 for tickets for himself, his girlfriend Beckie, their seven-year-old son Buddy and his school friend Beau
Sharing photos from the site on Facebook, he said: “Word of warning for anyone thinking of taking the kids to Screamania. Don’t!
“We went on Saturday. It’s a load of half put up marquees in a field with some go-karts in a tent and a ‘maze’ inside another. Hilarious yes, spooky? no.”
Dan said there was an inflatable maze which lasted around two minutes before deflating and even a woman hired to be a witch there was apologising.
The 32-year-old, from Heaton Chapel said: “We stayed around an hour but there really wasn’t anything to do.
“They managed a couple of gos on the go-karts. The zorbs outside weren’t in operation and were left dumped by the portaloos.
“My son was just really bored. There were two ladies making slime. He did that for 10 minutes then stood around while we talked to the outside caterers about the whole thing and how they couldn’t believe the state the place was in.
“I felt sorry for the young lady who was hired as a witch. She was very apologetic for the shambles.”
Dan, who said the whole thing ‘reminded me of a failed Apprentice task,’ said a number of people were asking for refunds, either at the front desk or on the phone to Skiddle. He’s now awaiting his own refund
A number of customers have also complained on the Screamania event’s Facebook page.
Robin Wallis was brought in to manage the event after its disappointing start and told the Express the problems have since been resolved.
He said: “We’re aware that Saturday wasn’t good. We’ve apologised to everyone and offered refunds to everybody we let down.
“We had actors that didn’t turn up, the generator man didn’t turn up, it was just a perfect storm of everything going wrong on the day we needed everything to go right
“We understand that people are upset and we’ve apologised profusely. We’re just trying to entertain some kids and we do feel really bad about it.”
Following Saturday’s opening day, which attracted around 100 people, Robin said he advised the site be closed on Sunday while the problems were addressed.
He said more than 50 had visited on Monday and nobody had complained.
Robin said: “If anyone has bought a ticket and wants a refund they can have one, but we’d urge them to come down to have a look first.”
The event is the first time in more than 40 years that the Tiviot Dale Showground, within Reddish Vale Country Park, has been used for shows.
More details can be found on the Screamania website