‘Appalling’ festival leaves bitter taste
DISAPPOINTED guests at a chocolate festival have demanded a refund after slamming the event as “appalling” and “embarrassing”.
The touring Fantastical Chocolate Festival promised food-lovers a day of “delectable confectionery, singalong live music and chocolatiers”.
But guests at the Bristol event on Sunday have flocked to the organisers’ Facebook page to express their disappointment, branding the event “a complete rip-off ”.
Tickets for the festival, which will be touring locations around the country until April, cost between £6.90 to £10.35 for children, and between £10.35 and £17.25 for adults.
But “disgruntled” ticketholders, including Lucy Gregory, warned people not to bother.
Lucy shared a photo on the event’s Facebook page on Sunday of a very empty-looking Passenger Shed, near Bristol Temple Meads station.
And she wrote: “If you’re expecting a chocolate full-on festival – don’t bother because you will be disappointed. Picture says it all.”
Lucy continued: “The whole thing was appalling.
“Staff didn’t know about the chocolates, one member went in the bin with gloves on and used same gloves to touch food. Staff didn’t seem happy either.”
But organisers of the event highlighted that they had also received positive feedback on the event, including from Michael Maguire, who said the festival got an “unnecessary bad rep”.
The event spokesperson said the issue organisers were struggling with was catering for families with children and adults with a serious love of chocolate at the same time.
The spokesperson said: “We’re struggling to marry expectations of people who want an out-and-out Disney-style event, with people who want a large-scale chocolate trade show-type event.
“It’s really difficult
to
bring those two together.”
In an official statement issued later on Monday, The Fantastical Chocolate Festival Bristol apologised to event-goers who were disappointed.
A spokesperson said: “Following our event The Fantastical Chocolate Festival on Sunday, we are aware of some negative feedback as well as other good feedback.
“We would like to apologise to any guests who did not have a positive experience at our event.
“We are listening to all feedback very carefully and will take the appropriate action to continue to improve this event, so that we can bring it to the level of our other touring shows.”
He added: “We have made a vigorous investment into the show, intentionally running it at a loss in Bristol in order to make significant improvements for our guests.
“At present we have 42 refund requests out of our 1,400 guests, which is a level that we want to bring down to zero for future events.”
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