Furious Brits were left queuing for hours in the ''freezing cold'' for a Oktoberfest event in North West Wales that's been described as an ''unmitigated disaster'' as organisers deal with a influx of angry customers complaints. The poorly put together event was held in a cold barn in Anglesey as a part of a celebration for the annual worldwide festival, Oktoberfest, that brings authentic German beer, food and culture to different locations around the UK.
Having been the first time Oktoberfest UK had come to Anglesey, once excited customers have now deemed the event organisers as ''embarrassing'' after they were left dissatisfied by huge entry queues and over an hour long wait for a drink of beer. As a result of the lengthy delays, irritated customers left the event, describing the occasion as a ''waste of an evening'' and opted for the pub instead, the Mirror reports.
Oktoberfest UK, who define themselves as ''the UK's biggest operator of authentic German beer festivals'' have responded to the disastrous event and have confessed that they will be taking onboard ''some important lessons'' in the future. An earlier post on the company's Facebook page had attracted dozens of angry comments. The Anglesey event was described as "embarrassing" and an "unmitigated disaster".
Mazzy Moo said: "I am so angry about tonight. We queued for an hour to get in the barn in the freezing cold. 17.15-1815 finally got in and were told it was an hour and a half queue for the bar, so we left. So many people went straight in and then immediately out because of it.
''I won't be the only one, but I expect a refund for mine and my husband’s ticket. What a waste of an evening!" Belinda Woodward said: "How embarrassing for a beer festival to make people wait and an hour and a half for beer! We queued for an hour and a half to get in thinking we would be OK for drinks as we had a table with table service...... oh wait no!
''They stopped table service as the demand on the bar was too much! Our table will be expecting a full refund." Stuart Kynaston said: "One of the worst organised events I've ever been to. If I was the organiser I'd be embarrassed.
''Queues of over an hour to get a beer. At a beer festival. Quite literally couldn't organise a p*** up in a barn."
North Wales Live reporter Christopher Davies was at the event. He said: "The running joke was that, as soon as you reached the front of the queue, you had to rejoin at the back, otherwise you'd be sober by the time you got to the next stein. As I was leaving, people were turning up and leaving straight away as they were being told it was a two hour wait for drinks, instead opting to head to Menai Bridge to the pub instead."
William Owen Roberts said: "Disappointed. Massive queue to get in and then over an hour's queue to get a drink. The music was great but you need a bigger bar area!!"
In a statement posted on Sunday afternoon, organisers said: "Our first event in Anglesey did not start without its problems." They said the queue to get in had been "controlled but it was slow", and that this was down to security searches which were required by the licence and could not be avoided.
The statement said: "If we were to do it again we would introduce an additional queueing system by using more than one entrance to speed up the process." Addressing the wait for drinks, the organisers said: "There were numerous technical issues on the bar at the start of the event which meant the bar provider couldn't get drinks out fast enough to begin with and subsequently a large queue began to form which then took over an hour to totally service and resume normal service.
"Working with new suppliers in a new location always comes with its challenges and while we are grateful for the hard work put in by everyone on the bar, we have bought our relationship with them to a close today with immediate effect. As a team we all pulled together to help and worked at full capacity until the queue had been completely serviced."
They thanked those customers who "rode the storm and stayed until the end to enjoy the full experience", and said they'd received positive feedback form those who stayed. Their statement continued: "The event was not perfect, and for us as a team it's disappointing to know that some people’s enjoyment was impacted after we worked so hard on the event. We will be taking forward some important lessons to ensure no issues like this happen again."
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