An Oktoberfest event at a Welsh venue saw people leave the night before buying a drink after facing an hour and a half queue for the bar. Attendees at the event held at Anglesey Showground on Saturday night said they faced an hour's wait to get into the site before being told they would have to spend a further 90 minutes in the line to get a drink.
Organisers of the night, Oktoberfest UK, have said technical issues at the start of the event meant the bar couldn't get drinks out fast enough, combined with a controlled but 'slow' queue to get into the building due to security searches required by the licence. But some who attended have said they will be seeking a refund, describing it as an "unmitigated disaster", North Wales Live reports.
The delays saw some people reportedly leaving the evening in favour of a night out in nearby towns instead. One attendee said: "I am so angry about tonight. We queued for an hour to get in the barn in the freeeezing 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!"
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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."
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."
North Wales Live reporter Christopher Davies, who attended the event, said: "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."
In a statement posted on Sunday afternoon, organisers, who describe themselves as the "UK’s biggest operator of authentic German beer festivals", 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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