Let me give my perspective...and I am one who didn’t make it in and had to turn around with a very disappointed family in tow.
1) I was happy to pay for the display advertised. It wasn’t the best, but it was good, local and with plenty of ground activities to keep us occupied.
2). I expect to pay a lot for food. That’s life at events and country shows in the UK. Do I like it? No. Do I moan about it? No, it’s normal.
3). I expected traffic; that’s why I set off early. Last week I spent an hour trying to get out of a car park at the Killers gig. (And I paid over the odds for drinks and didn’t moan).
The issue today has been the poor event management. Made worse by the poor response from the organiser and made worse still by the positive spin, hype and messages that preceded the event by the media savvy mayor.
Its an own goal; a big own goal and negative voices will always win out in the press and on social media.
The mayor, surprisingly, to his credit has apologised and said he will be do his best to get refunds and will investigate the cause. That’s not the norm for Houchen who generally sticks to smiles and mugshots.
For those who got in, hope you had a good time - I’m jealous.
For those that didn’t, I share your pain.
Lets not become doom sayers though. The organiser is not covering himself in glory at the moment and it’s likely we’ve seen the last attempt at this.
And the ones who suffer? All of us....
We shouldn’t take pleasure in that...