19/06/2011 @ 21:07
I attended the 2011 Taste of London festival on Saturday, June 18, between 18.30 and 21.30. My friend and I had travelled into the city from Hertfordshire for the primary purpose of spending the evening at Regent's Park, blissfully unaware that we were in for a very disappointing experience indeed.
When we arrived at the venue, we went straight to the ticket office and paid the entry fee of £26. Then, as now, I had absolutely no idea what we were supposed to get in return for our hard-earned money, but this sense of uncertainty was only to be the start of my frustrations.
In addition to the entry fee, the ticket officer eventually persuaded me to purchase £10 worth of "Crowns" up-front, claiming that she couldn't guarantee their availability inside and adding that we would definitely need them in order to purchase both food and drink. I was made to feel quite uncomfortable during this hard sell, especially as I'd stated on numerous occasions that I would prefer to wait and see before making a non-refundable commitment, but she ignored my evident displeasure and I eventually capitulated.
True to my expectations, there proved to be an abundance of people selling Crowns on every corner inside the event. Moreover, I didn't see a single queue for them during the entire night and I felt quite cheated that I had been persuaded to buy in advance, a tactic which only served to deny me the opportunity of seeing what was on offer before making a decision. Adding to my frustrations, I soon found out that you could pay in Sterling at every single stall, a fact which rendered the Crowns completely unnecessary; in my view, the whole concept represented nothing more than another way of fleecing customers and preying upon their naiveté.
Last, but by no means least, the weather on Saturday was very poor indeed. Although I understand that you can't do much about the inclement conditions, there are things you could have done to prepare for them, and one only needed to glimpse at a five-day forecast in order to ascertain that it was going to rain heavily that day. As a result, the venue was a total mud-bath. After speaking to a gentleman who owned one of the stalls, I found out that the organisers had only laid down wooden boarding late in the afternoon, thereby adversely affecting his trade. Layering insult upon injury, some of your staff members (dressed in reflective 'safety gear') were tasked with standing on the boards and guiding the public off the solid ground, around several large cameras and back into the mud!
Unfortunately, I feel very much ripped-off as a result of the above and have been left both frustrated and disappointed by the entire ordeal.