A much-anticipated balloon festival has been branded a total flop, with disgruntled visitors slamming it as “atrocious”, “comical” and a rip-off.
One punter even compared the Northumberland Balloon Festival to “Potter’s Pink Palace” from Phoenix Nights. Billed as the UK’s biggest Hot Air Balloon Festival, it boasted of showcasing up to 25 balloons for Saturday night’s “big balloon launch” and promised massive tethered balloons throughout the three-day extravaganza.
But attendees were left gobsmacked when they rocked up at Tynedale Rugby Club in Corbridge, only to be greeted by a measly four hot-air balloons plonked in a muddy field, while an Elton John impersonator belted out Status Quo tunes.
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(Image: Supplied)
Organised by Richardson’s Amusements LTD alongside Exclusive Ballooning, the event has been mocked as more of a “funfair with a few balloons tacked on at the end of the day,” rather than a full-blown balloon fest, with a flood of comments on the event’s Facebook page demanding refunds for the £15 tickets, which have since been deleted.
Most raged over a Virgin balloon flight scheduled for a 6pm takeoff from the same location which was axed way before the festivities began on Saturday, reports Chronicle Live.
A voice message on the Virgin balloon flight info line announced: “Hello. This is the flight and weather update for the flight on Saturday, July 13 in the evening. I’m very sorry to say folks that we’ve got a nasty band of rain coming in from the coast and it’s going to be completely enveloping the north east of England.
“This means that there is no possibility to fly the hot air balloon this evening and there’s going to be no balloons flying from the festival this evening.”
(Image: Supplied)
Peter Stout, 64,who went with his family, said :”We all understand weather dependent, we live in Northumberland for goodness sake, we’ve seen it all. But we went in expecting a sensible amount of balloons, which is how they’d advertised it.
“There are no stands in there about balloon history, there’s nobody telling you how the balloons work, it’s just a blocked-off field with a few vans in it, and about 6pm they blew up a balloon and then let it down again. You’ve got all these rides and the kids want to go on them, because what else are you going to do for five hours while you’re waiting for the balloons to take off?.
“At the end of the day we just felt ripped off, it’s a shame for Corbridge, it’s a shame for Tynedale Rugby Club. That feeling that someone’s taken that money from the whole family feels awful. It was absolutely appalling, it was like Potter’s Pink Paradise from Phoenix Nights. They just want people through the gates to take their money off them.”
The Daily Star has reached out to Richardson’s Amusements LTD and Exclusive Ballooning for a comment.
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