Festival of Light

dcl0sc said:
I took mine last Saturday. Kids enjoyed it but what a complete and utter rip off. It takes your f***ing eyes out. The fair rides were disgusting prices pp for what they were.
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The worst of them is the twisty slide thingy - whatever the fuck you call them. £3 to go down a fuckin slide. And when my little one wanted to go down they said an adult needed to go too - ay no bother mate - Oh no you have to fuckin pay too. £6 for a kid to go down a wooden slide on an old potato sack.
 


Bob Fleming said:
The worst of them is the twisty slide thingy - whatever the fuck you call them. £3 to go down a fuckin slide. And when my little one wanted to go down they said an adult needed to go too - ay no bother mate - Oh no you have to fuckin pay too. £6 for a kid to go down a wooden slide on an old potato sack.
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100%.

There was only one ride where the person taking the money said "Adults can go on for free, if you have a child that's not big enough".

It's cost £12 (give or take) for every other ride the bairn's went on.

That's for my 3 kids and either my partner or me... Shocking.

I timed a couple of the rides and for most, you were lucky if you were on for more than 2 minutes.

Surely the council know what they're going to charge and can say "No, you can't charge more than XXXX".

I took £100 with me and come back with a tenner!

Forgot, I also paid for 5 tickets to get in the park (which I didn't mind paying).
 
Bob Fleming said:
The worst of them is the twisty slide thingy - whatever the fuck you call them. £3 to go down a fuckin slide. And when my little one wanted to go down they said an adult needed to go too - ay no bother mate - Oh no you have to fuckin pay too. £6 for a kid to go down a wooden slide on an old potato sack.
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Agree with your point 100% but that last bit made me laugh.
 
dcl0sc said:
I took mine last Saturday. Kids enjoyed it but what a complete and utter rip off. It takes your f***ing eyes out. The fair rides were disgusting prices pp for what they were.
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How much was the big wheel? We are going in two weeks and my son will definitely want to go on that.
 
becs said:
I've paid £10 for a ticket for four for the Roker Park lights.

I've been looking at other stuff. I fancied Gibside lights but that's £18 per adult and £13 per child, plus £8 to park the car. That would be £75 for a traipse round some lights so I'm not bothering!
Beamish is £15 per adult and £10 per child,
I don't think Enchanted Parks at Saltwell is on this year, but it was about £10 per adult and £5 per child.

I'd say for £10, Sunderland is excellent value for money.
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went to Gibside Lights in 2020 absolute rubbish, took about 20mins. Food was overpriced rubbish by the standards of this kind of event.

Enchanted Parks is generally good, as is Enchanted Belsay.
 
t121anf said:
went to Gibside Lights in 2020 absolute rubbish, took about 20mins. Food was overpriced rubbish by the standards of this kind of event.

Enchanted Parks is generally good, as is Enchanted Belsay.
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We've done Belsay a few times and loved it, but the last time, it wasn't that good and we were disappointed. We parked in the overflow field and the cars were sinking in the mud! We ended up helping shove cars out and all ended up absolutely filthy.
 
dcl0sc said:
100%.

There was only one ride where the person taking the money said "Adults can go on for free, if you have a child that's not big enough".

It's cost £12 (give or take) for every other ride the bairn's went on.

That's for my 3 kids and either my partner or me... Shocking.

I timed a couple of the rides and for most, you were lucky if you were on for more than 2 minutes.

Surely the council know what they're going to charge and can say "No, you can't charge more than XXXX".

I took £100 with me and come back with a tenner!

Forgot, I also paid for 5 tickets to get in the park (which I didn't mind paying).
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I get the frustration, but I bet your kids will remember it for many years. You could blow that on a night out, not remember a single thing, yet regale your mates with tales of "what an effing night!"
 
Patch said:
I get the frustration, but I bet your kids will remember it for many years. You could blow that on a night out, not remember a single thing, yet regale your mates with tales of "what an effing night!"
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Agreed and As I said, my kids really enjoyed it. But the outlay required is ridiculous and disproportionate. If reasonably priced, I may have taken the kids down there several times.
addicted_to_safc said:
How much was the big wheel? We are going in two weeks and my son will definitely want to go on that.
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Only ride they didn’t go on mate. Sorry!
 
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dcl0sc said:
Agreed and As I said, my kids really enjoyed it. But the outlay required is ridiculous and disproportionate. If reasonably priced, I may have taken the kids down there several times.

Only ride they didn’t go on mate. Sorry!
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It's not compulsory for kids to go on the rides.
 
dcl0sc said:
Agreed and As I said, my kids really enjoyed it. But the outlay required is ridiculous and disproportionate. If reasonably priced, I may have taken the kids down there several times.
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Great stuff. One family holiday, we stayed at a caravan in Morecombe. We drove down to Blackpool to see the illuminations and I still remember it, mainly due to the trauma of falling asleep and not seeing the Wombles who were apparently there in some form or other.

Just Googled it and it was actually 1974 and it was Morecombe illuminations. Wombles did the switch on.
 
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dcl0sc said:
100%.

There was only one ride where the person taking the money said "Adults can go on for free, if you have a child that's not big enough".

It's cost £12 (give or take) for every other ride the bairn's went on.

That's for my 3 kids and either my partner or me... Shocking.

I timed a couple of the rides and for most, you were lucky if you were on for more than 2 minutes.

Surely the council know what they're going to charge and can say "No, you can't charge more than XXXX".

I took £100 with me and come back with a tenner!

Forgot, I also paid for 5 tickets to get in the park (which I didn't mind paying).
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You say the council should limit the cost, but I’d look a bit deeper…why are they charging so much.

a while back I was toying with the idea of getting a food van, and I started looking at figures and festival / event organisers charge an absolute fortune for stalls to have a pitch and as such the prices need to filter down, with the customer taking it. Maybes the council are charging the ride owners a crazy amount to have a space there?
 
TheWanderer said:
You say the council should limit the cost, but I’d look a bit deeper…why are they charging so much.

a while back I was toying with the idea of getting a food van, and I started looking at figures and festival / event organisers charge an absolute fortune for stalls to have a pitch and as such the prices need to filter down, with the customer taking it. Maybes the council are charging the ride owners a crazy amount to have a space there?
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Counter argument is that if they don't charge them that much then where are the funds going to come from? The alternative could be to charge £15 to get into Roker Park and then still pay £1.50 a ride anyway (that's if they turn up at all since you've capped their profits and there could be better alternatives). The costs overall are barely any different but the £15 punishes everyone whereas the current situation only punishes those who want the optional extras.

Some people would be horrified if they went to somewhere like Winter Wonderland in London, now that's expensive for everything.
 
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