It’s that most wonderful time of the year when “winter wonderlands” across the country fail to live up to expectations.
The first festive disappointment of the season came this weekend when visitors described the attraction at Bakewell showground in Derbyshire as “an absolutely disgusting mud bath”.
The Bakewell Winter Wonderland show opened for three days last Friday and will return for a further three days in December. Advance tickets cost £5 and organisers promise reindeer, a grotto, ice rink and food and craft markets.
But visitors complained about the mud, lack of parking, long queues, poor health and safety and lack of a “Christmas atmosphere”.
The event’s organiser, Shaun Hogg, said: “We can only apologise for any inconvenience caused. However, we cannot avoid the awful weather we have experienced. Planned measures were put in place to combat the mud, including removing surface water overnight and laying straw. Organisers are sorry to hear some people have not enjoyed the event, but the majority of feedback has been positive.”
Jean Sanderson wrote on Facebook: “It actually wasn’t the mud that upset me, it was the lack of stalls, nothing there … only a fair, not what I expected and no Christmas atmosphere at all.”
During last year’s festive season there were similar disappointments for people seeking a magical festive experience.
Visitors to a Winter Wonderland event in Truro, Cornwall, complained that the event was so overcrowded it left children in tears and the promised falling snow was a “a tiny dandruff-like sprinkle”.
And visitors to a Christmas lights show and winter wonderland-themed event at Woburn Abbey in Bedfordshire last year demanded their money back when they encountered melting ice sculptures, an effigy burned in a wheelchair and 90-minute queues.
