"took an hour to get in the venue"

took an hour to get in the venue. no food. understaffed so very slow service. if you're still tempted don't buy too many drinks in advance.

"Disappointing . Huge missed opportunity !"

This event could have been amazing as great selection of gins at a great venue . It however felt more like an exhibition at the NEC . NO CHAIRS just a few scattered bar tables. People sitti ng on the floor and lining up against the stage so they had somewhere to put there drinks /bags . Food selection was burnt cheese toasties and small pots of nuts/crisps. Whoever organised this event missed a huge opportunity to create a fantastic ambience and orobably make loads more money with some nice food, tables /chairs and better entertainment than a solo young lady singing . Really disappointing !

"I had to miss out on the December…"

I had to miss out on the December festival in London, had four tickets for friends and I and even though we all looked forward to attending it we got cought on the London Bridge area after the terror attack and unfortunately couldn't not make it to the festival in good time due to travel issues and the sheer worry on what else could happen that night in Central London. The Gin to my Tonic website states that if one has missed the festival can use their ticket in the future and be allowed entry to another festival. Not once, but twice I emailed their customer service in order to enquire and confirm if it was possible to do this, but no one has bothered to get back to me. I do though get constant non stop promotion emails from them, so I know they still exist as a company. Saying that, judging from what bad reviews I have read about them and my experience of their customer service, I don't foresee them having a long future as a business!!

"I bought tickets for the Gin festival…The non event with no refund !"

I bought tickets for the Gin festival in Lincoln Sept 14th 2019 as birthday presents for my sister and niece. A week before I recieved an email saying the event had been cancelled . The email said not to contact them and promised a refund within 14 days! I am still waiting ! I have sent two emails and have had no reply. I cannot find a telephone no fod the organisers either. We are all disappointed frustrated and angry.I have had to by alternative presents and at present I am £38 out of pocket at the moment !!

"Very dissapointing"

£22.50 FOR a VIP ticket, so you get entry, a glass , an awful T shirt & a cheap mug as long as you ask or you will not even get that!! You can taste 9 gins ( small measures) & have to que to purchase drinks by tokens. Very few seats , no food to purchase other than crisps & olives. Loud music & squashed in a room with no air con. Staff really rude & can't be bothered. No toilet paper or soap in toilets. Over all a waste of money & so dissapoining, don't bother!!

"Awful"

Awful - left out in the rain for their “speech” about buying tokens, not enough seats/tables so most people left sitting on the floor, no takeaways available (although advertised), bottles to “buy” sold out within an hour!

"Not recommended."

Booked our tickets really early so by the actual day we was really looking forward to the Gin Festival at Maidstone. We WONT be going again. For a few very good reasons:
1) Weather was dreadful but the staff refused to let anyone inside before 12 o’clock to get out of the rain.
2) Security staff were exceptionally rude and unaproachable. The very first security guy as we entered actually raised his voice at the poor man infront of me. He accused him of pushing forward which just was NOT true and when questioned by the man, the security guy snapped that if he continued pushing he wouldn’t be coming in at all. I must emphasis, the man was NOT pushing.
3) Then once we actually made it as far as the venue room, absolutely dripping from the rain we had all been left waiting in, we found there was plenty of space that we could of been easily able to wait in the warm and dry.
4) Everyone was then informed that any unused tokens would not be refundable.
5) After choosing our drinks and queing patently, a member of our group wasn’t allowed to take the remaining mixer as in a glass bottle. Understandable if deamed as dangerous. But everyone was given a gin glass on entry. So are they not an equal risk. Very odd.
6) Security staff stood inside the venue in a group chatting for long periods of time. Then at the end a security lady very rudely snapped that we should move outside, even though we was still finishing our drinks. It was only just 4 o’clock.
7) OVER ALL this years gin festival was a big disappointment. No atmosphere, very expensive, poor food choice although tasty it was extortionate prices and very limited range of merchandise available to purchase.
We was lucky because part of a large family group so made our own fun. The total lack of atmosphere and the very poor manners of security staff means we would NOT recommend the gin festival to other people in future. Bar staff and the variety of different gins were the only 2 positives of our experience today.

"Very disappointing"

Very disappointing. Paid £16 per person for a ticket, for this as far as I can tell we got entry and a glass. There were 4 bars, a fairly average pub band going covers all afternoon, very limited seating, with around half the people sat on the floor and very limited choice of food, which although looked great, if you didn't want curry or brownies then there wasn't anything else. 2 trade stands with 2 gin companies, was expecting more than that. 1 very short talk about a distiller and a cocktail demo. Gin was lovely but was expecting more. Ver very poor for the amount it cost. Reduce the price of the ticket, provide more seating, more food choices, invite more distillers and have more free samples etc and it might be worth it.

"Don't go!"

Got given the tickets as a birthday present as I love gin. We also own a pub, so thought it would be a good way to try new gins.
It wasn't could not sample any except from trade stalls. Which there were only 2 of!
So had to purchase tokens to try gins.
Queued for each gin you brought for 10 mins.
Music was 1 band playing intermittently.
No where near enough tables or chairs.
So unless you want to sit on the floor. Then you stand.
A complete waste of time.

"wwwfriendsofgin.com - Disgraceful"

The Gin Festival I was supposed to attend was from

wwwfriendsofgin.com

It should have been held at York Racecourse on Saturday 20 October 2018, at 22.47 on the 19 October 2018, they cancelled it, via an email!!!

We had already checked into the hotel we’d booked at a cost of £188, let alone the cost of our travel arrangements, companies like this need to be discredited, they should never be in a position to do this again but unfortunately they will.