119 Digbeth, Birmingham reviews by real event-goers

Review of Peaky Blinders Immersive Festival - Saturday

Great day. Street food very expensive £5.00 for a try of chips and curry sauce.bar prices high but it was to be expected for such an event.
Fair was small Ferris wheel and a test your strength hammer bell thingy.

Review of Peaky Blinders Immersive Festival - Sunday

Review of Peaky Blinders Immersive Festival - Sunday

Did not fully deliver what was advertised, great atmosphere due to the amount of people who had made a great effort with their costume, the Garrison was good fun, fair ground was a let down, good food but expected far more choice , the actors mingling with the punters was good well done them. Great idea could have been a great success,

Review of Peaky Blinders Immersive Festival - Saturday

As has previously been mentioned, the event was meant to be in and around the streets of Digbeth, however it was a run down warehouse

The ticket had a start time of 12:00. My partner and I were queuing until gone 12:30 before there was any admission.
The event info was as follows:

“The Rainbow Pub will be sympathetically and authentically renovated to how it was when it was frequented by the Peaky Blinders.” - The pub is neither renovated or open!
VINTAGE FAIR GROUND RIDES - One small ferris wheel!
VICTORIAN INSPIRED STREET FOOD - Kebabs, burgers is certainly nothing victorian inspired
AMUSEMENTS - None there!
LIVE STREET MAGIC - No street magic there!
LOCAL BRUMMIE ALES - None there and what drink was soon ran out!
SPECIALIST C**KTAILS - Really??
LIVE BAWDY MUSIC HALL ENTERTAINMENT - Music was modern stuff!
IRISH FOLK MUSICIANS - Must of missed them??!
TAROT CARD READINGS - Showed up late and was unavailable most of the time!
LIVE BOXING - Poorly staged acts!
SHOESHINES - None there!
CARICATURES - None there!
ROLLING SCREENINGS - None there!
HISTORICAL TALKS - None there!

Also advertised 100 actors - Can only assume they’d mainly been cast as invisible men because there was not 100 actors there!

I along with many others no doubt, will be seeking a refund, apology and an explanation as to why it was so appalling and badly organised.

Review of Peaky Blinders Immersive Festival - Saturday

Felt the ticket price a bit steep for what was on offer.
Bar prices very expensive - not enough bar staff.
Toilets very poor
No timings on display for magic shows, boxing etc
Not the most easy venue to find venue could have done with being larger
Why did the band play modern music

Review of Peaky Blinders Immersive Festival - Saturday

Very disappointed,did not live up to the hype in promotion details. Long queues for toilets and 45 minutes to buy a drink. There was no programme giving times of events ,6 stalls selling gift related items and no clear information displayed for tarot card readings, no historical talks. The bonus point was the effort the crowd made in dressing the part, a shame that the venue and the organisers did not deliver what was expected. People should get a refund!

Review of Peaky Blinders Immersive Festival - Saturday

I paid for five tickets to attend this event. Expected it to be staged at the Adderley Street/Rainbow location ( as printed on the downloaded tickets), but having arrived there by taxi we found the place deserted and had to make further enquiries to locate the new venue. Being registered disabled I had difficulty walking there.
We arrived at 2.00pm. The initial reaction was it good with people arriving in amazing dress full of anticipation to it being well organized. However, as the afternoon wore on it became apparent to my group that this was not the case. There was no communication from the organizer to event timings or general goings on. We were sat quite near the bar nearest the entrance and commented on the growing length of the queue and the disgruntled people waiting to be served.
Then by around 5pm the music became (headbanging) not appropriate to the 1920's era. Also, by this time the queue for the bar was the worst I had ever experienced in my life, and I am 71 years old.
We stayed four and a half hours then decided to abandon the experience in complete disappointment. Cutting our losses and going to a local pub, we sat and spoke to other dismayed punters the rest of the evening. Concluding that we had been well and truly "ripped off" and it was oversold and well over priced in all aspects. It was not about "Peaky Blinders" it was all about Money!!!!!

Review of Peaky Blinders Immersive Festival - Saturday

To many people, poor security poor disability access a waste of money

Review of Peaky Blinders Immersive Festival - Sunday

The atmosphere was great and everybody we saw had dressed up and was enjoying their day. The venue was very small and I was expecting slightly more than what was on offer. The advert said there would be fairground rides, however there was only a big wheel. There was no program for the day so we had to rely on the actors/staff to tell us what was happening where and when. And sometimes the times were wrong and acts were performing before the time slot we had been told. I enjoyed the day and thought the event was good but I would have liked it if it was bigger and had more to do as there wasn't much to do in between acts. I paid 30 pounds each for our tickets and thought the price was quite high for what we were offered on arrival

Review of Peaky Blinders Immersive Festival - Saturday

The atmosphere was good, we enjoyed the magic show, the live music. and looking round the stalls. Everyone was friendly.
It's a shame that there weren't more fair ground rides.
A "meet and greet area" for the actors would have been good as there were some there but it was luck if you saw them.

The toilets at the venue were a bit rubbish, and I think there should have been a designated smoking area outside the venue as the the courtyard was packed and people were trying to eat.

Review of Peaky Blinders Immersive Festival - Sunday

It was a complete rip off, nithing was there that was advertised, this had the potential to be an icon festival. By order of the Peaky Blinders, more like by order of Mickey Mouse!
I would like a refund.

Review of Peaky Blinders Immersive Festival - Saturday

terrible event they should be ashamed of themselves ....

Review of Peaky Blinders Immersive Festival - Saturday

Went to this event with my partner, on the whole we both enjoyed it very much we got there early doors and stayed to the end. The atmosphere was very good, and most people who attended had done as specified by the organisers and dressed appropriately for the theme. It was great to be in the company of so many fellow Peakys. Although have to say as previously commented in other reviews that we didn't get entirely what was advertised in the way of historical talks, rolling screenings, didn't see any shoe shines or hear any Irish folk musicians to be fair this could have happened when we were elsewhere in another area of the festival but if it did it would have been nice to know about it. Some sort of timetable for activities or at least an annoucement telling you what was happening where and when would have been helpful. The market could have been bigger, and also the fair which I assume it would have been if it wasn't for the late change in venue. The car for photo opportunities was a nice touch but a real vintage one would have been better to help create that 'immersive' feeling that was lacking.

Unlike some people who have commented on there being no actors we did experience staged fights. We caught the burlesque dancer towards the end of the night, We saw the escape artist briefly and the boxing earlier in the afternoon and having joined the queue on three occasions we eventually got to see the magic show, which was excellent. We watched the barber doing an amazing job churning out Peaky haircuts. We popped in and out of the ballroom and heard a couple of bands and a D. J. who were playing modern music yes I know, but this is how it is in the series so don't entirely understand the complaints from others who thought that they should have been playing 1920s style music. I understand there was a female singer on too who must have just finished as we walked in from the boxing area so can't comment on her set.
There were one or two things that could and should have been better, the venue for one was was woefully inadequate in the state of its toilet facilities with shockingly no water coming from the taps in the toilets in the main area , the lack of a timetable, there was a problem with the bars for a time with extremely long queues and then one of the bars completely ran out of beer but you didn't find that out until you had queued for some time, there was not enough seating for the amount of people there and surprisingly no sign of hot drinks available for those who didn't want or couldnt have alcohol and sugary drinks. As this was the first festival of its kind in Birmingham I would hope that these problems will be sorted if and when it returns next year. I for one sincerely hope it does as it has the makings of something brilliant.

Review of Peaky Blinders Immersive Festival - Sunday

We had a fantastic day. Lovely to meet some of your amazing people. So glad we went on Sunday.

Review of Peaky Blinders Immersive Festival - Sunday

First time experience, magic performance great, boxing supported by Moseley boxers.
GREAT would go again as a Sufferate Jet again to add to the atmosphere.

Review of Peaky Blinders Immersive Festival - Sunday

Fab day. Actors were brilliant, it was a fun and exciting atmosphere with lots of laughs

Review of Peaky Blinders Immersive Festival - Saturday

Great idea but seemed over subscribed as there were queues for everything. Would be better in a street setting so more space.

Review of Peaky Blinders Immersive Festival - Saturday

Very disappointing, too expensive for what was there. No dark ales, food was rubbish, too many people.
Black Country Living Museum held a fabulous Peaky Blinders event the weekend before. Learn from them!

Review of Peaky Blinders Immersive Festival - Saturday

We arrived early so managed to enter without having to queue, see the boxing, magician and contortionist which were all great entertainment. The warehouse layout was good and decorated really authentically, however within a couple of hours it became very busy and by 4pm the stewards were having to limit which areas you could access due to capacity issues.
Bar and food prices were high £9 for a prosecco and the same for fish and chips ( although they tasted great)!!
It would have been useful for an itinery of events to have been given prior to the day or even on arrival as we had no idea what was on, at what time so we were fortunate to stumble on the events we did. This would have been invaluable for planning the day as we had planned on staying until the bitter end, after going to the effort to get into the peaky blinders spirit with our dress code!
The fairground was a big wheel nothing more and we didn't find some of the things advertised eg the fortune teller and characachure however this could have been down to not having access to all areas once it got too busy.
We left at 4.30 due to the queues for the bar and the toilets being so long which was disappointing. The queue to get into the venue at this point was round the block.
We had a really enjoyable few hours but I feel the event organisers sold too many tickets and didn't take into account that once people had made the effort to get into character that they would want to stay at the venue for the duration and not leave after an hour or two.. great atmospher but could have been planned better!!

Review of Peaky Blinders Immersive Festival - Saturday

I`ll take all my mates next time xx