119 Digbeth, Birmingham reviews by real event-goers

Review of Peaky Blinders Immersive Festival - Sunday

Excellent staff-friendly, helpful. Had a really enjoyable day. Entertainment was great fun. Only gripe was ladies loos a bit rough. No hot water to wash hands and not paper towel. I was offered loo roll.

Review of Peaky Blinders Immersive Festival - Sunday

Review of Peaky Blinders Immersive Festival - Sunday

It was a good event there was confusion about dress code, that was not made clear on any of your correspondence or tickets, we only found out by accident and I suppect that a lot of people stayed away because of this. I think it would be better to say to people that authentic dress is optional, this would also mean you could tell the difference between the staff and the punters, got very confusing at times.

Review of Peaky Blinders Immersive Festival - Sunday

Thoughly enjoyed the whole experience. It felt very authentic , the young actors did a fab job , made us feel we were part of a peaky blinders scene . The glamour was certainly a sight to see . drinks a little pricey but worth the whole experience .

ps , the tarot reader needed a helper she must have worked her socks off , the queue when we left was a mile long .
would certainly dress up and come again .

Review of Peaky Blinders Immersive Festival - Saturday

The most annoying thing about the day was the lack of bars. It took about an hour to get a drink and by the end of the night they were running out, which is not good and we heard a lot of people complaining. Everything else I would say was good but this definitely put a dampener on the whole event. A lot of people including ourselves left the venue twice to drink and eat in a near by pub and we were not the only ones as the pub was packed with Peaky Blinders. Hopefully next year if you do it again, think about how many bars you should construct and how much alcohol will be consumed.

Review of Peaky Blinders Immersive Festival - Sunday

Absolutely disgusted that admission was being sold on the door at a £10 reduction from the ticket price at the beginning of the day. I will be requesting a refund of this amount on what we were charged.

Review of Peaky Blinders Immersive Festival - Saturday

Was a little disappointed with it as some of the music they played didn’t really reflect the era of peaky blinders. Prices for food and drink we very expensive. I think they could have done Alot better wasn’t organised very well .Waited over 1 hour to get a drink I think if they improved it for next year then I would recommend and return. They need to do a room just for the garrison pub where they can do it out Better and have a separate area for boxing ring. If it was improved for next year then I would come again as the atmosphere was good in the boxing ring room.

Review of Peaky Blinders Immersive Festival - Sunday

Considering the popularity of the show, and how far people have travelled to get there I'd expect to see a lot more shows/events and for them to go on until close. The whole thing ended at 10pm but by 8pm onwards it was just an expensive themed bar. Also the venue wasnt right at all. The actors were good but needed more of them. Whole thing seemed a bit haphazard. Tarot reading tjat should be included in the ticket was 16 quid?! 5 pound a pint? Overall a good night out for locals but I wouldnt bother if you live further afield

Review of Peaky Blinders Immersive Festival - Saturday

Event advertised as being organised by Brum Tours and Shameful Indulgence... Shameful Indulgence aren't even registered as a real company, so can only put the blame onto Brum Tours, who are supposed to know what they're on about... Well... Where to even start...! Absolute con! This was nothing like it was advertised, and there are so many complaints that the management/organisers have shut down the event page on facebook so no more posts can be put on, and wouldn't face anybody on site when they tried to complain. Venue was changed at the last minute (literally had notification 4 days before the event), and was not authentic at all - no effort at all had been put in to it. A couple of chandeliers, and 3 old lamp shades hanging by string...! 3 bars on site, with about 3 staff each, and clearly not enough stock - had run out of pretty much everything by 5pm after people waiting for over an hour in a queue (for any of them). No authentic drinks from the start...
People queuing for 40mins for the toilets... again, not enough, and what was there was absolutely disgusting! Some flooded, some with no door, none of them checked at any point to clean or top up toilet roll... no proper mirrors on the walls, no soap, and backs of sinks looked like fire damage. It all looked as though the place had just been deserted and these organisers have just used it for the sake of fitting more people in.
Health and Safety nightmare... ramps homemade out of scraps of wood - broken with nails sticking out, patched together so uneven ground, and way too steep... Too many people there for the venue and layout, which meant security were having to stop people entering certain areas, in turn causing queues back through other areas, meaning movement in general just came to a halt.
Over 100 actors advertised to make it "immersive"... saw one in the 4 hours we were there, which was outside as we had to queue half an hour just to get in the door.
"Vintage Fairground" advertised... there was one mini Ferris wheel, and a broken strength tester. We were told we could only go on this once, and then we would have to pay, even though they were standing round with no customers by 6.30pm. And since when did 1920's vintage fairground holders where Ellesse hoodies and Nike trainers... again, no effort at all! Should have been stipulated as part of their hire that they were in authentic dress code.
"Amusements" advertised... was led to believe this meant old arcade type machines - there were none of these at all. There was nothing that I would have classed as amusements there at all, or what I could have understood that to have been.
Famous magician from ITV advertised... according to another customer, he performed once. We missed that. The magician that performed the other 10/20 shows was not the one advertised. When we asked what time to come back for the next show, we were told to wait about half an hour as he had to have a break... went back 20mins later to find the next lot of people being filed in! We managed to get a standing spot at the end of the line (room seated about 25 people at a time!), and then found out that was the last show... would have missed it altogether if we had gone with half an hour! This was at 6.30pm, so no more shows until the 10pm closing time!
"Boxing" advertised... we were in the vicinity of the boxing ring from 4.30pm queuing for the bar, but when we left that bar at 6pm (saw no boxing during that time), security guard told us the boxing had all finished for the day! Last entry was advertised for 4pm, so how are things already finished by 4.30pm?!
Bars - Queued for an hour and 15mins for the bar... had already run out of most drinks by this point (approximately 5.45pm), and the "local Birmingham Beers" and "Specialist C**ktails" that were advertised were non-existent - the bar staff didn't have a clue! Had 3 bar staff on, and none of them were rushing by any means! In their defence, they looked like they were students just earning a few extra pennies - certainly not trained or experienced enough to deal with that amount of people at this size of event! Prices of drinks were varying, so think they were just making it up on the spot by that point. People were just happy to get a drink after waiting for that long though so didn't really argue it.
"Peaky Bingo"... pathetic! Limited tickets, so not everyone could get one even if they wanted to, and what made it Peaky?! A bit of swearing in between numbers (even though this was before the 7pm time given for children to be off the premises... not much point in that if the language, etc, isn't going to be curbed!)...?!
Security... saw a few guards around, but literally only a few. Considering the estimate is approximately 1500 people on each day, and the setting of the theme (lots of drink flowing, lots of people thinking they may be a Peaky Binder!) there should have been way more. Tickets weren't even scanned properly on the way in - one of ours was missed completely! Just a teenager scanning them with a phone. One teenager, may I add, to get all of those people through - not really surprising she didn't really care if they were scanned properly. No bag or security checks at all... again - ridiculous considering the amount of people in that venue and in light of recent terror events.
"No effort, no entry"... laughable! They didn't give two hoots what people were wearing! Loads of people in no costume at all, and majority of staff not even in costume...
"Market"... counted all of 7 stalls, one of which was a photographer, and one the tarot reader. Heard nothing but complaints about her, but can't comment on that personally. Heard great things about the Barber, but I couldn't see him at all, so not sure where he was placed. Photographer was great.
"Historical Talks" advertised... this didn't happen at all...!
"Authentic Music" advertised... heard the Peaky song once. Heard lots of modern music. Didn't hear anything authentic...
"The Garrison" advertised... absolutely laughable! Not even a proper bar, hidden away at the far end... a few old sofas, some picnic tables, and a boxing ring... no where near enough for the amount of people there, and nothing like The Garrison. Didn't resemble a pub in any way, let alone The Garrison. There were doors screwed to the wall behind the "bar" all painted multi-coloured... that's really authentic!
"Street Food" advertised... there were 3 food stalls out in the courtyard, none of which were selling authentic foods, and all of which were charging extortionate prices - £9 for a burger, £9 for fish and chips! A Waffle van inside... since when did they have that in the 1920's?!
The car that was inside (presumably as a half hearted effort to put a prop into the massive empty space that the organisers chose to use at the last minute!) looked as though it had just come out of a children's theme park... made out of a mixture of fibre glass and filler, and with near enough flat tyres! Reminded me of the little red and yellow cars that toddlers have! Lol!
No itinerary given for anything, so nobody knew where to be and when. Layout was illogical too having to go through the courtyard to get from one area to another - this caused a lot of issues, again due to capacity. Simply too many tickets sold, and not enough effort made to make sure those ticket holders got what they had paid for.
The only positive thing I can say about this event was the effort that people had made on their costumes - they looked absolutely fantastic! There was clearly a lot of time, effort, and money gone into them. Such a huge shame that the event organisers couldn't have done the same thing. Total and utter greed and disrespect from the organisers. We spent £128 on 4 tickets, roughly £40 on fuel (a splash in the ocean compared to what some people spent to get there!), and just shy of £500 on outfits between the 4 of us!! So frustrating to find that the organisers couldn't put in out of their takings, like the rest of us did - at a rough estimate, they would have taken over £100,000 over the weekend and it's just wrong that they haven't even put a fraction of that back in to it. Can't see that anybody that went this year will return if they do it again. Black Country Museum getting a lot of mentions as this event made out in their advertisement that it would be bigger and better than them... it didn't even come close, and the Black Country Museum tickets are cheaper too! A real poor, poor effort from the organisers, and our party is definitely not the only one to feel absolutely cheated. The whole thing was completely mis-sold, and I know for definite that we won't be the only ones fighting to get at least our ticket money back. I'll be very surprised if Trading Standards aren't involved, and probably Health and Safety too. Someone managed to get their money back (for 10 tickets too!!) on the day, in cash, from the management, before they then hid in the back room from all the others that wanted to complain, so clearly they know what they have done. But if they are willing to refund one, then they must be willing to refund the rest of us.
The statement made by management in response to the write-up the event had on Sunday on "Birmingham Live" was also laughable... They did not act on the bar staff shortage quickly, in fact I don't think they acted on it at all! They certainly didn't bring in anyone extra! They did not talk to the customers on site, and they did not resolve the issue of the queues within an hour! Agreed, new events will have teething problems, but this is not what this was... this was just pure and utter greed, and a massive amount of disrespect to your customers. Such a shame...

Review of Peaky Blinders Immersive Festival - Sunday

Great afternoon made all the better by 90% participation by the audience in dressing up. Actors played great parts, the venue was atmospheric and the afternoon was thoroughly entertaining

Review of Peaky Blinders Immersive Festival - Sunday

The atmosphere was great, felt in timing with century. Could perhaps dressed the venue up a little more. A few things missing that were advertised i.e tarot cards. Appears Sunday was the better day. The live bands were fantastic. One negative I have to say, the toilets both male and female were atrocious.

Review of Peaky Blinders Immersive Festival - Sunday

Good atmosphere and entertainment. Felt that the price was too high for the facilities. Toilets were shocking with no running water or towels in one if them. Actors and entertainment we're great though.

Review of Peaky Blinders Immersive Festival - Sunday

Despite poor reviews from Saturday, we went on Sunday as we had bought the tickets.
We were totally underwhelmed and disappointed from the moment we walked in. The venue did not work in the way we expected. You cannot dress an empty building up with drapes and partitions and expect it to work.Too many people, too few seats, expensive Drinks and Food.
There were a number of visitors who left to get Food and Drinks elsewhere which, surely, should tell the Organisors that they had got it completely wrong. A Ferris Wheel does not constitute a Fun Fair.
This Event COMPLETELY missed the mark, coming across as a Very expensive Themed Pub, poorly executed and gave the impression of a failed attempt to jump on a Bandwagon.

Review of Peaky Blinders Immersive Festival - Sunday

Great to see everyone get into the swing of the event by getting dressed up!

Review of Peaky Blinders Immersive Festival - Saturday

This event was so disappointing! We bought 7 tickets for my Birthday celebrations at £32.50 each. We had originally bought tickets on Groupon only to be told that the event had now made this unavailable and so we had to pay full price. We were in the building a total of about 20 minutes and we had to leave! It was not worth it and we do want a refund!

The event organisers had clearly sold too many tickets, resulting in long queues, and poor, inappropriate facilities that were not fit for purpose.
On arrival we found a long queue only to enter to find the ticket lady wearing a grey hoodie and was not dressed up for the event (she was also not friendly or helpful)! This highlights the events poor attention to detail!

I feel that the event mis-sold us this event as it promised a lot more than it offered. Eg. vintage fair ground- there was one wheel, which you had to queue to even get into that part of the building – we never made it! We had to leave before we even got a drink as it was too crowded and the queue for the bar was over an hour long! This is disgusting. The toilets were not fit for purpose and also had long queues – then men’s toilets did not even have any lights! The queues were too long to get into the boxing or ‘fair ground’. The tarot card reader was charging £25 for a reading – this is completely unacceptable when people had paid so much for entry. What did we actually pay for?

One of our party was in a wheel chair and I have to say that the disabled access was also so poor! The fact there too many people did not help, but the floor was uneven and when we went to leave we were told we had to go all the way back through the crowds back to the entrance! She was also told she was not able to have a glass of water as there was no mains water and they had sold out of bottled water!

I did pop back in later that night to see whether it was worth bringing the person in the wheel chair back in to the festival to find that the bar had sold out of most drinks and there was no ice!

We spent our day at a local pub, where we met lots of other disappointed peaky blinders fans! The only good thing about the event was the effort that the customers had gone to dress up – which had nothing to do with the event.

Please can you respond as to how we go about getting a refund for this event?

Review of Peaky Blinders Immersive Festival - Sunday

Fantastic event well situated in Brum

Review of Peaky Blinders Immersive Festival - Saturday

Would of been a brilliant gig but unfortunately it was unorganized and poorly presented.

4/10 :(

Review of Peaky Blinders Immersive Festival - Sunday

I really enjoyed the day fantastic atmosphere will definitely go again well done to the actors and entertainers they did brilliant

Review of Peaky Blinders Immersive Festival - Sunday

My friends and I thoroughly enjoyed this event. I did however think the price of the tickets for what offered expensive. The ambiance was unbelievable and overall a truly memorable experience

Review of Peaky Blinders Immersive Festival - Sunday

Great