Alnwick Castle Alnwick reviews by real event-goers

Review of Tom Jones Live in Concert

Tom Jones himself was amazing the time he graced the stage but we were severely let down by the " Loose Canon Event" company !! What a farce. Lack of refreshments, lack of safety & lack of security. The whole show was a complete farce. Refunds should be issued to thousands of let down fans!!!!!

Review of Tom Jones Live in Concert

Poorly organised from start to finish. The power cut that ended the performance after only 45 minites was the final nail in the coffin.

Review of Tom Jones Live in Concert

Absolutely terrible. waste of money, badly managed, badly organised. 2 power cuts and less than 40 minutes of Tom Jones. Disgusting. Refunds all round please.

Review of Tom Jones Live in Concert

I'd been to a couple of concerts on the pastures before this one and as soon as I walked through the gate I knew it wasn't going to be as enjoyable as the others. The "arena", as the MC called it, was way too narrow and the catering vans were too close to the crowd, there was no room for people to queue plus it was confusing as to which van you were queuing for because they were were lined up side by side. As I looked for a place to sit, a steward told me I "wasn't allowed to use a picnic blanket in this area" when there was clearly 15 to 20 people doing just that. Health and safety was a farce, especially when leaving the venue. The security gate at the entrance/exit was still up so the crowds were bottlenecked , therefore it took ages to get out. Food and drink price were a rip off for the quality you got. A friend of mine bought a 1.75 litre bottle of c**e which was price branded at £1:69 or 2 for £ 2:50 and she was charged £6. I think trading standards would be interested in that.
The music: when Tom eventually came on he was great, it just a shame the idiots who organised it couldn't work out what size generator they needed. There was no "localised power failure", the castle was still lit up, the food vans and bars were still working, even the microphone the announcer used worked. I could go on and on - some people probably think I have - but all in all it was a bad experience, mainly because it was badly organised. Loose Cannon needs to learn by this mistake and start again, probably with nursery birthday parties. A full refund would be nice, thank you.

Review of Tom Jones Live in Concert

There have been so many comprehensive reviews I wil not add much detail but this was a very poorly organised event. It was not value for money, not enjoyable and actually not very safe. Loose cannon you should be ashamed

Review of Tom Jones Live in Concert

I have been to every concert at Alnwick Pastures and this was a disgrace. Booking charge for every ticket and we had to print our own. Previously allowed to take our own food and drink and enjoy a party atmosphere this year seats were so close together you couldn't walk across the field to the toilets or food outlets. The food vans were so close together seats were in a narrow space with no view of the stage. There were no additional screens of the stage. Despite reassurances the there would be plenty food and drink and no queues there were queues of over an hour, no tonic water by 7.45, no red wine by 8.15 and later no lager. The sound was poor and the generator fisaco was just the final straw. Tom Jones should have apologised on the night not later on the national news. Security was a shambles, who got the £3 parking? We have never had to pay before. some people were searched and my sister didn't get her ticket zapped or give a wristband as I believe they ran out. There was no disabled access or lights to help leave the field safely.

Review of Tom Jones Live in Concert

Whole event was a shambles apart from tom himself

Review of Tom Jones Live in Concert

Disaster! Concert aborted due to power failure.
Promoters were incompetent in all respects
Full refunds being sought please

Review of Tom Jones Live in Concert

Extremely disappointed to discover after booking tickets, that food and drink could not be taken into Alnwick Castle (unlike other events at this venue). The queues for food and drink drinks were therefore long. Tom was late on stage and after 45 minutes the event came to an end with a power cut. What a waste of money.

Review of Tom Jones Live in Concert

Rubbish event badly organized health & safety concerns power kept going off Tom never finished his set .Going to ask for a refund.

Review of Tom Jones Live in Concert

Unfortunately didn't enjoy the event as was very badly organised from the start.
The crowd layout was terrible and we could not hear very well as we were so far back. Tom was late coming on due to power failure then we he did come on it only lasted an hour before the power went down again. We were told it was due to a local power failure
Also the bar was a joke it was difficult to get served and they ran out of certain drinks quite early on in the evening.
When leaving the concert it was very dark with not much lighting and it was difficult walking bk to the car through a field full of cow plats not very good for people with walking difficulties.
I have been going to events at Alnwick castle for the past 4 years and this has been by far the worst organised . I think everyone deserves a full or partial refund of the tickets purchased as I do not feel it was value for the money we paid.
I await your response.
Beverley Brown.

Review of Tom Jones Live in Concert

REVIEW – A knight at Alnwick Castle by S White

TOM JONES – 8 AUGUST 2015, Alnwick Castle
02/05/2015 First release 2 x tickets ordered through Skiddle. Not aware of no picnic situation at this stage. Fully aware of Pasture protocol in previous years having been almost year on year.
At some point I was made aware of the food/drink ban and this was also confirmed through Northumberland Gazette but also confirming that bottled water was okay. And no firework display either.
07/08/2015 Email received from Skiddle with concert info and now also charging £3 for car parking!
08/08/2015 Arrive early at pastures with picnic in hand to carry on tradition of picnic on the pastures before proceeding into secured arena. The pair of us settled down next to a large party at the marshall fencing and proceeded with our picnic, enjoying the decent weather, view of castle, building up the atmosphere for a good night. We were about halfway through our picnic when the large party next to us moved to a different spot, which wasn’t easy with all their tables, chairs and other paraphernalia. About 10 mins later a security guard approached us and asked if we could move and the reason given was for vehicle access, but we were not in the way of any traffic route and told him we were inclined to stay where we were until we finished our picnic. At this point a suited gentleman spoke to us as he was walking past and said we could stay where we were. Continuing on with our picnic we were interrupted by a shout at the entrance gate from a surly security guard in charge telling us in no uncertain terms that if we didn’t move he would refuse us entry. He did not want to hear that the suited guy said it was okay for us to remain where we were as he knew we wouldn’t be very long with our picnic, so we stayed where we were. Whilst in this position we could see and hear the searches being conducted by the security on the concert goers and knew they were even taking bottles of water off them. Also, other concert goers were bringing their picnics and were going to set up next to us and we were informing them of the security guards “don’t sit there” policy, even though there were no signs etc, just so they weren’t asked to move mid picnic like us and obviously the other large party. So another 5 or 10 mins later the head security guard came over with two other security to speak with us, i.e. to the pair of us, in a way which could seem intimidating. Fortunately he wasn’t brusque at this point and we expressed how we had been coming to this gig year on year and now he was telling us of all this space on the pastures we couldn’t sit on that particular piece of grass in the manner that he did and a threat of no entry to the gig. And we would be going through into the ‘arena’ very soon anyhow. Points expressed by both sides, and we even got an apology from him, kissed and made up but it wasn’t a very pleasant experience initially.
At this point we did ask about the bottled water into the arena situation and were told that if you have a medical condition or an email saying you could take water in then it was okay. But that’s a whole can of worms there, water is okay for some and not others with or without a medical condition!!!
Picnic done and we proceeded through checkpoint.
It was still early at this stage with first of support acts on so my sister went off to get a drink and came back with a bottle of prosecco (£25 ouch) from one of the vans. As we were early, we were able to stand at the front barrier (front barrier behind VIP area). We were laughing and chatting with others there too when out of the blue a security guard (see photo), standing in the VIP section, grabbed hold of the bottle in my sisters hand and said she couldn’t have a glass bottle where she was. Obviously she wasn’t going to let it go (especially not at that price). He was grappling all the time we were saying she had just bought it and my sister insisted to show him where and who she had just bought it off, to which she got the confirmation at the seller and she returned and we drank it, every last drop!
It’s quite clear at this point that AES (All Event Security) from Darlington were not given clear and concise information on ‘policing’ this event from these two encounters.
However, we were still determined to enjoy this event, after all it wasn’t raining this year.
The three support acts were good (despite initial technical difficulties) and the guy from Smooth Radio, but don’t get why they had the position that they did and so TALL.
In fact the whole layout this year, was definitely catered to stop people bringing food and drink in and to pay well inflated prices at the easy accessible vans, i.e. vans corralling everyone in centrally and obviously people not wanting to be behind Smooth Radio construction, squashed forward. A Health and Safety issue, no shadow of doubt. And people begrudging the food/drink scenario and having too much to drink before the event. How on earth did they ever think was going to work? It clearly was all about profit to them. Has there ever been an outcry to any of these pasture gigs before? No, because common sense has prevailed well before lining of pockets. And picking up on the Health & Safety aspect, whilst entering the pastures I did notice the car park and thought it odd that carers would want to push wheelchairs all the way across to the bumpy field to the arena, not realising that was actually the VIP and disabled access. This was so wrong for them. Yes a field is bumpy but access should have been nearer for them, or at least some form of temporary rolling pathway. I dread to think that they may have been expected to use ordinary portaloo’s too, but I haven’t heard that come up in any of the gripes that people had.
Sir Tom Jones, what a legend. Still a brilliant voice at 75 and what a charmer with the crowd too. He was late on, yes. We can forgive him a tad for that as you often get performers late on, and not to mention previous technical issues, which set timings back. We did hear him say at one point “we’re not doing that one”, so obviously they were changing the set to catch up. But the finale, you can keep your hat on, lights on ….. no, lights and power definitely off. I don’t know anything at all about the technical set up side of things but would imagine a different generator for spotlight and burger vans! Why not a backup generator for a knight in the castle grounds?
But definitely insulted with the announcement of a ‘local power outage’. Might I add that with spot light on and mic in hand, immediately before Sir Tom left the stage (and being close enough to lip read) he mouthed “I’ll be back” so it wasn’t surprising that the backlash was immediate after the announcement that he had already left.
I know there has been a lot of comments about stumbling back over the terrain in the dark and if I’m being fair here, that’s been the same every year. The only difference I think though is that again the set up was to blame and of course very difficult for the disabled and carers. There didn’t appear to be as much lighting, and what was there was only really trained on arena, hospitalities and toilets, not on exit route. What didn’t help with the exiting was the fact that it ended abruptly and basically everyone was leaving as one. Where on previous concerts, there would be different stages of exiting as some wouldn’t want stay for fireworks and would leave first and others keen to extend their night would linger after fireworks. The exit was same place as entrance but narrow gap with all fencing still in place, could have been disastrous if there had to have been an emergency exit by all. To guide people to the entrance of the ‘VIP/Disabled Parking’ was a single policeman with a solitary hand held torch pointing at the ground. The exiting from the grounds by vehicle has always been a bit of a bun fight and you will always get inconsiderate drivers, who don’t want to wait in line and try new ground scattering people on foot. But again, this should have been policed better, i.e. staffed, police were evident on highway.
I’ve read Loose Cannon Management’s facebook statement, and initially it looks like they are wanting to lay blame at the generator company after the unforeseen circumstances. Surely they are only unforeseen circumstances if you haven’t researched and covered all your bases. So one of Neil Winterbottom’s facebook statuses on his personal page (which I took a sneak peek at before he changed his settings) was very telling that he obviously hadn’t done his homework in time. Being in Scarborough only a week before at a Tom Jones concert, there apparently doing market research. Bit late in the day for that, let’s hope it was a comment in jest.
And, I don’t know if I have just imagined this, but I’m pretty certain on the company facebook page it was initially listed as ‘Director’ Neil Winterbottom, but now I see ‘Members’ and including a Jordan Jefferson there. Could this be a ploy by Neil Winterbottom so whole of blame is not squarely placed on his shoulders? Edit: Looks like Loose Cannon have closed public view to their Facebook page.
And yes please, I do want a refund of some sort, thank you very much. I would be greedy if I said I wanted a full refund as I had my picnic on the pastures and saw support acts and the main man himself (in part at least).
It's such a shame that Loose Cannon Event Management could not see further past the £ signs in their eyes as the location and act had the makings of a spectacular event.
And the Yes at the end of the survey relates to Tom Jones live in concert as I would never attend anything hosted by Loose Cannon ever again.

Review of Tom Jones Live in Concert

On arriving to the venue there was no organisation. There was no directions for seating , rehealth and safety. If there had been a accident no easy access. There were not enough food vans, resulting in waiting 45 mins to be served, the same for the beer tent also shortage of cider from 4.30 pm.
Tom Jones did not appear till 8.45pm made comment he was sorry for delay as problems with electric. His short performance was great, till his departure due to electric fault. Why there was not back up generator brought in when at first having problems I can't understand as very incompetent people have organised this very big mess.. Getting out of the venue was a dangerous situation as there were no Stewarts to direct off the very uneven field or lighting to guide., very angry crowds of people. Hopefully there will be compensation for this farce .

Review of Tom Jones Live in Concert

rubbish and dangerous.................

Review of Tom Jones Live in Concert

rubbish and dangerous.................

Review of Tom Jones Live in Concert

The organisers, Loose Cannon, were incompetent to the point that the event was dangerous. There was no management of the crowd and no safe means of entry or exit. The fact that they weren't able to provide a generator that worked reliably was just a symptom of the lack of planning. Something was bound to go wrong at this mismanaged event. Even if Tom Jones had been able to perform for the time billed, the event would still have been dangerous and very poor value. The audience had to wait for up to 6 hours before Tom Jones came on, with hardly any live entertainment provided.

Review of Tom Jones Live in Concert

A complete shambles. We have attended yearly concerts here since 2006 (apart from 2013 when there was no concert) which have all been exceptional in every way even the years that it poured with rain but this year was badly organised from start to finish and I know will certainly have meant that many of our party won't even contemplate going again regardless of how good the entertainers are. Because of power problems we could not hear the music for most of the night. Tom Jones was amazing as he always is but to have the concert cut short by more than half just finished off the night for us.

Review of Tom Jones Live in Concert

Tom was great. What a showman and he still has an amazing voice. However, the event was disappointing due to the poor organisation. The power went off twice. I would never go to another event organised by Loose Cannon. I really believe that Loose Cannon should offer all thiosevwho attended the event a 50% refund as a gesture of goodwill to restore people's confidence in them.

Review of Tom Jones Live in Concert

Terrible concert,loose cannon's organisation ruined a once in a life time event for us all,it was quite scarey at times,I would liketo complain and how can we claim our money back, please advise

Review of Tom Jones Live in Concert

Well where do I start! It was a shambles! Badly laid out, too narrow near the stage. Not enough food and drink outlets needing to queue for at least 20mins for food and drink at extortionate prices. We had to queue 30 mins to get in after walking over cow pat co reed field and back out again in the dark. Technically incompetent due to power issues. Concert cut short and felt totally cheated!
I certainly will not be attending another concert run by SKIDDLE.