Alnwick Castle Alnwick reviews by real event-goers

Review of Tom Jones Live in Concert

I bought 4 tickets for this concert as soon as it was announced at the first release price. I was surprised and disappointed to later discover that the format was not going to be the same as the previous Alnwick concerts but had accepted the fact and was prepared to use the concessions there.

To say that we are unhappy about what happened at the concert is an understatement. Here is an outline of our concerns:

Two days before the concert the Northumbetland Gazette posted an article with direct quotes from Loose Cannon events stating that plastic bottles of water would be allowed.
We arrived at the venue just before 6pm. Half of our party were waved through, the other half searched and their water bottles were confiscated. Upon requesting an explanation, we were told that the rules had been changed that morning.

We found space towards the back to put our chairs but could not see the stage or hear very much that was going on. At first we managed to get a drink but by 7.30 the situation at the bars had become very difficult. We queued for 40 minutes. The pumps weren't working and the staff were clearly out if their depth. Trying to get back to our seats was a nightmare. The audience and the bar queue had merged. I spoke to two "officials" to complain but I got a shrug.

The layout was completely wrong. The bars and food concessions needed to be much further back.

Tom Jones was due to appear at 8.30. From 7.30 there was nothing on stage as a warm up. The concert had no atmosphere. Tom Jones finally appeared at 9.00 but his first song was booed as we couldn't hear at the back. We finally moved to the front at the side in order to be able to see and hear. It was very crowded as everyone was doing the same. Again I spoke to security but they said they couldn't do anything.

We were just getting to enjoy Tom Jones when the generator went and that was the end. 10 minutes of darkness and an announcement that Tom Jones had left the arena. We then exited in the pitch black through a field full of cow pats.

All in all a terrible evening.

The service you provided fell well behind my expectations and I demand a refund for the full amount. I expect a reply from you within the next 7 days with details of the refund.

Review of Tom Jones Live in Concert

Firstly we were disappointed to find out one day before the event via email that no food or drink was allowed on site. As you will be aware one of the pleasures of outdoor events is the ability to enjoy a picnic at the venue prior to the main act starting.
Secondly the fact that the electrical supply was simply not up to the job, having fused the system when the band first came on (30 minutes late..!!!) and then some 50 minutes later during Sir Tom's act. The fact that the event manager came on stage to blame a 'local' electrical supply and then to inform us that Sir Tom had left the arena and therefore the concert was at an end was a disgrace.
The final incident involves health and safety and the fact that some 3000 people were expected to vacate the area across uneven pasture littered with cow dung and sheep droppings without any lights or a clearly defined pathway beggars belief. There were a number of elderly people we had to assist to the roadway and there was a distinct lack of stewards to assist us in doing this. I am surprised that no one broke a leg and I will be reporting this to Northumberland County Council and asking to see a copy of the risk assessment for the event.
All in all a very disappointing evening and I will be supporting the local Councillor Mary Trevelyan is requesting at the very least, a partial refund.
Sir Tom Jones as always was excellent even if he was cut short by at least 45 minutes.

Review of Tom Jones Live in Concert

Shame on you all for the organisers of this event. It was unbelievable! There are too many faults to list......the stewards didn't have a clue..no walkways,everyone stepping over each other...hour long queues for everything..no disabled access whatsoever...pitch black on the walk out and along the road for your car/transport.How nobody was injured or killed at this event I do not know. Where was H&S? The council?? Refund please

Review of Tom Jones Live in Concert

Tom Jones was outstanding but Middlesbrough based Loose Cannon Management should never be allowed to organise (more like disorganise) another event again. It's without question the worse event I've been to and how no one wasn't hurt is a miracle - terrible car parking (£3 in a cow field!) poor layout, inadequate facilities and catering, and the unprofessional stewarding that clearly couldn't cope - I could go on on!

Review of Tom Jones Live in Concert

I'm sure that Tom may have been awesome - had we been able to either see him or hear him! The way the venue was set up meant that the majority of the audience were funnelled in between ridiculously badly placed catering vans and any view was obscured by an enormous radio booth. The sound was no where near loud enough at any stage for us to hear properly. Tom was late coming on to stage because of a power cut and the whole event was abandoned after about 40 mins because of another power failure. Tom immediately left the premises - presumably because he was as hacked off as the audience by that stage!
PIcking our way across the venue to leave in pitch darkness and then walking back into Alnwick along an unlit road was dangerous. The venue itself was very badly laid out and the ban on picnics put too much pressure on way too few catering vans. People were queuing for up to an hour for food/drinks which totally killed any notion of an atmosphere. Never ever again would I attend an event organised by "Loose Cannon Events" - total shambles!

Review of Tom Jones Live in Concert

What was the organiser thinking? How on earth did they think this event could run on what they had put in place. The worst run event I have ever been to. 1hr 20 min queue for drinks after being forbidden to bring our own. People were unable to see stage. The hot food vans were 3 in number! There were a lot of safety issues and the generators weren't up to the job. I have been trying to think of one good thing that I can say... but I can't.

Review of Tom Jones Live in Concert

Lovely setting, long queues to get in, very disorganised re seating etc, the worse bar I've ever seen in terms of how it was run - plenty of staff but didn't know what they were doing, not enough pumps and one till at the far end of the long bar. Previous concerts here have been run so much more efficiently.
Worst part of all were the power failures and Sir Tom leaving before the end of the set - refunds required please.

Review of Tom Jones Live in Concert

Alnwick pastures is a brilliant venue.
The support acts were good.
Tom Jones was brilliant and the atmosphere was amazing when he was on was fantastic.
The ticket price was acceptable to see Sir Tom if the organization of the event was better. as it is, I feel like I have been ripped off by the organizers.
People should be allowed to bring in food and drink especially as the gates opened at 3pm.
The layout of the food and drink provision was terrible every one was bottlenecked into a narrow funnel and getting a good view of the stage was difficult.
Prices of food and drink were high, queues were huge and some people serving were rude and bad tempered ( as noted by my 11 year old daughter).
Everyone I spoke to there felt the same way.
The concert was cut short due to a power failure, not good when we were all making the most of what was a bit of a disaster.

Review of Tom Jones Live in Concert

Sir Tom is legend, no doubt about it, he can still knock it out! Music and performance were more than excellent however the venue and facilities were pretty much rubbish, queues for food and drink were far too long. Expected to pay a higher price than elsewhere but the quality left a lot to be desired. Worst of all, Sir Tom was late coming on due to the power goin off and then the concert was cut short less than an hour in!!! Come on, we should be able to do a whole load better than this up here in the North East, shame on the promoters, imagine it will be a long time before we get Sir Tom back up here!

Review of Tom Jones Live in Concert

After paying through the nose for this event, I can not put my disappointment into words but hey I'm gonna try. Firstly, this was not at Alnwick Castle, it was in a field behind the castle which was full of cow dung ! It was stated that no food or drink could be taken into the event and all on offer was some disgusting burger vans and warm lager. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw men's urinals with thin fencing to hide their modesty. I only thought how could Sir Tom put his name to this event. After only 40 mins after coming on Tom had left the venue with no word of apology. The crowd was then left to walk out of the field with no lighting and it was Chaos !! People falling over, standing in cow crap and we asked the so called "security" for help with some aggressive punters, we were told they could do nothing ! All in all a shambles and waste of money.

Review of Tom Jones Live in Concert

Absolute shambles.

Review of Tom Jones Live in Concert

This was the worst concert i have ever attended. It was a health and saftey nightmare with people faling over on the way out as no lighting and disabled people having to be pushed and pulled over hard going traine. The perfomance was stopped and cut short because of inadicquet genorators. The food and drink ran out on site and you were not allowed to bring your own in to the site.

Review of Tom Jones Live in Concert

I'm sure you will be inundated with lots of reviews about Saturdays concert, most of these will not be positive. The venue itself was fine, a lot of people, including my group, arrived early and made sure we had good seats. A lot of people came in later and just barged towards the front; there did not seem to be many stewards around to rectify this. The supporting acts were ok but of course everyone was waiting for the main event. When Tom came on he was fabulous, it was unfortunate what happened. Tom just walked off and it was left to the promoters to say the show had ended; this obviously did not go down well with everyone as we had expected t least another hour and a quarter of the show. I think if Tom himself had spoken to the crowd, it would have been better than leaving it to someone else. The promoters tried to tell us there was a local power cut, even though the castle was still lit up! I think it was badly organised and we were just left to make our way out in the pitch black, I noticed a few people fell over in the field and there were people struggling to push wheelchairs out, this is disgraceful considering how much we paid for our tickets. Another issue was the fact that we couldn't take or own food and drink into the venue; this has never happened before and to be honest the queues and prices were ridiculous. This was my first experience of a concert at the pastures and to be honest it has put me off going again. There is a lot of disappointment from everyone I know who attended on Saturday and we really should be given some sort of refund.

Review of Tom Jones Live in Concert

Shambolilc is an understatement zero health and safety no way could any risk assessments been carried out. Insufficient catering/bar services provided even on Friday night Loose Cannon were advertising for food vendors. sound system was totally inadequate Tom was late on stage and left early. Toilet facilities were atrocious as you walked into the venue you could see men using the urinals no privacy shields had been put up and young children were around and could see this. Totally unacceptable. Will not be attending any Loose Cannon events in the future that is for sure.

Review of Tom Jones Live in Concert

My husband and I attended the the concert at Alnwick Castle on Saturday and were very disappointed to have the show cancelled part way through. Sir Tom was fantastic however we felt the show was spoilt for everyone after being delayed by over 30 minutes at the start then coming to an abrupt end when the power was lost for a second time. Health and safety issues were prevalent when 7,000 people were told to leave the auditorium in the pitch black with no additional lighting or visible event staff to show us the way. Personally I had really been looking forward to the concert and felt that what should have been a fantastic experience was spoilt by bad planning and equipment. Even Sir Tom joked he might have to "put some money in the meter". It really was a joke and unacceptable when we had paid £100 for two tickets.

Review of Tom Jones Live in Concert

A very disappointing concert which was the feeling of all of the other visitors that we spoke to on the evening and the following day, the ticket prices were expensive and for this event no food or refreshment could be taken into the venue, not a popular move !
The food and refreshment was expensive, very slow to serve with many concessions running out of food and drink.
The performance was a debacle, cut short by power problems with no apology from the headline act.
Leaving the site was difficult for able bodied let alone disabled visitors, being uneven, unlit and walking through cow pats.
Overall a disaster !!

Review of Tom Jones Live in Concert

Unfortunately I was disappointed with this event. The organisation was abismal. The sound was poor, especially for the support acts. A power cut as sir tom's musicians struck up was bad enough, but another power cut as the concert was getting lively was dreadful! Clearly insufficient checks and fault finding were carried out. The final power cut ended the concert, when we were told it was a local power cut and Tom had left the arena! Funnily enough, we could see lights blazing at the castle and Alnwick itself. No coordination to get people back to their cars in a field in the dark. On a plus sir Tom was fantastic for the short time he was on!

Review of Tom Jones Live in Concert

We were promised a night to remember
Have attended most of the wonderful Alnwick Pastures events
Concerts have reflected well on Alnwick
This time we were greeted by the picnic police who spotted our bottled water
They missed our shortcake biscuits ....hurrah!!!
At 5 o'clock seating area with any kind of a view appeared to be taken
People sat in tight short rows like a health centre waiting room
No staff around to advise about where to sit on a chair with any kind of view
Money making mobile food and drink vehicles formed the perimeter and imprisoned the audience
Decided to sit on grass as and placed our small blanket on ground
Blanket brigade (one guy) arrived to say we were not allowed to sit on a blanket but we could fold our coats
Ten minutes later we were surrounded by many "young" people on blankets and some even on chairs
Blanket brigade did not come and they sat in comfort for 3 hours before some were asked to fold chairs
Grey hair on coats ruling perhaps? Hope Tom remembers his!
Aberdeen Angus steak burgers sold out before six o'clock
Some of my chips had been made from a rotten potato and were disgusting
Direct route to toilet became blocked by audience on chairs who verbally abused people for going that way
Forty minutes with no entertainment with crowd at its maximum, so bored people drank and ate more
Generator stopped working, it had appeared to get noisier as time progressed
Visibility for many so bad people decided to crowd into the front section with absolutely no space for transit
A large drunken man forced his way through and careered into people with great force
I was one of his victims and my back and shoulders were quite seriously injured
Tom Jones was astounding but not for very long
Generator failed again and a local power cut was blamed, this was insulting
The Voice was silenced" and Tom Jones walked in the dark through cow pats to his car...or perhaps not
Redress needs to be made to the people of the Alnwick area for this pitiful, shameful dangerous event
Lawyers should investigate whether management companies addressed their duty of care issues
Health and Safety should investigate
Refunds and apologies should be given to everyone
Our 43rd wedding anniversary celebration was certainly a memorable occasion
If only mamma had told us not to come!!!!

Review of Tom Jones Live in Concert

So disappointed with the concert tonight. Travelled almost 170 miles to see Sir Tom for my 60th birthday treat. Loose Cannon events organisation a shambles. Overcrowding in some areas, power outage, late start then yet another power outage. Sir Tom goes off and doesn't come back Spent a fortune for a 50 minute concert. Hope a refund will be forthcoming?

Review of Tom Jones Live in Concert

It was the most appalling concert I have ever attended. First picnics allowed. Then the fact that some people were practical strip searched while others got fed up with standing in ques so climbed the fence.having to stand for 20 mins to get food. The stupid way the area was set out. Unable to get a good view because of the way people were crammed in. Usually everyone spreads out for picnic time then closes in when music starts. Not possible on Saturday. Then the idiot who announced power off because of local power cut. We may live in county but we aren't stupid. Show then just stopped. No lights or stewards to help people back to car park. People tripping over on uneven ground. I know it was a field but some form of lighting was necessary. It was just a disaster from start to finish. I will never attend anything organised by Loose Cannon or buy tickets through you again. Chances of getting refund nil.