Garon Park Southend-On-Sea reviews by real event-goers

Review of Soul Crusade Festival feat Soul II Soul\' & \'Jocelyn Brown\'

The worst festival I've ever been too from drinks and food to the sound and the main headline act not performing. Waste of time and money.

Review of In the Park Festival

Had a really good evening, parking was convenient, had gold circle tick*ts so toilets were clean and bar wasn't too busy, acts were brilliant would come again if the right acts were there

Review of Soul Crusade Festival feat Soul II Soul\' & \'Jocelyn Brown\'

Day started off really well but everything started to go down hill with technical problems and poor staffing levels. The bar was under staffed with inexperienced people and nobody seemed to have any idea what was going on. Fortunately, there was a really great crowd and I did not see any trouble, even when we were told that Soul II Soul were not going to be able to perform. The day ended on a very sour note and I'm hoping that some sort of refund can be arranged as I would be happy to give it another visit next year.

Review of Soul Crusade Festival feat Soul II Soul\' & \'Jocelyn Brown\'

1st time at this festival. The security, location and set up of the event was brilliant. Music selection and acts were excellent. Downside was no music from main stage after Joeclyn Brown. Bar was inadequately staffed & Queues (45+ minutes) for a £5 can of warm beer is unacceptable. Food queues were also rediculously long and one stall ran out, meaning I had to join another long queue. In hindsight I should have gone to MacDonalds across the road. I'll go again next year, if on, and hope lessons are learnt from 2017.

Review of Soul Crusade Festival feat Soul II Soul\' & \'Jocelyn Brown\'

Music & artists were ok, but my issues were: -

1: No "Soul 2 Soul" while I was there until 10 pm, as the main headliner, they should have been there from early evening.
2: No proper food was on sale.
3: Drinks were over priced.

Review of Soul Crusade Festival feat Soul II Soul\' & \'Jocelyn Brown\'

My wife & I was really looking forward to this event for some time as we have never been to a event like this before. JD Soul Machine started off - which was good. Then Kenny Thomas was next - he had a small glitch with one of his songs, due to a technical problem through no fault of his own carried on like a true professional. Then there was Jocelyn Brown - Sound problems with her mike from the start even Jocelyn tried to indicate she was having a problem with her mike and there was the occasional feed back, although her backing singers sounded ok. Soul II Soul the Main Event - A big technical problem - no live show! What a BIG Disappointment! Not the sort of entertainment one expects for the price of the tick*ts. Had it gone smoothly as it should have done as the following days Gig in the same location, I would have loved to have recommend!!!

Review of Soul Crusade Festival feat Soul II Soul\' & \'Jocelyn Brown\'

absolutely disappointed that soul 2 soul didn't play, I sincerely hope that full refunds are given to everyone, everyone I know who attended this event felt very let down and will also be seeking refeunds.

Review of Soul Crusade Festival feat Soul II Soul\' & \'Jocelyn Brown\'

It was an enjoyable sunny day with great music. But I was really, really disappointed by how it ended.The headliner didn't perform due to a technical fault and we waited for 2h to be told. I could have been home earlier. Like many, I booked solely to see Soul II Soul even if Jocelyn Brown was fantastic. It would have been better with more food and a bigger bar as people queued for a while before being served. And the bar prices were a too high.

Review of Soul Crusade Festival feat Soul II Soul\' & \'Jocelyn Brown\'

The festival was very good but with a couple of BUTS ? no soul to soul at the end what ever the problem was. and the drinks were a rip off.

Review of Soul Crusade Festival feat Soul II Soul\' & \'Jocelyn Brown\'

Terribly organised. Overpriced. Bad sound. Seeking a refund. Main act didn't play!

Review of Soul Crusade Festival feat Soul II Soul\' & \'Jocelyn Brown\'

The queues for the bar were ridiculous well over an hour is unacceptable. You were at the bar for so long you missed the acts. Not enough food outlets as you werent allowed to bring anything with you. And to top it off no Soul II Soul as this equipment blew up. Overall a very poor and disappointing experience!!

Review of Soul Crusade Festival feat Soul II Soul\' & \'Jocelyn Brown\'

I did enjoy the acts and event but was disappointed with not seeing soul 2 soul as there was a unfixable power cut, the think the event could have had a few more stalls there perhaps a pimms tent and more food tents, but as itsoon the first one its always trial and error but soul 2 soul are being brought to event I. December and we are being offered half price tick*ts which is bit unfair

Review of In the Park Festival

Fantastic well worth the money for the VIP tick*ts

Review of In the Park Festival

Music great for the over 50s, probably not so good for the younger generation who had never heard of The Jam or Paul Young. Drink & food appalling with highly inflated prices (£5 for small can of dodgy Spanish lager or Carlsberg - neither worth buying)

Review of Soul Crusade Festival feat Soul II Soul\' & \'Jocelyn Brown\'

The artists were great. The fact that no food or drink could be brought into the venue was hit & miss, as some people got in with cool boxes, so consistency needed there in future - as a Vegan the only food available to me on site was a jack*t potato (thankfully it was really nice, but not sufficient as the only food available for 9 hours!). The bar was an absolute joke...not enough staff, prices as expected but for products that clearly stated lower prices on them (obviously multi-packs brought in as stated not for individual sale on them!), presecco decanters (poorly) into plastic bottles that had who knows what in them before! Having to queue for an hour so stocked up on beers only to be told all cans needed to be opened - this was not the case with all servers though as plenty were walking around with unopened cans - this meant either walking around juggling open cans or queuing for a drink then returning to the back of the queue whilst drinking it so that you had a chance of getting another when it was finished!! The headline act were unable to play (through no fault of their own) but the supposed 'fried' equipment, that caused millions of pounds of damage, seemed to have been fixed/replaced overnight as the event the following day had no issues - hmmm, suspect.
There has been an offer by promoters of half price tick*ts for next event but not good enough when the next event is in December, so freezing, and the cost of attending this event went above just the tick*t price when travelling from outside Southend to attend (such as travel and accommodation costs). Very disappointing.

Review of Soul Crusade Festival feat Soul II Soul\' & \'Jocelyn Brown\'

Not able to bring own food or drink in - standard. Over an hour wait at the bar, and EVERY drink £5, £30 for half a litre of Proseco, outrageous! Such a lovely day but this really spoilt it for me. Most people didn't have a drink in their hands so you'd make more money with more bar staff and reasonable prices.

Review of Soul Crusade Festival feat Soul II Soul\' & \'Jocelyn Brown\'

Let’s get the good bits out the way first – Kenny Thomas, Greg Edwards and Jocelyn Brown were all excellent, despite having to cope with numerous sound system issues. That was the good part of the festival. Unfortunately, the bad bits far outweigh the good. Ridiculously over-priced drinks (£7.50 for a double spirit, £5 can beer/cider). The two “arena’s” were too close together causing sound interference. We decided to upgrade to the Gold Circle (accessed via the VIP area) at an additional cost of £20 each, purely so that we could get to the front to see Soul II Soul perform – they were, after all, the headline act. Just before John Osborne was due to come on in the main tent, the sound system failed. THE SOUND SYSTEM FAILED AT A MUSIC CONCERT. Seriously? For an event of this size, where were the back up systems? If you are running an event of this size you have to plan for failure. We then waited over an hour before an announcement in the smaller tent advised that Soul II Soul would be performing in the smaller “arena” due to sound system failure in the large “arena”. Nearly another hour went by before Soul II Soul came on stage to advise that due to the sound system failure they would NOT be able to perform. The promoter then advised everyone of another event in December and that “a special price for anyone attending today’s event who wanted to attend the December event would be available”. And that was it. Soul II Soul then left the stage with their soundtrack Back to Life playing in the background. Talk about a slap in the face. As if that didn’t leave a bad enough taste in the mouth, Fat Freddie M and Calvin Francis then proceeded to argue over who was playing what music, and what the crowd wanted to hear. They clearly love the sound of their own voices and talked over any music that either one played. It was cringing to listen to and frankly bloody annoying. After the disappointment of Soul II Soul not being able to perform, the crowd didn’t want anymore chat, they wanted music that they could dance to. Unfortunately the only “entertainment” left was two over-inflated ego’s sounding like spoilt kids who don’t get enough attention. This event could have been excellent, but it fell way below par.

Review of In the Park Festival

The music system was awful, the bands sounded terrible. I would suggest local bands with a famous headliner and a sound system that was a quality one. The inner circle was a terrible idea. And the cost to get in for what was there wasn't a fair price, the bands and the sound system brought the venue down to a ten pound a tick*t night. I was extremely disappointed 😞

Review of In the Park Festival

Good day, but was barely half full. VIP tick*ts weren't as advertised and the prices of drinks were unnecessarily very expensive!!

Review of In the Park Festival

Good venue lots of different food vans cash machines only let down is the price of drinks £5. can larger £5. for a spirit £2.50 for a bottle of water which I think at a venue on a hot day should be handed out free. a lot of security which was nice to see