Cheese festival grates on fans and dubbed "horrific"

From Digital Spy

London's unlimited cheese party – The Giant Cheese Board Festival – received (e)damning reviews from customers after the event made revellers queue in the rain for up to 20 minutes for cold mulled wine and had merely five cheeses on offer, some of which were being grabbed by hand.

The event sounded like the ultimate festive treat for cheese lovers, but has now ended up being compared to the disastrous Fyre Festival, which left customers paying $12k for a luxury VIP event, which had to be cancelled after it failed to deliver on what it promised.

The event's website promised unlimited mulled cider and wine through the day and night, along with loads of the world's best guest cheesemakers and even cheesecake.

In reality, the event failed to deliver more than five cheeses and the "full production set which allows you to walk around and party on a giant cheese board". However, organisers have denied claims the wine was cold, blaming it on the weather.

Some people travelled from Bristol and Oxford especially for the event, paying around £35 each for a ticket and decided to leave early. The venue, a nightclub called Studio 308 in Greenwich, had staff standing at an exit with forms ready for customers complaining.

Speaking to Digital Spy at the first session of the event, Lori-Anne said: "It's disorganised, they've made us feel like animals in cattle barn. There's hardly any food, and when there has been food it's five different cheeses, which is not a cheese festival in my eyes.

"The entertainment was shocking – it's not clearly signposted, not sure where to find that. Where is the giant camembert that they promised us? Mulled wine has not been warm, it's absolutely freezing, and by the time you've queued up for it, it's just been a waste of time.

"We tried to complain and they've given us an email address of a promoter. We're not going to be listened to. There's no-one to point us in the direction of getting a refund."

Amy from London paid £42 each for a later batch of tickets, and told us: "You see these events on Facebook that pop up that get relatively good traction – 'Why not try free mulled wine, unlimited cheese?' Sounds like something that we'd be completely into."

Nat, 25, of Kent said the event had "horrific organisation, hygiene is just off the charts".

Amy added: "The staff aren't handing out any of the food, you have to pick it up yourself, which means that every Tom, Dick and Harry is touching all the goods that you're potentially eating.

"When I asked one of the staff members if they had any tongs or had anything else, she went, 'No, sorry, I can't do anything about it.' I get it, it's not up to her, she's an events company person, she's not a manager."

Digital Spy has contacted the organisers of the event for comment.

"We came late and people were apparently queuing for an hour because they opened late because the crackers hadn't arrived in time. There were no bins anywhere – when I asked a guy if he was taking the rubbish out, he ignored me."

Nat added: "We've been given pieces of paper to complain to the promotions company because the venue don't want to take responsibility. They don't even know who's managing it."

The event has since posted a lengthy statement on Facebook denying it ran out of cheese, confirming that comedians did in fact perform and the mulled wine wasn't cold.

It wrote: "As with any event, there were, of course, some queues in the first hour or so for certain things. However, there was loads of stuff happening all over the venue and 2 large areas where you could get access to cheese almost immediately... plus servers walking around the queues handing out cheese and greeters at the doors with cups of mulled wine.

"At the time of writing there are lots of happy cheese fans here, many of them having just watched 4 great comedians and are about to begin the pub quiz... everyone has had as much cheese as they want (and of course can get as much as they want for the next couple of hours too) most people have a cup of hot mulled wine in front of them and the wine is of course still readily available to all, just as it has been throughout."

The event, which was split between an early session finishing at 6pm and a later session ending at around 2am, is set to continue for another date on Saturday, December 23.

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