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Fortnite Live: Epic Games sues over 'miserable' Norwich festival

Fortnite maker Epic Games has launched legal proceedings against the organisers of Fortnite Live, a Norwich festival described as "depressing" and "horrendous" by attendees.

The creators of the wildly popular video game claim organisers Exciting Events used the Fortnite brand without permission to draw people to the calamatous event.

Thousands of people headed to Norfolk Showground Arena over the weekend to attend the two-day festival, which promised to be the "ultimate Fortnite Battle Royale with crazy competitions, awesome activities... and much more."

Instead, they were reportedly greeted with long queues for a handful of mediocre attractions that had only tenuous links to Fortnite.

"We queued for about 45 minutes to get through the gates, then joined another queue to get wristbands," said Justine Petersen, who travelled 25 miles with her husband and nine-year-old son to attend the festival.

"There was a climbing wall that could only fit about four kids on it, the sort of thing you would only see at a school fete... There was a merchandise stall. There were baseball caps with cannabis leaf logos on them."

She added: "We then went to the main building. There was a big inflatable llama with a crowd barrier around it, pushed against a wall. The main stage where they were meant to be having a dance competition was tiny.

"It was horrendous. It seems they're not taking any responsibility for it. It's just depressing really. I felt like they were just trying to capitalise on something that was popular."

Epic Games said in a statement that it was "not in any way associated with the event that took place in Norwich" and had launched legal proceedings against the organisers in the High Court of London.

Organisers Exciting Events has since written an email to customers explaining that it had been "forced" to cease all trading activities with immediate effect.

"The vast majority of children loved Fornite Live Norwich," wrote Shaun Lord, head of Exciting Events Limited, who explained that two future Fortnite Live events had been cancelled.

"[Epic Games] have now forced the shut down of the two pre-booked Fortnite Live events, with the immediate removal of all promotional communication from the public domain," he continued.

"These proceedings by Epic Games has had a catastrophic impact on the company's ability to trade, which has forced Exciting Events Limited to cease all trading activities immediately and the director of Exciting Events will now seek to limit the losses to third parties as far as possible."