Latest news 8 th September - Cancellation of the South Wirral Town & Country Fair
Please accept my sincere apologises and explanation regarding the cancellation of the South Wirral Town & Country Fair.
As you are aware on Thurs/Fri and even Sat the North West including the Wirral had been on Flood Watch alert and severe weather warnings had been issued by the Met Office and the Environment Agency.
The Wirral on Thursday/Friday had over 4 inches of rain and unfortunately even though the show was set up we could not get the trade stand exhibitors (there were over a 100 of them) onto the show field.
The show was cancelled by liability insurers at 1745 hrs Friday over extreme fears of danger/accidents/health and safety as the show fields were waterlogged. With rain forecast all night and all Saturday morning our position was hopeless (and as predicted the rains came.)
Notice of Cancellation – Firstly a statement was put on the Garden Festivals Company website. Secondly our PR Agency, a professional external company issued immediate Press Releases to the local radio stations to get the messages across to visitors.
Unfortunately the daily papers for Saturday had already been printed by then so we could not get the PR releases in them in time.
Advance ticket purchasers/visitors – In our office alone over 1000 tickets were purchased. On Friday our two office staff worked from 7am until 8pm that night staffing the two phone lines. They were inundated with over 800 phone calls from our trade stand exhibitors, our performing entertainers, our contractors and concerned visitors asking about the show. The same two dedicated staff worked all day Saturday taking telephone calls from cancelled exhibitors, entertainers and show visitors. They did in fact start emailing advance ticket purchasers on Saturday and Sunday but could not complete this due to the volume of calls all asking where is the show?
My Job - At 5am on Saturday morning we started to remove all the 104 signs advertising the event and the AA route signs. Some we could not remove or cover up as they were placed to high on lamp posts.
We cannot erect cancellation signs without local authority approval. It takes a minimum of 14 days planning consent to do this and as it was the weekend and the planning dept was closed we could not plead an emergency.
We also put two 3 metres by 3 metres signs stating the show has been cancelled on the two showground entrances. Those signs remained there all Saturday but overnight both signs were smashed to bits by mindless vandals. I was only informed about my smashed cancellation signs at 1pm Sunday and replacement card board signs were immediately put up by a friend on the Wirral to notify my customers (visitors) of the cancelled event.
Refunds – On each show page on the website i.e. South Wirral Town and Country Fair main page there is a Disclaimer at the bottom. In this paragraph it states no refunds are made unless the show is cancelled so we do in fact make refunds and inform our customers clearly that we do.
Full refunds will be given to those visitors who purchased tickets in advance. Please return your tickets and contact details to the office at 12 Bartons Close Southport PR9 8NF. For those who purchased tickets from ticket agencies please contact the agency and return your tickets and you will be issued a refund.
I am as upset as you, we (my staff and I) have worked tirelessly to get our messages across to our customers despite our low morale and exhaustion after battling and I mean battling against the extreme weather.
I am sorry for the frustration of those visitors who kindly supported us by travelling to the show but I hope you understand and see our side and what we did. It is not easy and so many of our customers have offered their sympathy and support as they know how hard we work to give them enjoyment time and time again.
Please feel free to call me on 01704 212 734 if you require more information but in the meantime my apologises once again.
For the attention of exhibitors
The organisers regret and understand the loss caused to exhibitors. The Garden Festivals Company will try to refund as much of the trade stand fees as possible as per the terms and conditions. The amount of refund will be reviewed and decided by the cancellation insurers. The subsequent decision by the insurers may take some time and we ask that you be patient regarding his matter. We are working hard on your behalf to recover as much as we possibly can.
Kind Regards
Kelvin Pye
The Garden Festivals Company