Guest HARVS Posted April 28, 2008 Share Posted April 28, 2008 At Last the Brits Can Celebrate! At last all of the ex pat Brits will have something to celebrate on the Queens Birthday Weekend, with a huge Festival celebrating all that is great about the United Kingdom called UK Fest which is proudly presented by International Express, British Football Week and British Balls Magazine. Mornington based Events Promoters Peninsula Events Australia, which is owned by UK born Paul Harvey, are determined that the Queens Birthday Weekend (Sunday June 8) will be celebrated properly, the British way. UK Festwill be staged at the Peninsula Community Theatre in Mornington, the area being a hotbed for ‘Poms’ and just 60 mins from Melbourne CBD. The multi purpose venue enables the Festival to be able to be held both indoors and outdoors, which will create a cosy atmosphere giving it that authentic ‘British’ feel. The focus of the Festival will be British Food, Alcohol, Sport, Music & Culture as Paul Harvey explains, “If you look around Australia every other nationality has its own Festival except us Brits, so I thought it was about time I put that right hence why we have created UK Fest. You will be able to sit down and eat traditional British food, wash it down with a pint whilst listening to great British Music. There will also be heaps of traditional English games for both young and old to get involved with and lots more, it promises to be a really exciting day” UK Fest will be held from 11am until 5pm on Sunday June 8 with a limited capacity of 1200 people with the day’s festivities appealing to all ages. The same venue will then host ‘Live After Dark’ from 6pm until 11pm, which is a chance for the Young at Heart Brits to let their hair down British Style with live entertainment from the 80’s through to today with only 400 tickets available Tickets are on sale from Thursday April 24 via the credit card hotline 03 5975 3779 www.peninsulaevents.com.au or selected ticket outlets Treats from Home, Melbourne, Robs The British & Irish Butcher, Dandenong & One Stop Bar Shop Mornington. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuju Posted April 28, 2008 Share Posted April 28, 2008 Sounds like fun, have a great time giz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest HARVS Posted May 16, 2008 Share Posted May 16, 2008 Just a reminder that if you haven't got your tickets yet for UKfest, to get onto it fairly quickly, as there's been a recent rush on ticket sales and due to this it looks like there not going to be too many available at the door. Ukfest Ticket Sales Outlets Credit Card Booking Hotline 03 5975 3779 - Visa, Mstr, Diners Club One Stop Bar Shop - Mornington Behind United Petrol, Tyabb Rd Vic Treats from Home - Melbourne Level 1, 234 Collins St Vic Robs British Butchers - Dandenong 177 Lonsdale St, Vic Ukfest Ticket TypesDetailsPriceTimes Gold Ticket (day & night)18 yrs & Over $25 + BF11-11 Adult Festival Ticket (day only)13 yrs & Over $15 + BF11-5 Kids Festival Ticket (day only)12 yrs & Under $5 + BF11-5 Live After Dark (night only)18 yrs & Over $15 + BF6-11 Fore more info check out w: www.peninsulaevents.com.au Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest WelshInMelbourne Posted June 8, 2008 Share Posted June 8, 2008 It was crap Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest maz&jon Posted June 10, 2008 Share Posted June 10, 2008 iI AGREE WHAT A WASTE OF TIME! I DONT THINK ANYONE WILL BE GOING NEXT YEAR UNLESS WE BRITS GET TOGETHER AND DO IT OURSELVES. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest WelshInMelbourne Posted June 10, 2008 Share Posted June 10, 2008 Absolutely agree. It was a good idea but got lost in the delivery. I wanted to leave as soon as I arrived. If that took 3 years to sort out then maybe they should give it 10 years for the next one.. To be honest it reminded me of home in the fact that it was such a rip off - maybe that was the aim ? How can you justify $25 (yeh I got sucked in) for 4 tents and some crappy morris dancers which I've never seen before even back home. I thought things might improve but unfortunately I was later exposed to old wartime music which is probably better suited to a nursing home. What happened to popular music ? - why not play that ? The UK has been the best at popular music and comedy for years - anyone heard of the Beatles ? Queen ? Maybe show the Office of black adder episodes on a video screen or even great sporting moments - Eng vs Aus rugby, cricket... Where was the 'traditional' fish & chips - you know peeled spuds (not frozen chips) and a nice wack of greasy battered fish with mushy peas ? The best grub there was the Indian and that wasnt cheap. UKfest people I dont know you or what your incentive was for this festival. All I can say is that it was marketed very well but was a huge dissapointment. Do you honestly call 4 tents a festival ? Please justify the $25 entrance per person and also the extra cash grabber at the car park. I want my money back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest PommieGeezette Posted June 11, 2008 Share Posted June 11, 2008 We attended the "UKFest" on Sunday June 8th, and found it to be the biggest waste of money we have ever spent. To charge an entry fee of $18 per person creates a certain level of expectation that, quite frankly, certainly was not met on the day. Having lived in the UK for 30 years of my life, I failed to see any real authenticity or effort in relation to many of the "exhibits". The British style "pub" was simply a large room with two union jack flags on the wall, a sad and lonely karaoke machine to one side, and a hole in the wall to receive over-priced frozen fish and chips and cans of beer. The main hall resembled an elderly citizens club with a complete lack of atmosphere, no decorations and even a completely un-related Australian company trying to sell real estate in one corner. Where was the covent garden style market selling "Fashion, Gifts, Jewellery, Beauty, Sport & Travel Products"???? I will give credit to Rob's butcher store as he at least went to an effort to serve up authentic English fare, but where were the tables and chairs to eat our lunch?? Upon arrival, the blonde lady who manned the entrance area even attempted to charge us an entrance fee for our 15 month old baby!! Even the "bouncer" who stood beside her scoffed and informed her that was not appropriate and she should not charge us for our baby. The same blonde lady was quite rude to us upon leaving as we politely offered our opinion of the day. I was horrified to hear the F word used twice by this lady, in front of ourselves and others with small children around us. Completely unsatisfactory. If this event claims to be 3 years in the making, I would suggest that 2 years, 11 months and 3 weeks have been spent twiddling their thumbs. Maybe the final week little effort went in to creating a 2nd rate, over-priced festival. I would really like to know the procedure for refunding our entrance fee!!! I would also be interested in hearing other opinions of the day. We totally agree with the comments from "WelshInMelbourne"!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bigAPE Posted June 11, 2008 Share Posted June 11, 2008 Hi Guys, Didn't mean to snoop, but you might also be interested in the views of some of your other Expat peers. BritVics.org - UK Fest Thread BritishExpats.com - UK Fest Thread A lot of quite unhappy bunnies :sad: Al Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest maz&jon Posted June 11, 2008 Share Posted June 11, 2008 im in total agreement with you,what a total waste of our time and money! the woman you where talking about was very rude to one of my friends too,we asked if we could have a pass out and she said im not giving anymore out and e said we were told that as we have a gold ticket we could have one as we would need to take the kids home and she said BEFORE YOU START GETTIN ABUSIVE WITH ME,WE DONT HAVE TO GIVE YOU A PASS OUT and barged right past us,the security guard then gave us a stamp and said take no notice she`s been like that all day.well im sorry but she shoudnt be working with the public.x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Nagiboy Posted June 11, 2008 Share Posted June 11, 2008 Just been to the organisers website and found theis lttle gem " Peninsula Events would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who came along to support the Inaugural UKfest on Sunday, we hope you enjoyed the day's festivities with your families & friends. In order for us to evaluate & develop the event, we would like to hear your feedback on what you liked, what you didn't like OR if there's anything you'd like to see included in the future, so we can ensure that the event develops into everything you hoped it could be & more." Who is going first then.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bigAPE Posted June 11, 2008 Share Posted June 11, 2008 Just been to the organisers website and found theis lttle gem I know you :smile: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Nagiboy Posted June 11, 2008 Share Posted June 11, 2008 I know you :smile: G'day mate. Fancy seeing you on here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest THE JONEZYS Posted June 12, 2008 Share Posted June 12, 2008 Just had this reply to my email of complaint to Peninsula events... In reply to your feedback, we would like to offer our most sincere apologies for any disappointment you experienced with Ukfest over the long weekend, as this was ‘in no way’ our intention. In regards to the ‘Overall’ Value for Money for the days Entertainment Program We feel (being the 1st year) that we did our best to provide the best value entertainment program possible (as listed below), for the budget we had available based on a pre-sale ticket price of only $15 for adults & $5 for children. In terms of what Entertainment was included in this price at various times throughout the 6 hour day, please read the following which appeared as per programmed..... The Main Stage (indoors) featured … -Billy & Bushy Live -Morris Dancers -DJ’s Playing Great British Anthems from the 60's, 70's & 80’s -The Substitutes (One of Melbourne’s Best 60's British Cover Bands) ‘LIVE’ -Live Comedy & British Celebrity Impersonations from Comedian & Gold fm DJ 'Ben Price' -Competitions, Crowd Giveaways & more The Three Lions 'Pub' featured ... -British Beers, Wine, Spirits & Soft drinks -Fish 'N' Chips -Bar Snacks -Ukfest Merchandise -And for anyone willing to give it a go we also had a Traditional British Pub Quiz, Karaoke Machine, Darts Board & Dominos Outdoors -Penalty Shootout -Rugby World Cup Game -Morris Dancers -Nick Nicholas 'Magic Show' -Kids games with the Town Crier It is ok to say the event was a shambles and rip off but that is not constructive critism that is going to help anybody It is not nice to recieve an email like this from anyone and we hope that regardless of your disappointment, you can understand that the sole reason for us creating Ukfest (above all) was to provide a platform that would help bring the local British community together to enjoy a day of traditional British, food, drink & entertainment with family & friends and if this is something you didn’t experience, this is something we are genuinely sorry for Kindest Regards Paul Harvey Managing Director Peninsula Events Australia > ----- Original Message ----- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bigAPE Posted June 12, 2008 Share Posted June 12, 2008 I hope you don't mind but I would like to share that response with the other communities. I know they will be interested Al Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest WelshInMelbourne Posted June 12, 2008 Share Posted June 12, 2008 Yes, that is a good idea. Bye the way, bigAPE thanks for sending links on the other forums. Makes for an interesting read and good to know we weren't the only ones who thought it was crap. Actually we didn't even know those other websites existed. Really like the BritVics website...and I see regular drinks are organised on a Friday night. So maybe one good thing has come out of this - we've discovered a whole new network of forums! Regarding the response from Peninsula Events, what a load of ****e (well apart from the part about bringing British community together). If they were so genuine, then a refund should have been given to those who asked on the day (wish we had of!)- afterall it was false advertising (... covent garden style market - my ar%*e) And how appalling is it that people were escorted off the premises when they complained. Any by the way, we payed for the 'gold ticket' which was £25 + $2 admin cost per ticket = $27 per person!! Even on the door, they upped the basic ticket price to $20. So in fact no one would have payed $15 b/c everyone would have got stung for the admin cost..yet another con. Just one example of the many inaccuracies this event was and is being portrayed as by Paul Harvey, managing director. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest SueM Posted June 14, 2008 Share Posted June 14, 2008 Yes, that is a good idea. Bye the way, bigAPE thanks for sending links on the other forums. Makes for an interesting read and good to know we weren't the only ones who thought it was crap. Actually we didn't even know those other websites existed. Really like the BritVics website...and I see regular drinks are organised on a Friday night. So maybe one good thing has come out of this - we've discovered a whole new network of forums! Regarding the response from Peninsula Events, what a load of ****e (well apart from the part about bringing British community together). If they were so genuine, then a refund should have been given to those who asked on the day (wish we had of!)- afterall it was false advertising (... covent garden style market - my ar%*e) And how appalling is it that people were escorted off the premises when they complained. Any by the way, we payed for the 'gold ticket' which was £25 + $2 admin cost per ticket = $27 per person!! Even on the door, they upped the basic ticket price to $20. So in fact no one would have payed $15 b/c everyone would have got stung for the admin cost..yet another con. Just one example of the many inaccuracies this event was and is being portrayed as by Paul Harvey, managing director. I live in Mornington and was so peeved off with the UK Fest started looking on line to see if anyone else was !!!!!!! I have complained to the organisers and the local paper - as everyone said, it was a complete rip off and very embarrasing for our lovely town. I encouraged friends to come who lived nearly 2 hours away so was very upset at the way we treated. Anyone who dared complain on the day was given a mouthful by one of the "girls". I encouraged one of guys to give a couple back their money as they were being treated so badly - the girl threatened to call the police on them just because they wanted their money back. We stayed for a while hoping it would get better - it didn't. We left and came back for the evening session which was even worse. I apologise on behalf of the peninsula (as the organisers won't). I hope those of you who came down enjoyed the winter wine festival instead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest THE JONEZYS Posted June 17, 2008 Share Posted June 17, 2008 PIO makes the papers!!! Residents not amused by UK Fest - Leader News: Melbourne community news Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bordy Posted June 20, 2008 Share Posted June 20, 2008 I'm so glad I was on holiday in UK & missed this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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