A WINTER Wonderland held in Bangor Co Down has been cancelled after parents blasted the 'atrocious' event.
The Christmas bonanza was meant to run from December 16-23 at the Clandeboye Estate in Bangor, and feature an ice rink, Santa's grotto, bouncy castle and a cinema.
The Clandeboye Estate said it had leased the venue for the week, but was not involved in the delivery of the event.
However, just two days into the event, organisers cancelled the Christmas experience as parents condemned the shambolic event.
Natalie Jackson, who paid £50 for her children to attend the event, told Stephen Nolan on BBC Radio Ulster: "I don't know what we got for that, there was nothing there that made us believe that this was real quality.
"Everything that we walked into in the venue, we had to pay for it. The first port of call was the German burger bar area, in which I got a half cooked burger which was raw one side. I paid £5 for that.
"It was a farce, you couldn't make it up. Everything that went wrong or could be wrong with an event like this was exactly what it was. It was atrocious, there was nothing right from the outset. There was no festive feel, there was no winter aspect or Christmas aspect, there wasn't even a grotto for Santa."
She described as the room where Santa sat as a 'falling down' building.
"There must have been about 15-20 families gathered in this small room waiting to see Santa, and when we went in my daughter said to me, 'Mummy, why can I see the elastic on Santa's beard?' And I just thought oh no, this is horrendous. It was the worst Santa outfit I had ever seen, he had painted on eyebrows. You could not describe it or imagine it to be any worse, it was just awful," she said.
Another parent, Scott Wallace told the same programme said the ice rink at the event 'did not have any ice.'
"It was slippery plastic and it was nearly pitch black inside the marquee where it was, so you were risking tripping up over all the ice skates that had been discarded," he added.
"Nobody was supervising the ice rink, from a health and safety point of view it was an absolute nightmare."
Rhonda Elliot, who attended the event with her husband and four-year-old daughter, told the Belfast Telegraph: "It was shockingly bad, [Santa's] beard didn't have a hole in it for his mouth so he had to pull it down to speak. Horrified kids were shouting: 'He isn't real.'
"The decorations were terrible, a string of fairy lights looked like they had been blue-tacked to the wall and a banner behind Santa's chair kept falling down. Parents were holding it up for the photos."
In response to the event, a parent has set up a Facebook page for visitor feedback where eventgoers shared their experiences and photos.
In one video, children can be seen to attempt to skate on the ice rink.
Ok so I'm home again. Met some friends, met some nice people. Am I bringing my own kids along, no, afraid not. Will post some info shortly. In the meantime, there's been a lot of requests for info on the infamous ice rink, so ladies and gentlemen I present to you... Eh... The Ice Rink... ?
Posted by Winter Wonderland NI at Clandeboye - Visitor Feedback on Sunday, 17 December 2017
In a statement, Winter NI the organisers of the event said: "Winter NI would like to apologise for the Bangor Winter Wonderland event which has fallen way short of our expectations.
"For this reason it has been decided to cancel the event from Monday 18th December. For anyone already on their way today we are remaining open until 8pm.
"Whilst we understand that this will be greatly disappointing to many we feel we can not recover from the negative publicity and it is clear that we have hosted an event which has not met the high standards we had aimed to deliver.
"Once again, on behalf of all involved we sincerely apologise for the inconvenience and disappointment caused."
