A lantern festival has been branded a “scam” by angry punters who queued up for the “unforgettable” experience only to be left extremely disappointed.
Around 600 were estimated to have turned up to the event, which was being run by Lantern Festival UK, at Glasgow’s Petershill Park football ground on Saturday, September 14.
Organisers promised the event would “create magical moments that leave you breathless and filled with wonder”, with families told they would enjoy an “experience that will touch your heart and soul.”
But punters were left fuming after shelling out £35 per ticket only to be handed cheap lanterns containing a helium balloon with a taped-on LED light.
Some attendees were given balloons that ripped before the launch, while others claimed online that there were no lanterns left by the time they got to the front of the queue.
Disgruntled customers slammed the festival as “pathetic” and even likened it to the infamous Willy Wonka Experience, which took place in Glasgow earlier this year and made global headlines after images and videos from the farcical event.
A clip shared on TikTok shows balloons being sent haphazardly into the sky, with only a handful of them lit up. Another video shows hundreds of “disappointed” customers walking away from the event in Springburn. Disgruntled @missamme111 captioned the footage: “Okay bye £35”.
Keri Mooney, who went to the event with her friend Megan, was left gutted by the disappointing experience. She told Glasgow Live: “[There were] two long queues going in different directions. We asked staff and they said that they didn’t go anywhere. No one seemed to know what was happening so we waited around for 40 minutes.
“It was so unorganised that I started to get a bit panicked. I asked some paramedics if they knew what was happening and they told us they were feeling stressed because it was chaos.”
The pair were eventually directed to a second line and, after another wait, were given their lanterns – but even that was a disappointment.
Keri continued: “The lantern was just a balloon that had an LED light cellotaped onto it. Some people who had waited for over an hour to get the balloon had to re-join the queue when they realised it wasn’t even attached when they got onto the football pitch.
“There were no staff guiding people or telling them what to do. There was also no countdown, people just made one up. My friend’s tore just before she was meant to launch hers so we tied it to mine and let it go.”
Keri believes that around 600 people showed up to the event, which she branded a scam and compared to the failed Willy Wonka event at the city’s Box Hub in February.
She also claims that the Glasgow event page has since been taken down, and negative comments posted on the brand’s TikTok videos were “deleted.”
Glasgow City Council and the Lantern Festival UK have been contacted for comment.
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