Forest Live Reviews

Absolutely shocking. What a joke and I will see these people in a court of law. For anyone reading this. I'd urge you to spend your money booking tickets within a venue that has experience in the field of event management.

Elbow and support acts were tremendous and a wonderful occasion at Westonbirt. The whole experience was marred by traffic and parking management (again). We stayed in Tetbury for the evening - six minutes away. On arrival, despite having very expensive VIP tickets, we were directed to park north of the venue and then walk 30 minutes to the stadium. Extremely hot that evening and no water stations were provided - so by the time we reached the gate all our water supplies had been opened and therefore would not be allowed in the venue! Unkind and illogical. On leaving, we faced the 30 min walk back to our parking area only be held up crossing traffic coming from a car park south of ours and nearer the venue! Illogical. And then, on leaving the car park, we were forced to take a long detour through country roads and were not allowed to join a closer road leading back to Tetbury. Our six minute journey therefore took 45mins. After midnight back in the hotel. Please could the organisers pay attention to the reviews. If you wish arrivals from the north to park north of the venue, and vice versa for the those arriving from the south then stick to it on departure and don't let traffic cross. Please, Please, Please don't spoil the entertainment with such frustrating and poorly thought through logistics.

Clearly the organisers or “Forestry England” don’t read these reviews or are making so much money that they simply don’t care. Attended James at Thetford • Badly managed traffic system. No right turn towards Thetford on exit, with no signage to advise where to go resulted in hundreds of cars driving around clearly following sat navs telling them to go back the way that was blocked. Shambolic. • £65 ticket pricing that limit where you can actually stand. So if you want tyo get near the stage you will need to spend over £100 – yes £100. • Strict restrictions on drink that can be brought in, with security that are very keen to enforce it….why, well read on • 187ml can of “Most Wanted Wine” that’s not well chilled, £8.50. RRP of £2.25, so you can bet these cost £1 at the most. We’re not wine snobs, but I wouldn’t use it to cook with. • Insufficient toilets. 10 mins to queue for a urinal. Overall, a badly organised rip off.

Sting was amazing, but shame on the lack of organisation in helping cars leave the car park, truly shocking and dangerous nearly Two hours of bedlam and road rage

No seating, Sting spent his whole performance playing to the regular crowd. The bar was understocked. Very few of the products advertised where available. Modovian wine please what an insult!! Who ever issued the the franchise licence is a clown!!!9

Saw Snow patrol at Westonbirt Arb and the organisation was horrendous! H&S guidelines say for the 8000 crowd there should have been a minimum 107 toilets but they only had 40! Leaving the car park was an absolute shambles taking over an hour and half to leave! The management team of the car park were untrained and ineffective with one girl doing her best but coming close to being hit by cars on several occasions. I’m shocked no one was seriously injured.

As we were holidaying in the area of Thetford Forest, we visited your site today, to see if it was worth a longer visit later in the week. Upon arrival, without any option of turning around, we were faced with a minimum charge of £3 just to drive through and out again. On exit, we were trapped into an exit only road, and unaware that we wouldn't be able to leave, without parking at the exit barrier and trekking some distance to the centre of the park, to pay £3 for 0.10 [mins?] stay. Now we know where Mike Seddon ceo gets his £95,000 p.a. from! By contrast, just 15 minutes down the road, we found another entrance near Brendon, where we were able to drive in and out for free, and for the same ten minutes at the Thetford Forest Lodge, we could park ALL DAY. Far better value, and a more enjoyable stay, knowing that we were not taken for a ride. AVOID AND USE B1106 Brandon Park instead!

Attended the jack Savoretti concert at Delamare forest. Jack was awesome, the organization of the entire event was absolutely amazing. All of the security and stewards where brilliant. The stewards aiding us in the disabled access area where a credit.well done to all concerned!!?

Stop letting “trail hunts” onto your land! The same “trail hunt” groups who have actually been convicted of hunting down foxes and other wildlife. Trail hunting is a lie and a massive cover up for fox And hare hunting. You should be ashamed of yourselves!

They unilaterally cancel events prematurely and then steal your multiple booking fees despite having sent out no tickets, used no postage, Really poor form, giving bands a bad name too. Avoid

OK, We visit Forestry Commission properties alot. They are great for the kids, walking and cycling. We usually buy a year-long pass as its cheaper than paying the 6 pounds or so to park for each visit. Forestry England (the new snappy post-devolution name for the Forestry Commission) have recently changed the car parking to a number plate recognition system and its all 'gone online'. We visited for the first time since this change today, we also needed to renew our pass. We were told by the lady there that 'the till wasn't open' so she couldn't process our membership renewal but we could do it online. We were also told that if we renewed our pass today we wouldn't have to pay individually for today's parking. Great; so far so good. 'But', said the lady in a manner not too dissimilar to the traditional fairy godmother;: "You must be sure to do it before midnight or you will get a parking fine". Ok must do. We got home at 1730 and tried to log in. It didn't recognise my email address. Odd. I tried resetting my password.... again it simply didn't recognise the email to send a reset to. Nightmare. Undeterred I tried to call the helpline.... they all went home at 1700. OK next: Try to register as a new customer... nope ! Apparently it remembered me then and said 'a customer with these details already exists' and wouldn't let me proceed further. I now can't buy a pass until I speak to someone tomorrow (well past the midnight deadline) and await my wretched parking fine. By midnight tonight I will be a little bit poorer and a great deal more upset. What a dreadful, frustrating and worrying experience. They can't sell you membership in person, advising you to go online only to be met with a bluff, unresponsive and ignorant website that fails at every turn and will ultimately cost me more money in fines or heartache trying to remove the fine. All for a walk in the woods. Not-worth-it. I would advise anyone to seek alternative venues or park at a nearby carpark or layby and walk to the forest. So far they haven't got facial recognition (but I guess they soon will!).