Last week, Ms Angela Cromarty from Serengeti Estate, described the event as “terrible”.
“R600 allowed us to enter with four small children and one teenager. We did not expect one jumping castle when a ‘kids area’ had been advertised. How could they charge us R60 per child for a jump on an overcrowded jumping castle? We could not get a drink for our children as the bar area was so full and nowhere else sold drinks,” she said.
Ms Cromarty said she would have left but her oldest child went to buy cold drinks at the beer tent and was standing in a queue. Ms Cromarty could not find her in the “sea of beer drinkers”.
According to her, her daughter emerged an hour and 30 minutes later, with two cold drinks and a bottle of water.
“It was so upsetting. One and a half hours in a sea of people pushing her, trying to get alcohol. It was a disgrace. The bar ran out of beer at 4pm but they were still taking the entrance fee at the door,” said Ms Cromarty.
She also complained about there allegedly being only five toilets for over 1 000 people.
She took to Facebook to highlight her frustrations. She was livid that her comments on the Huddle Park Beer Fest page were deleted and that she was blocked.
Mr Sage Jarrow Young, one of the organisers of the event, said it was impossible that she paid what she said she did to enter the event.
He said the charges were R120 per adult and R60 per child, which would have totalled R240 for four children, and R60 per teenager.
“This totals to R420 and not R600. These prices were published on Facebook and also on our flyers. Her messages to me suggest she spent R700. Perhaps she is confused.
“The children’s area included face painting, sand art and a group called Amazeballz,” said Mr Young.
He said her statements about not being able to purchase cold drinks from anywhere other than the bar we false.
“We had Khuhestan Cordials there and Snoyo and Slush Puppies located close to the children’s area. Many children walked around happy with what they obtained from our vendors.
“The bar area was the size of a small marquee. I find it difficult to imagine you can lose someone for an hour in what most certainly was not ‘a sea of beer drinkers’. Cold drink outlets were spaced evenly around the vendor/market area and they sold to anyone looking for some refreshment,” said Mr Young.
He added that the security and paramedic team had received no reports of anyone being pushed around.
“The Huddle Park club house bars were also open at the time and were freely accessible by all who attended the beer festival. I also have no reports of anyone waiting an hour and a half at the bar. I stood there and ensured we gave everyone the attention they deserved,” he said.
Mr Young said bottled beer ran out, however there were still eight different varieties of craft beer available for patrons.
“Within 45 minutes of the bottled beer running out, our beer stocks were replenished and we were able to continue with local beer sales. People were offered free non-alcoholic beer for the inconvenience when they reached the front of the line. I handed some of this out myself. Also, during this time, we made sure people had alternative drinks options, which were numerous,” he said.
Mr Young said Ms Cromarty’s statements about the number of toilets available to people were incorrect.
“Patrons were encouraged to use the toilets in the Huddle Park club house and the number of toilets in place on the day were far within the standard as required by Johannesburg city bylaws. All of our events conform to the rigours of the Johannesburg city council’s Joint Operational Committee standards. Young Money Applications has a medical team dedicated to ensuring we conform to these at all of our events,” he said.
Speaking about the comments that were deleted and Ms Cromarty being blocked from the beer fest Facebook page, Mr Young said, “We moderated the comments as they contained swearing and derogatory terms. Our page is open to people of all ages and we did not want to expose our younger patrons to Ms Cromarty’s outbursts of swearing and derogatory comments. She took the time to comment on many of the posts in a derogatory way. We escalated it to Facebook moderators who made the call to have her commentary removed. The comments were irrelevant to the topic and constituted spam. We take our social media seriously and see it as an extension of the events we host.” @JoziReporter
