Claudette Carr writes :
Every year we take our kids to Halloween hosted at The Brightwater Commons. Being young, we normally go early in the afternoon so
that they can enjoy some running around on the grass and then from 3pm the trick or treating starts where we would walk around to the various decorated
stores before the evening festivities start for the older kids and adults.
This year was a different story. When we arrived just after 3pm, we were expected to pay a R50 entrance fee for the adults.
All advertising stated that from 3pm entrance would not be charged. We had a chat to the TicketPro staff at the entrance and after speaking to management, we were let through without having to pay, but that did not last very long as not long after us they were charging people an entrance fee again. We walked around and noticed that there were not many stores with decorations up and once 3pm came we took our 2-year-old and 7-year-old for their normal trick or treating to the stores.
To our children’s disappointment, they were turned away from 90 per cent of the stores and sometimes very rudely as Centre Management did not
provide any sweets to the tenants and they did not see why they should provide the sweets themselves. Something that my kids look forward to every year ended up being a disaster and we had very sad despondent children who went to the effort of dressing up and have been looking forward to Halloween since last year’s event.
Why advertise trick or treating if there is no real trick or treating? Some people have small children who have set bed times and routines
hence the reason the early trick or treating works better for the little ones before it gets too busy, scary and late for them. The new owners have said in a
few articles that I have read that they want to make The Brightwater Commons a more friendly family environment but if this is the way that they are trying to get more people to visit the centre they have done a very poor job of it. They have lost more long-term clientele than anything else. If you check their facebook page there are lots of people that have the same complaint.
Something that has been an annual family event for us will now be taken somewhere else where our children will be welcome and catered for.
We are very disappointed and sad that something that has been around since we were kids can be destroyed in a single day.
Brightwater Commons responds:
Dear Claudette,
Thank you for your feedback on the Halloween event. Brightwater management will be strategically repositioning all events to
showcase top quality entertainment and provide a wholesome offering within a safer environment for all visitors. In order to achieve this, all events will
be charged for as to cover costs. The future strategy involves using an online ticketing partner in order to encourage pre-purchase and eliminate traffic and
queues during each event. As with every change comes teething problems and learning, mistakenly starting to charge earlier than advertised was an error on our part which was rectified within 15 minutes.
The objectives as a whole were certainly met with regard to a far greater entertainment offering than before however it is true that some tenants decided not to participate in the trick or treating which was disappointing, as they were all given notice of the event and the requirement to decorate stores and provide sweets for trick or treating. We apologise about this disappointment and assure our visitors that it will be addressed with each individual tenant as the centre is reviewing our tenant offering to ensure we have an improved tenant mix providing the wholesome experience our visitors expect as well as guaranteeing better tenant participation in the future.
Our visitors can be certain that Brightwater management are working around the clock to bring a Bright Future to Bright
Water. Watch this space!
