Famfestlive Anmeldelser 

AVOID - This year's event has been cancelled. I was offered entry into another event on a different weekend and at a venue 30+ miles away. Trying to get a refund is near impossible. No contact details except an email address. If I don't get a refund soon I will consider this fraud, and will treat it as such. Considering legal action.

Avoid!!! We want to the one in Lincolnshire at Belvoir Castle- the “super early bird tickets” turned out to be more expensive than what you paid for it on the day which you could do on the gate- an absolutely con. It was completely falsely advertised- half the things weren’t there that they said would be. Basically paid to get into an overpriced fair… which you then have to pay for the rides on top of. There were cables running right across the field making it unsafe for children. Queued for an hour to get in to just the car park. Absolute shambles. Don’t bother booking!

Agree with most other reviewers
- toilets as cesspits
- no food and drink allowed in and massively inflated prices (£6 for an ice cream)
- fairground exorbitant £20 for a family of 4 for a 3 minute ferris ride
- blocking everyone with negative reviews on social media
- shows on the big stage rubbish and v limited other entertainment.
They are absolutely fleecing attendees.

Awful!
Won’t let you bring food or drink but there is one single tap for drinking water for the entire place, so people were queuing 30 mins + for water. At a “family friendly event”?! No shade provided, only one small area which accommodated around 40 people. The singers were abysmal and most of the advertised entertainment wasn’t there. You had to pay high prices for every single ride. It was just an overpriced fairground experience.

We went to fam fest yesterday at Belvoir castle. My expectations were very low as I had read the reviews before going. We didn’t get there until 3 as I had read you couldn’t take food or drink in so fed all three kids before going in, however the rest of our group got there at 1 and had no issues taking in a picnic. For a family of 5 in cost us £11 to get in as we had a discount code. Yes rides was expensive but no more expensive than if you were to take your kids to a local funfair. The entainment wasn’t the best but I don’t know what you expect for such cheap price tickets, it still entertained us and the foam party was great. The family rave was just someone playing Lenny Pearce songs and trying to pass them off as their own but Lenny Pearce is a big hit in our household any way so we loved it. I didn’t buy food as we were only there three hours and we didn’t get done everything we wanted to. Drinks were expensive as they always are at a festival so was to be expected. The bike show wasn’t the best but entertained the kids. We are from a low budget house hold with three small children and met up with another 3 families there with all small children and everyone had nothing but positive things to say. Honestly I wish we had done all three days that was on the kids had a great time. I don’t understand what people expect when the entrance fee was so small I would love to know where people take the their kids on a day out where the entrance fee is £11 and want everything for free while they are there. If it’s on next year we will definitely be going again and be doing the other two what they put on the days prior.

I genuinely don't know where to start. We attended the Lincolnshire event today and it was one of the most disappointing family events I've ever been to.

To be fair, parking and getting into the event were well organised. We didn't have any issues there.

What really annoyed me started before we even arrived. I bought early bird tickets, which you'd naturally expect to be the cheapest. I paid £23 for two adults and one child, only to see the same tickets later being sold for around £11, with tickets for other events advertised for as little as £3. That's not illegal, but it feels like a slap in the face to those who booked early and supported the event.

Even worse, my tickets clearly stated the event finished at 8:00pm, but it actually finished at 6:00pm. We were sold an event that was advertised as lasting two hours longer than it did.

The website promised:

Live music and sing-alongs
Interactive workshops and discovery sessions
Family-friendly entertainment throughout the day
Calm spaces alongside high-energy activities
Character appearances and themed entertainment
Yoga and mindful movement sessions
Creative play and gentle workshops
Educational shows
Inflatable play and soft play
Funfair rides (charges apply)

In reality, there was one loud main stage, a BMX display, two people on stilts, a small circus area with a handful of toys, food stalls and expensive fairground rides. That was about it.

The "circus area" consisted of a few hula hoops, balance cups and spinning ribbons that occupied children for maybe half an hour. The member of staff there was also incredibly rude. My two-year-old daughter was happily playing with one of the ribbon toys after it had come loose from the stick. Instead of simply fixing it, he took it off her completely and walked away. There was no explanation or attempt to swap it. Who does that to a happy two-year-old?

Most of what was advertised simply wasn't there. No yoga. No workshops. No character appearances. No Bumblebee. No creative play. No educational shows. The fire engine ride wasn't included either—you had to pay extra.

The whole event felt like a glorified travelling funfair with expensive food and rides rather than the family festival that had been advertised.

To make matters worse, there was what I consider to be a serious health and safety issue. There were electrical cables running across the ground in public areas with no proper cable covers, creating obvious trip hazards for children and adults. I've reported this because it's simply not acceptable at an event like this.

We stayed for around two hours before leaving because there was very little to do unless you kept paying extra. I wasn't prepared to spend more money after feeling like we'd already been misled.

I've also noticed the organisers appear to be deleting negative comments and blocking people who criticise the event, which doesn't inspire confidence.

I rarely leave negative reviews, but families work hard for their money. This event did not deliver what was advertised and, in my opinion, was seriously misleading. I would encourage anyone who had the same experience to request a refund and, if necessary, speak to their bank if the organiser refuses.

I certainly won't be attending another FamFest event.

Where do I even start.

I suggest you read the other reviews as well as mine. We are all saying the same thing.

This company is a scam! Pure and simple.

As a low income family I had to save over several months to be able to afford to go to this ‘festival’ at Belvoir Castle. I paid £23 (super early bird ticket) that covered 2 adults and 2 children although there was only 1 child, plus a little spending money and petrol to get there. It was about an hours drive.

To keep costs down we brought a homemade packed lunch and drinks for all of us.

The weather was pretty hot the day we went.

I found it strange that it didn’t open until 12.

When we arrived in the area we parked up at the Belvoir Castle car park. We paid for parking and went to the desk. Showed our tickets only to be told that the Fam fest event wasn’t even at the castle. It was in the grounds a way away. Too far to walk. Signage was non-existent. I asked if I could get a refund for parking because we were there all of 3 minutes. They said they don’t deal with that.

So my husband packed up my mobility scooter, loaded it into the car and as we were trying to get out of the car park we found atleast 20 other families doing the same as we just did. My husband was telling all the families that were driving in to the car park, not to make the same mistake we just did.

We then drove out and joined a queue to the FamFest which was very long and barely moving. It was a total nightmare.

When we did eventually reach the car park we were ushered to the disable parking area by a very polite and helpful man.

We then joined the second queue on foot which was huge! We got to the front to find that our bags were being checked. No issues there but we were told no food and drinks allowed!!!

Once we passed that and finally got in after 1.5 hours of queues we headed to the first ride. You have to not only pay for entry but also for EVERY SINGLE RIDE/GAME TOO. It would have been perfectly reasonable to pay the £23 to enter and then pay £2, £3 or even £4 a ride but no. The first thing we did was the duck catching game. £6 just for that! Then another £10 on a roller coaster and then a further £8 on a haunted house type ride. Extortionate!! That was all we could stretch to. 3 rides.

On the website it states that many things will be going on. That is a lie. Half of it wasn’t even there!! So you ended up not getting what you paid for.

There was barely any shade. The toilets were filthy. There were health and safety issues everywhere. After an hour we just left. It was total shambles.

Leaving the car park was a nightmare too. No signage!

But we thought oh well, at least we can go around the castle.

We drove back to the castle car park only to be told the ticket didn’t include castle entry!! I’ve never been to an event (FamFest at Belvoir Castle) on the advertised grounds (Belvoir Castle) and not be covered for the building (Belvoir Castle) that the event is renting from. Oh no. You’ve got to buy that too!!!

We left. My son was upset. Us adults were furious!

I wish I had checked Trustpilot first. Even social media have been having negative comments removed by the event.

I’m gutted that I saved money for this. They are scamming people like me that can’t afford much.

STAY WELL AWAY!!!!!!!

If I could give this zero stars I would. This has got to be the most shittest event I've ever been to. Definitely not as advertised.. Proper rip off. So badly organised.. Laid out. £15 for a 44 second ride in a fire engine.. £5 per ride. If uve booked a slot and paid for bouncy castle and miss it due to queuing.. Tough shite.. The entertainment was awful, My dead cat could sing better.. My toddler asked to go home! Never again

I dont even know where to start. It was that bad.
Firstly we didnt have any parking issues, or Entry issues. We attended the Lincolnshire event today.
Fairly fast to get in.
I bought early bird tickets. Definition of early bird means your generally getting cheaper tickets. I paid £23 for 2 adults, 1 child. Yet their website now is selling tickets for us 3 at £11. Massive difference. Not illegal but definitely morally wrong. Even saw they was selling tickets at £3 each for other sight events. Guessing to get the numbers. But what is wrong is on my tickets the end time was 8pm yet they changed it to 6pm. So we was sold 2 extra hours which we didnt get!
Pretty unfair and miss selling.
On arrival they said and i quote from their own sight :
Live music and sing-along moments
Interactive workshops and discovery sessions
Family-friendly entertainment throughout the day
Calm spaces alongside high-energy fun

Character sing-alongs and themed music moments
Dance, movement and interactive shows
Family-friendly performances suitable for all ages
Scheduled breaks to avoid kids burn out

Kids yoga and mindful movement sessions
Pop-culture sing-along moments
Character-led music and dance activities
Creative play and gentle workshops

Inflatable play (charges apply) and soft-play zones
Interactive discovery sessions
Educational shows designed for young minds
Funfair Thrill Rides (charges apply)

But in reality there was one small loud main stage, a bmx show, 2 people in stilts and a circus area which had toys for about 30 mins, this included 6 huluhoops, stilt cups and swirly sticks hardly anything there. The guy who run this was SO rude. My little girl was playing with one of those material spin sticks and it was off the stick and he took it from her, i thought he was fixing it but nope completely took it off her. Who does that to a 2 year old. She was happy.
This event had no yoga, no workshops, no characters, no bumblebee, the fire engine ride you had to pay for, extortionate prices, no creative play, no educational shows, you get the gist. Everything they said was there pretty much wasnt. Only things was food stalls and over priced rides. It was a glorified fun fair. Absolute con artists. Should be ashamed of yourselves taking money from hard working people and not doing anywhere near what you promised and advertised.
This company deletes all negative comments, blocks those who have a voice including me to make them look good.
There was also a massive health and safety breach today they had loose wires running randomly uncovered in the field. Very dangerous, all wires should be covered legally at a festival. Its a trip hazard. So they have been reported.
Just awful at every turn. I stayed 2 hours and thats all we could take with nothing there to do. I refused to pay more to anyone there when I feel I was conned at the £23 they got from us. Nothing was included. Except main stage.
Avoid avoid avoid.

Please do contact the company to ask for refunds and then go to your bank! Everything offered and advetised literally wasn't there!! False advertising and severely miss sold!!

Not remotely as advertised. We were charged for what was essentially a traveller fair. On entrance, 3 shops full of fake needohs, bucket hats and overpriced camping chairs.
£3 bottles of water, and then a bunch of fair rides and bouncy castles. Event ran 2 and a half hours shorter than tickets said. Wires trailing across the ground without the legally required safety strips. No big top circus. No family yoga. Just rubbish fair ground rides and food trucks with inflated prices due to the captive audience, and a teeny tiny stage at the very furthest end of the field that was drowned out by the sound of the single monster truck. I want my money back

Great fun day at Lincolnshire famfest. Staff were great and friendly, busy lines however staff did what they could to speed things up checking tickets up the lines so no time wasteing, id recommend getting there early like we did. Entertainment was fun for adults and children. Great food and rides, expensive but expected at theses types of events.

The place was hard to find as postcode took you to a different place signs/directions would be helpful for future events

Lovely family day out.

Horrendous “festival”. Queues to get into site by car for over 1 hour 20 minutes. Huge queues to get into the festival. No food allowed in even for people with babies. The toilets were disgusting. The inflatables were pre booked which was not explained on the website. There was very little to do for our 4 years old. We were stung for a few over priced rides as there was nothing else today. There was a fire engine ride that was causing dust to spread across the site blaring out the siren. No staff on site. The worst part was one of the singers was dressed completely inappropriately at a festival with young children present. She was wearing a see through negligee and suspenders and a corset underneath! Dancing sexily on stage! Outrageous and disgusting!

The most awful organisation event I've ever been too. Where to start
Paid 10£ per person to get in for early bird tickets but the week before they did it for 5£ per person.
The getting there was awful was stuck in traffic on the roundabout for an hour. Because how poorly it was managed, than the que to get into the place was over an hour, there was 3 people on checking bags we missed bluey and bingo. They were more interested in checking for pack lunches than they were for checking for anything like drugs or any thing dangerous. Toilets were disgusting they weren't clean from the previous event and the ques were bad for it. Everything was expensive and no free water. Saw evidence of drugs in the toilets. The inflatables were over booked so people who pre-booked couldn't have their slot as it was to many people. And even than it was like 15£ .
The rides were over price and the food was 15£ for some rubbish fish and chips.
There wasn't things that were promised. It was shambles.

Shambolic event

Couldn’t even get in due to the ques and having small children with us, no food/drinks etc allowed and expected to stand in the hot sun with no toilets, no shade and no communication. A very poorly organised event and absolutely zero response when asked for a refund. The event organisers should be ashamed of themselves. Especially handling the backlash by “apologising” taking zero responsibility and pretending the event was going well on social media, and then deleting everyone’s comments. It shouldn’t be allowed!

The health and safety sounds like it was non existent. The activities not as advertised and everything overpriced.

Hard avoid. Do not fall for this absolute scam.

If you’re thinking of booking a FamFest event, I’d strongly recommend reading reviews first, if you can find them. We noticed negative comments seemed to disappear from their social media, which made it difficult to see other people’s experiences.

Our experience was terrible. The event was extremely disorganised. We spent hours in traffic followed by over an hour queueing to get in. It became so chaotic that staff eventually stopped checking tickets and bags just to clear the queue.

The event didn’t match what had been advertised. We couldn’t find the dinosaurs, reptiles, Transformers, kids’ yoga, creative play, gentle workshops or educational shows that were promoted. There was also no calm area, despite this being advertised. Instead, it was one loud field with blaring music, inflatables, food stalls and a fire engine repeatedly driving around with its siren on.

The tribute acts didn’t feel suitable for young children, the BMX show was tucked away with very limited viewing, and the food and drinks were extremely expensive. There were no vegetarian options that we could find, and what we ate was poor quality.

For us, it was an expensive and incredibly disappointing family day out, and we certainly won’t be booking another FamFest event.

The FAMFEST LIVE West Sussex on Sunday 26th July 2026 at Fontwell Park Racecourse was a DISORGANISED, TERRIBLE SHAMBLES of an event.

We travelled in 2 cars. Approximately 2 miles from the Fontwell roundabout we joined the queue on the A27, it took just over 1¾ hours to get to the Fontwell roundabout. The roundabout itself was gridlocked and every now and again a car would get through.

One of the adults took 4 grandchildren (10, 9, 5 and 4 years old) and walked to the event. The queue to get into the event stretched through the carpark, no shade, no toilets and took over 60 minutes to get through security, which was totally inadequate for this event.

Once inside the event they went straight to the Inflatable Theme Park area as we paid extra for that and found the inflatables were deflated. They decided to go and get ice creams and had to queue for 20 minutes. The ice creams were extremely expensive. Toilets were disgusting. Eventually the inflatables did get inflated, but the queues were horrendous and the children were fed up with queueing and just wanted to leave the event.

Our plan was to get to the car park and then join the rest of the family inside the event. However, as the queue to get inside the event was so long, we were not prepared to join the queue and wait for over an hour with a child and dogs, so we did not go into the carpark.

This review is for the organisers, not staff who were wildly small in number and clearly overstretched.
The traffic queue was very long and ill conceived, followed by a 1 hr long queue just to get into the venue. It was a boiling day with no cloud cover; people waiting ranged from babies to pensioners.
There was no shade inside the venue, the inflatables were overbooked and definitely not adequately staffed to ensure the safety of children; a lovely 14 year old girl was often left doing her best to fend off understandably frustrated parents and disappointed children who’d missed their time slots queueing to get in, or because their session was overbooked.
As ever, fairground rides were extortionate (£5-7.5 per child), and food was unhealthy and expensive.
Tributes acts were fun, tuneful, and professional; arguably, they were the most redeeming feature.
On such a hot day with large generators going, I could only see 1 clearly marked entrance/exit wide enough for 4 to 6 people to get through which strikes me as being dangerous.
Rubbish reviews kept popping up on social media and were promptly being deleted. In fact, my friend has been blocked by organisers on all of social media platforms because she questioned their health and safety regs, among other things.
Either FamFest was the product of inexperience or just plain negligence. Any which way, don’t bother.

Absolutely awful experience, gates should've opened at 12pm, but nobody made it in before 12:20pm. The toilets were a state, most were blocked off for cleaning (which should've been done before the event) and there were long queues for the few toilets that were open. My daughter cried because she didn't want to use the toilet when we eventually got to one, because it was full of vomit and faeces. It cost £30 for two children to play on the bouncy castles for up to an hour, which also started deflating later on in the day! We left after only an hour at the event because it was awful and becoming overcrowded. As we left, the queue to get in went all through the car park and some people were waiting 2 hours + to get through the gates. The surrounding roads were pretty much gridlocked due to poor event management. There is no way this event was run safely and definitely didn't meet health and safety standards. Lots of other people feel the same, as seen in comments on the Famfest facebook page, which keep being deleted by the pages admin. Would hate for more families to go through the disappointment that so many of us experienced yesterday!

Awful experience. Booked tickets for Fontwell Park, a 20 minute drive took us over an hour, the event made a post on Facebook blaming this traffic on an accident, there were no accidents, just their poor planning!

Once we managed to get to the venue, we queued for over an hour outside to then be told we probably still had another hour of queueing before we made it inside.

By this point myself and my young children were hot, bothered and fed up, they were hungry and we were told we couldn’t bring our own food so we had nothing to eat, thirsty and we were told we had to take in sealed water bottles so we didn’t want to open them in case we couldn’t then take them in.

Once we saw people leaving and telling us they’d made it inside and it was disgraceful, we decided to leave ourselves and go and get our children some food. Apparently the queues inside were no better, most of the entertainment that was meant to be on wasn’t and the toilets were beyond filthy.

They have also blocked me on Facebook after I commented on their posts explaining all of this, and they’ve been deleting negative comments and whole posts!!!!!! Would give 0 stars if possible!

Avoid at all costs!!!!!!!

DO NOT GO!!!!!! by far the worst experience of an event I have ever come across. It took us over an hour to get into the car park (one of the lucky ones that got in before they got told the car park was full.)

Once parked up we was near the back of the field (car park) and we got told that people way ahead of us in the queue had been there for over an hour trying to get in and was still nowhere near the front. Two people on the entrance checking bags which was the first of many problems outside the event.

The event states not to bring outside food or drinks as there is plenty inside. They expected adults, elderly, children and dogs to queue up for over 2hrs to get in without food, water or even toilets!

People and children were running to the closest bush to go to the loo and some poor kid wet themselves.

No point of contact on the site. No explanation of what was happening. No member of staff from the event even out the front checking the welfare of the attendees. For a ticketed event this was utter carnage.

Car park attendants wasn’t even watching what was going on. All they were worried about was being on their phone. And with people fed up with the wait which clogged up the whole local area people were rushing to get parked up.

If you look on social media the toilets were not cleaned from the Friday event! We attended Sunday. Pure and utter filth.

Everyone was complaining and writing on FAMFEST LIVE social media accounts they have now removed all posts so you cannot see the negative comments and other peoples experiences.

After moving 6 metres in the space of 45mins I told my partner to get the kids back in the car and we’re go and actually enjoy a day down the local beach and have some fun and so the kids can cool down and have fun. Not wait for 2.5hrs to get into what could only be described as fairground from wish.

Ive never had an experience like that. I feel sorry for the local residents not being able to leave or get to their house and I feel sorry for all the families that had to endure that experience! I’m glad we left. DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME! DO NOT GIVE YOUR MONEY TO THIS COMPANY!

THIS ORGANISATION IS A PURE SCAM AND A JOKE!

NO HEALTH AND SAFETY
NO DUTY OF CARE
NO ORGANISATION
PURE CHAOS.

they blamed the traffic for a traffic collision. There wasn’t one all day.

The people that “run” this company, well I’d be surprised if they could run a bath.

I’m glad we didn’t stay and wait from what I’ve been told and shown by a friend that got in you have to pay for all the rides. Inflatables are over booked so if you miss your time slot thats all your money gone. 4 coffees for £25 and last if not least false advertising from this company. Half of the acts or activities wasn’t even there.

PURE AND UTTER SCAM! Save your money and put it forward to something better for your children.