St Augustine's Centre, St Augustines Church Brighton reviews by real event-goers

Review of The Vampire Ball - Brighton 1st November

WOW! Absolutely 5 star stunning event! So much effort and love clearly went into the Vampire Ball. The performers were fabulous, the c**ktails and punch were om nom tasty, the costumes and set pieces - ahhhh the lights and the decor! Absolutely banging evening! The music was as on point as the organisers eyebrow game was! This was THE go-to vampire event of the year and it didn't disappoint. When can I buy my tick*ts to the next one!!!! LOVED IT!

Review of The Vampire Ball - Brighton 1st November

Review of The Vampire Ball - Brighton 1st November

This event was so incredible. I'd been wanting to go to a cosplay event for a while and Glowwing Productions did not disappoint! The venue and decorations were incredible, the staff were lovely, and the entertainment was phenomenal. Particularly loved the string quartet and fire dancer!

My only note was that the DJ was playing pretty obscure / niche tracks so was a bit hard to dance - other than that this was the perfect night!

Review of The Vampire Ball - Brighton 1st November

Event was missold in my opinion. Huge queues for bar, only 2 toilet cubicles for ladies, no music for dancing and no room to do so, no sign of tarot readers, unable to see the entertainment that was going on and no announcement to let us know it was going to happen so missed most of it. Only good thing about it was the attendees costumes. Organiser has removed all event pages and refuses to give refunds to her missold event. Any pages with bad reviews are disappearing from social media. Organiser taking no accountability for her misgivings.

Review of The Vampire Ball - Brighton 1st November

Had potential to be an amazing event - tick*ts were oversold for size of venue, not enough bar & toilet facilities. Badly designed - nearly floor level stage, in a small room - hard to see anything, danger of being pushed out of the room down some steps.

The organiser & Facebook event are not accessible - if they understand & acknowledge issues customers may return, if not they won't.

Review of The Vampire Ball - Brighton 1st November

Review of The Vampire Ball - Brighton 1st November

Review of The Vampire Ball - Brighton 1st November

Review of The Vampire Ball - Brighton 1st November

Review of The Vampire Ball - Brighton 1st November

Review of The Vampire Ball - Brighton 1st November

The vampire ball was such a great night in an amazing venue, highly recommend!

Review of The Vampire Ball - Brighton 1st November

I'm hopeful that if this event happens again next year, it will be improved significantly - then I'd love it. I can see what was attempted but unfortunately it wasn't carried out well.

There were too many people for the size of venue, no matter how great it looked. There was no space to dance or anything, especially due to the everpresent large queue to the bar.
The "show room" is way too small, perhaps this should've been placed elsewhere - it was either almost impossible to get in when som**hing happened, or you wouldn't know WHEN som**hing would happen (a time plan would've been great or some sort of annoucement).
It was advertised that the shows would be streamed to the main area so you don't miss it - which didn't happen :/
The string quartet could only really be heard in the show room, it would've been great if the music had been carried through the venue via speakers as well.
I was lucky to be outside just when the fire show was about to start, that was surely my highlight of the evening. (Once again, this wasn't announced anywhere.) Some music would've been great though.

And speaking of music... when any music did start to play, it seemed immensely unfitting, and also not dance-able at all. Just...beats? Even if I liked mainstream music, this kind of "music" wouldn't be fitting to dance to and not to the theme whatsoever. I would've expected to either have classical music throughout most of the evening, or som**hing.. halloween-y at least, if not dark scene music.
(As expected there were lots of dark scene people on-site, so I'm really wondering how the organizer thought this music would be great.)

I can only imagine that this event was really enjoyable for people who were drunk enough, and/or with lots of friends, and/or coincidentally saw most of the performances, and/or didn't have any sort of expectations.

Regarding attendees & costumes, most people put in an effort, but there were also some highly questionable looks, which were still allowed despite the dresscode. Over the top halloween looks with wounds, as well as barely wearing anything at all, doesn't seem very fitting.

Since the event has been removed on Facebook, I don't even know where to look for the photos of this event. There were photographers present after all, so the pictures must go somewhere...?

Review of The Vampire Ball - Brighton 1st November

Review of The Vampire Ball - Brighton 1st November

Where to start?! Seeing the event and buying a tick*t was a 'no questions asked' deal. Vampire ball, at Halloween- yes! The excitement of preparing an outfit and deciding on make-up effects was unreal BUT all the anticipation, with imagining the setup, the music, the heady, gothic scenes was just that imagination.
We walked in as one of the first to enter the event, buying the signature c**ktails and looking around at the decoration. The venue was not suitable, especially the way it was organised- the 'entertainment' was in the back in an atrium that was way to small for the 'sell out' event to watch the acts- they were not elevated so only those within close proximity could see what was going on. The decoration was minimal, a few curtain loops and lights. And don't even ask about the music, I mean what was that about? I don't even know what style it was but it really didn't fit with the theme of the night, being a vampire ball I was expecting a 'Spellbound' music style- 80's, synth, dark wave etc... Not only that but unless you were near the sound you couldn't hear it. There was a hell of a lot of queuing, being only 1 bar or one main bar. Then the walk around entertainers- where were they?!
What I can't deny is the incredible effort made by the guests, the costumes and personas were amazing. The ball however was an utter disappointment and the atmosphere had zero electricity. Such a shame as the concept was amazing, the delivery was poor.

Review of The Vampire Ball - Brighton 1st November

A disappointment unfortunately. What entertainment there was took place in an area of the that was physically separated from the rest and could only accommodate about 20% of attendees. The rest of the venue lacked any atmosphere with people just milling around. decorating was poor; a few drapes and some video screens didn't really cut it. Queues for drinks 45 mins. No announcements or indication of what was going on and where

We left and returned. The general consensus am**g our group and others we spoke with was the same - poor. The most disappointing aspect was that the page was removed by the organisers completely not allowing for any feedback at all. This didn't give any confidence that, should there be another, they'd learn from this year. All the issues highlighted on the evening could have been anticipated. Shame really, could have been pretty good.

Review of The Vampire Ball - Brighton 1st November

The highlight of the event was absolutely the magic that the other guests brought to it - everyone had arrived expecting magic and dressing for the part, and the friendly atmosphere and effort brought by the other guests was spectacular. However while the venue was absolutely stunning, the refurbed church and lovely gardens adding a sense of grandeur, the use of the space fell very short and it seemed like the logistics of fitting several hundred people had not been thought through. The advertised performances all took place in the bottle-necked, smaller end of the church which meant that only those able to brave the crush could pack in to have any hope of enjoying the sounds and sights. The performers were incredible, and what little we got to see of them was cinematic! But as the performance space was the same height as everyone else attending, there was no way of seeing what was going on if you happened to be short or at the back of everyone. I found myself worrying at several points from a health and safety perspective what would happen if we all had to suddenly evacuate or make room in such a cramped space. The refreshments were also a disappointment - the few people who were staffing the three bars were doing their very best with unfortunate conditions, and they can't be faulted here, but the queues were so long that they filled up the entire space. I was told by other guests when I arrived that a 20-40min wait for drinks was to be expected. When the queues eventually died down, I realised why people were not returning for repeat drinks - the spooky themed c**ktails which had been advertised were nothing more than readymade punch out of two barrels. While they were nice, for 10 pound a pop this was certainly not the experience that had been sold to us. The visuals of the night were nice, with vampiric clips from various movies projected onto the walls of the church, and several fun props scattered around the room for photo opportunities. The music was quite bizarre, as when I first entered there was no music playing at all, and only the hubbub of the guests could be heard. It turned out that you could only really hear the music that was playing when you were closer to the cramped event space of the far end of the church (near the toilets), which meant people did not really take advantage of the larger spaces to dance. The music itself varied - when I arrived there were performers playing string instruments in the performance space, which was understandably way too quiet to reach the rest of the church. In-between performances a mix of electroswing was played, which I understand some of the guests were baffled by as it didn't feel very on theme. In electroswing's defence, it has roots in especially millennial goths crossing over with steam punk, so I get it. I did not stay past midnight to hear the other music. In terms of the "roving experiences" of tarot readers, I had no clue where to even find them and did not notice them the entire time I was there. Overall, what could have been a really magical experience felt more like a school disco had been invaded by fabulous beasts of the night. I spent around £40 on a tick*t that absolutely was not worth the money, and left early when the event felt like it had been spent. While the event has absolutely highlighted that there is a niche the Brighton vamps are more than able to fill, unless feedback is taken seriously in planning for another event like this I would not recommend it to a friend.

Review of The Vampire Ball - Brighton 1st November

Very disappointed event was lacklustre. Music was incorrect for the audience and in an area not many could view. Que for bar and toilets was all you could see and blocked everything. Entertainment could only be viewed by a few, I was bored after an hour. Never been to such a lacklustre unorganised event, alot of people dissatisfied!

Review of The Vampire Ball - Brighton 1st November

Review of The Vampire Ball - Brighton 1st November

It was a good first time out for this event. The venue was lovely, the entertainment was great, people friendly and there was definitely a vibe about the place.

The downside was that it was very popular; the venue was packed, and there were long queues for the small bar.

Review of The Vampire Ball - Brighton 1st November

St Augustine's was a fabulous venue and the guests rose to the challenge determined to be part of the immersive vampire theme promoted.

Conversely we spent a lot of time queuing at the small bars which were not set up for the 500 strong guests and whilst queuing, there was no music or entertainment to distract and the space had little seating for relaxation.

The entertainment in the crowded alter room was niche and more Pat Pong than Gothic. The dance music was electro swing and standard club rather than Gothic rock, dark wave or similar which would have been a more appropriate for the assembled vampires. An expensive and sadly disappointing evening.