Hastings Pier Hastings reviews by real event-goers

Review of Outdoor Tribute Festival comes to Hastings!

Despite paying for a festival ticket that started at 12 and finished at 10pm, many of us were not allowed in after 5pm. This was not on any ticket or original emails we all received. We were told that the promoters told the security staff to stop everyone. I can only think it was because all food and drink was running out . I have requested my money back and waiting to hear.

Review of Outdoor Tribute Festival comes to Hastings!

No water freely available, sealed bottled water confiscated. Food options were extremely limited and ran out. Draught beer ran out after 3 hours. Security staff heavy handed and unreasonable. Have emailed to complain....

Review of Outdoor Tribute Festival comes to Hastings!

Not impressed! Not the greatest but we left after the second set not because of the performers but the poorly managed event. Late opening - Not enough toilets, vip area behind the stage?! Security were thuggish and intimidating. But the worst thing was the bar. They ran out of draught beer after about two and half hours and then sold warm cans at ridiculous prices!! Daylight robbery!! I will not be going to the pier again.

Review of Outdoor Tribute Festival comes to Hastings!

Security were appalling, no draft beer and £6.50 a can. No re-entry. Acts not as advertised. Dreadful experience.

Review of Outdoor Tribute Festival comes to Hastings!

Event ran from 12 noon to 10pm. By 2.30pm all bars had run out of draft beer and cider. Could not leave the pier otherwise we would not be able to re enter. Any canned beers or cider were £6.50 each! Only a couple of food vendors for a massive crowd and queues a mile long! No anti bac in the portaloos. Anyone you complained to just said they were agency staff and it was nothing to do with them. No managers available to discuss issues or take account of all the problems. Definitely would not go to a Skiddle event again and I heard from many others saying the same.

Review of Outdoor Tribute Festival comes to Hastings!

For the music it was great, however the food options were very poor. The vendors could not cope with the amount of people and ran out of food, long queues and poor service. The alcohol providers ran out of beer on draught within two hours. So this needs to improve but the music was great

Review of Outdoor Tribute Festival comes to Hastings!

Excellent music, very poor choice of food especially for vegetarians and vegans. Bar prices a complete rip off. Should be able to have a water station so as you can refill water bottles but nothing available.
Should have a wrist band system so that you are able to leave the area to get some food as lack of choice and wait if at least 40 minutes . Also food stalls were running out as well as bars

Review of Outdoor Tribute Festival comes to Hastings!

Poorly organised, quality of sound was poor, lack of food stalls with crazy queues.

Review of Outdoor Tribute Festival comes to Hastings!

Disappointing. We were not allowed to bring food into the venue and this would have been fine, had the 'range of street food vendors on site' actually been true. In fact, there was a burger and chips stand, a doughnuts stand, a wraps stand and a jerk food stand. All were extortionate. £12 for substandard burger and chips? Really? Also the 'fully stocked bars' had completely run out of wine when we arrived, even though we were practically first in the queue. The options were beers or spririts. The beers on tap soon ran out, leaving the option of cans. I enquired about the price of spirits and was told a single gin (Gordons) was £9.50. If I could have afforded a drink at this point, I would have spat it out in shock! The food and drink aside, we set up our chairs and enjoyed some great acts (even though they weren't as advertised) until about four hours in, when the bouncers announced that we weren't allowed to sit down anywhere we could actually see the stage - 'behind the hut' were their exact words. At that point, we took a stand for common sense and left. Shocking!

Review of Outdoor Tribute Festival comes to Hastings!

Great atmosphere and terrific security. I booked vip tickets only to find that the seats were behind the stage where you could just hear the music and unable to see anything. And it was upstairs where I can't go because of a disability. Some of the acts have been missing rehearsal time by the sound of them. And some we just couldn't hear properly because of sound issues. We left after the Beatles as they were shocking. However the best two "performers" we saw were Ariana Grande and Elton John who were fabulous. As I said we left earlier as we got fed up and just a wee bit cold. I would love to have seen Abba but not sure when they were coming on as there was no running order posted anywhere. I did like the idea of putting tarpaulin around the pier where the wind was more blustery. Not sure why people weren't allowed to bring a picnic in but maybe an idea for the next set of festival as we heard so many people saying that they couldn't eat anything that was around because of allergies and some kids just need their own snacks which you didn't sell on site. This would certainly stop the constant shoving trying to get through the hoards of people. and the long queues for food and they were placed behind the stage too. Maybe also you could have an area off to the side where people could stand if they want to and dance then the people who are sitting, and some like me that have no option but to sit, can then see the performances. I've never been to a festival as being disabled I am not good with crowds but this festival was small enough and big enough for me to attend so I thank you for that.

Review of Outdoor Tribute Festival comes to Hastings!

Very disappointed with the line up, not the music we were expecting. It stated a 12pm start, gates weren't open til 12.30 and then took a while for the first act. Only three main food outlets open with an hour wait at one of them. The bars ran out of draught drinks very quickly into the day with limited choices left to choose from. The atmosphere was good because people made an effort to enjoy themselves.

Review of Outdoor Tribute Festival comes to Hastings!

3 acts didn't turn up, very expensive drinks which ran out within an hour - vip area closed at 7pm - could have been awesome but rubbish organisation

Review of Outdoor Tribute Festival comes to Hastings!

Paid for VIP tickets, waste of money. The VIP area was behind the stage, couldn't hear very well, let alone see the acts. Very disappointing. I would not recommend this venue or this event. No benefit to being VIP either really. No schedule of events/running order.

Review of Outdoor Tribute Festival comes to Hastings!

Toilets had no paper or sanitiser and the keg beer ran out at 3pm, absolute shambles. Will not be coming again.

Review of Outdoor Tribute Festival comes to Hastings!

Many advertised acts not there on the day. Fleetwood Mac, UB40,Oasis etc.
Drinks grossly overpriced but they always are!
Food outlets pathetic, not enough stock, unable to meet demand. Must have had an idea of what was coming due to known ticket sale numbers!
Poor setup. VIP area behind the stage, unable to see acts on stage. Also at a height which meant we were battered by the strong wind on the day. There was more protection from the elements in the general area.
Security team seemed unnecessarily heavy duty and thuggish in dealing with the minor issues we saw.

Review of Outdoor Tribute Festival comes to Hastings!

VIP section not worth the money as no seats and queues at the toilets! Not being able to come back meant we had to cut it all sorry as had to check on dogs at home. We had wristband so can't see why it would have mattered.
Long gap between each singer

Review of Outdoor Tribute Festival comes to Hastings!

Badly organised event, ran out of drink. Long gaps between awful performers. VIP tickets were and absolute rip off. I am disabled and couldn't go up the stairs and even if I could have would have only seen back of the stage?! All in all waste of money. Wouldn't return even if it was free!!! Huge disappointment travelled from London.

Review of Outdoor Tribute Festival comes to Hastings!

The organisation at Hastings Pier was atrocious. This event was generally attended by older people who had all brought their own chairs. There had been no instructions before the event except to say you couldn't bring food or drink (not even water). People had set their chairs up and enjoyed the first few sets uninterrupted, then the heavy security set to moving all seated to behind the sound desk where there was no view whatsoever as well as no windbreaks on a very windy day - the area they were trying to clear for standing was not crowded, in fact there were large gaps. Common sense should have prevailed.

Together with this the bar ran out of wine and draught beer around half way through the event, no prices were displayed at the bar.

The VIP area was behind the stage - I'm glad I didnt upgrade.

People were unable to re-enter the festival even if you were VIP with a wristband.

No schedule of which acts were going to be on - I had bought tickets as Fleetwood Mac tribute had been advertised but they were not on as well as other advertised acts.

The acts that were on were on the whole good, that's the only redeeming feature of the event. We left early as the food on offer was poor and expensive and also of course there was no wine !

Review of Outdoor Tribute Festival comes to Hastings!

Not the best experience, 2 acts cancelled last minute. And we wasn't even told this!
The security we're rude and treated one of my family members really badly.
There was people smoking w**d in the venue even though there was a bag search and one of the security members chucked my family members chocolate away.
I will never be getting a ticket again the whole thing was unorganised and stressful! And the drinks were over priced.. just a awful experience!

Review of Outdoor Tribute Festival comes to Hastings!

I had great time. I'm on my own and so safely... I really loved it