The Oval (Hastings) Hastings reviews by real event-goers

Review of Boogie By The Sea

Review of Boogie By The Sea

Cannot fault the line up. HOWEVER, queuing to get into the venue after gates were open over an hour beforehand, was over 40 mins. One entrance and one sniffer dog at a time which slowed everything down whilst one person at a time was sniffed. Should have had more checks open not one. Bad organisation there. Also it was clearly a large capacity crowd but only a handful of food trucks. Not enough as queues were horrendous. Bad organisation again. Will give it a miss next year.

Review of Boogie By The Sea

Fabulous event, bands sounded really good, well organised, and we were very lucky with the weather!!

Review of Boogie By The Sea

Some of the acts weren't the best (Sister Sledge were amazing) but very professionally run and good evening.

Review of Boogie By The Sea

Brilliant day out with friends with a good atmosphere all round.
Food and drink always overpriced but to be expected at these venues. Best make sure you visit a pub before if you are a bit skint.
Bony M were disappointing as were late on stage only done 3 songs.
D.J was good.
Billy Ocean was his smooth groove self and the crowd went wild to Boogie by the Sea.
Overall cheers for a fab day out.
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Review of Boogie By The Sea

Review of Boogie By The Sea

Good event but the operational side of it was poor. Far too much queuing. No indication or signs for VIP fast track and the stewards didn't seem to know. I hear standard entry took over an hour to get in. Not enough food stalls either. Took 1-2 hours to queue for food meaning you missed an act.

Review of Boogie By The Sea

I'm so sorry to say it was a disappointment. The VIP area was shocking and I've asked for a refund. Never in my life (I'm in my 50's) have I ever asked for refund from a music event. I've emailed the organisers and explained what could be done better. Far too expensive for what we got and no explanation why it was running late and why the first act was cut short. I'd travelled a distance to meet a friend here for a special occasion, she's also a diabetic and there was no food in the VIP area or anywhere to sit. The list for improvement is vast.

Review of Boogie By The Sea

We had VIP and it was worth it, although could have done with toilets on both sides of the stage. Also definitely a couple of food trucks in the VIP too...missed Sister Sledge as queuing for an hour for food in the main area.

Review of Boogie By The Sea

Unfortunately as a disabled visitor this wasn't the best of experiences. Firstly the route to the entrance was a long way round, particularly if being pushed in a manual wheelchair. Fortunately I was in my mobility scooter, but felt every single bump along the way. There was nobody near the entrance to seek advice from, so I had to navigate the rat run barriers with my scooter. Some of the turns were too narrow to manoeuvre first time, so I had to reverse back and forth in order to turn, holding up an eager queue. Once through security there was another trek to reach the viewing platform. The access ramp was placed in front of a drop, which was not very well designed, and the pain that I felt through my whole body as my scooter dropped off the raised covered surface to access the ramp was excruciating and reduced me to tears and knocked the back wheels out of their housing on my scooter which stopped the scooter from working. Thankfully my husband was able to knock the wheels back into place and the scooter started again. The access platform was far too small for the amount of people using it, and did become a game of tetris at times, especially when more wheelchair users came to the platform or if people needed to leave the platform during the show. This wasn't helped by people being on the platform when they shouldn't have been, as in VIP Access customers preferring to be on the higher platform (these people were eventually moved after much arguing with security) or the Access All Areas VIP's deciding to come onto the platform for a better view. The wrist band system was a farce too. These should have been handed out on entry as we were asked for them when we got to the viewing platform. They were handed out some significant time later, which was when those in the wrong place were discovered. Boney M were advertised as being on stage at 5pm - they came on around 6pm. Their performance felt rushed and one of the singers even remarked that they had to hurry their performance due to starting late. The evening turned cold, but there only appeared to be one vender selling hot drinks, which was the Dutch Pancake van, which unfortunately was the slowest moving queue of the lot, so twice my husband queued and gave up due to performances starting. A vender selling purely hot drinks would have made a killing.. But it wasn't all bad!! The performers were all excellent and there were plenty of loos, with the disabled toilet placed near the access platform an excellent idea. Would I go again? To be honest, that's hard to answer. I never want to go to an event and end up in pain or tears, so a lot of changes from an organisational and access point of view would need to take place first for me to consider going again.

Review of Boogie By The Sea

Review of Boogie By The Sea

Can't tell you what the actual festival was like because we were not impressed with the prospect of queing for over an hour to get in. It was a shambles- who organises a big event to open at four and then has people queuing outside whilst the first act gets going???? We went somewhere else. It's a good job the weather wasn't too hot, or there would have been a lot of very uncomfortable people facing potential sunstroke.

Review of Boogie By The Sea

Really enjoyed the evening. Only downside was the queues for food and drink. We gave up and didn't buy anything, we weren't the only ones.

Review of Boogie By The Sea

We paid for VIP tickets yet there was no guidance that there was a separate entrance for VIP holders so we stood for an hour in the queue to get in before we were usher to the VIP entrance. The acts were an hour late coming on so Boney M. was only on for 20 minutes instead of an hour, and they were far too many people in the VIP area for comfort

Review of Boogie By The Sea

Really enjoyed the evening however the price for a bottle of wine and can of beer £34.75 was excessive!!

Review of Boogie By The Sea

Poorly organised event. Not enough gates open to allow the number of attendees; very poor food choice, all the same (Jerky, curry) and food lines where horrible (1hr for fries); no food options in the VIP area; VIP drinks ran out of ice and wine and beer was warm. Best act, Bonney M only played 4 songs!

Review of Boogie By The Sea

Two hour queues for food. Awful, warm wine and horrible beer. No where near enough food outlets.
VIP tickets a waste of money. No seats. No food. No water. No hand washing facilities and no view of the stage unless you were rammed directly in front of it.
Hours of queueing to get in.
Very badly organised all round.
Music good if I hadn't missed most of it queuing for something.

Review of Boogie By The Sea

Review of Boogie By The Sea

No que signs for vip until after people start going in . Drinks were a rip off £29 for a disgusting bottle of wine 4 cans of beer red stripe £25 they only cost £5.50 for 4 in shop I work in that's a mark up of £19.50 disgusting. Boney m started at 6 not 5 like stated only played for 20 mins if that . To long gap in between artists and dj not all that . Real shame as this was my first event been to . VIP toilets blocked within a hour and ran out of loo roll not good enough . 1 bar in that area which was ok if the staff wasn't chatting all the time . No food venues in that area at all again shame as had to walk and que for ark east a hour for any food missing what's going on . If you read people's comments on your Facebook page you will see everyone is saying the same stuff . Overall very disappointed

Review of Boogie By The Sea

A brilliant night. So well organised. A great venue with a great atmosphere. Lots of parking within walking distance. No queues for the bars either.