The Oval Hastings reviews by real event-goers
Reviews of The Oval in Hastings
Average rating:
Showing the latest reviews from all events held at The Oval.
Review of Hastings Reggae Festival 2024
Great atmosphere with good acts, but sadly the sound quality was lacking. Aswad finished early due to this, which was very disappointing. Lots of food available but still no market stalls on site.
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Would you recommended: Yes |
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Review of Hastings Reggae Festival 2024
I didn't even get to go in to the Hastings reggae festival because when I got there I showed them the qr code and they said that it was already redeem and that I could not go in and I suffer from bipolar and anxiety and I don't understand how the qr code was redeem because I had not used it so I could not get in and I had a massive panic attack and then they had to get help from the ambulance team and I was taken to hospital so I have lost all my money I paid for my ticket and I couldn't even get in the festival and then it caused me to have a panic attack
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Would you recommended: No |
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Review of Hastings Reggae Festival 2024
The festival was a lot of fun. The time to set up the stage was too long between performances. We waited over an hour from 5pm until 6.15pm to hear the next act. Too long for each group to appear.
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Would you recommended: Yes |
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Review of Hastings Reggae Festival 2024
VIP section could do with better quality facilities - the toilets were rank and not flushing by the end of the day. It would also be nice to have an least one food option within the VIP area to save having to keep going out into the big crowds to get food. Otherwise, amazing line-up, great organisation on the gates and a friendly atmosphere made for a great day - hoping to book again for next year!
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Would you recommended: Yes |
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Review of UK Garage By The Sea
Attendees should have been notified that one of the acts would not be attending.
I would have liked to have heard more UKG tunes especially those played on Pirate radio stations or from white label LPs; there were several tunes that were played on repeat. If the Artists were in attendance, then the only times we should have heard their songs was during the Artist's performance.
The food and drink were overpriced; I did enjoy what I ate, however the portions should have been larger for the price. If meal deals were offered the food stalls should have been able to provide drinks as well. If the drinks were cheaper and there was more variety there would have been a higher consumption and more money would have been spent by attendees.
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Would you recommended: Yes |
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Review of Hastings Reggae Festival 2024
We had paid extra for VIP tickets (as we did last year), but this year was far from a VIP experience. The VIP zone was half the size of previous years, and extremely crowded. There were insufficient toilets for the number of people and the portaloo's provided were shared male/female (previous years they were separate). None of the toilets had working flushes, or if they did they were empty by 3.0pm and not replenished throughout the afternoon/evening.
The drinks were over-priced and warm. I asked at several different bar outlets (both inside and outside the VIP area) if they had any cold beers or ciders. I was told that beers are kept at "room temperature" in the shade beneath the counter. It was 23 degrees! Unless you were lucky enough to get a beer or cider just after it had been delivered then you could be sure it would be warm which is completely disgraceful for the prices charged.
Furthermore there was no water bottle refill station within the VIP area. In fact there was only one re-fill spot on the whole site and that could not have been further away from the VIP area!
Worst still the sound system was terrible. The bands were plagued with problems during sound-check (which often persisted during the live sets) and it took forever to set up between sets with no explanation or apologies to the crowd from the event organisers. My wife and I decided to leave before the final act and thankfully we did. Some friends of ours stayed and apparently it took 45 mins to get set-up, during which time there was nothing to entertain the crowds other than a playlist/Cd playing in the background.
All in all it was very disappointing experience. We would have felt somewhat aggrieved if we'd bought the standard tickets, but having splashed out for the 'VIP experience" we felt extremely short-changed and are unlikely to return again. Can I please have a full refund.
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Would you recommended: No |
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Review of UK Garage By The Sea
The acts were good, can't fault them but some of the songs were repeated about 4 times and some of the proper garage bangers were completely missed off. It felt lazy and Shola Ama (a favourite of mine) was a huge disappointment with 1/2 songs
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Would you recommended: No |
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Review of Hastings Reggae Festival 2024
Over priced drinks, I bought a bottle of when which cost £27 and it was awful, had to throw Too much of a long gap between artists change over, however with that said Taurus Riley was worth the wait! I would do it all again next year.
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Would you recommended: Yes |
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Review of Hastings Reggae Festival 2024
There was no compere/host to regularly talk to the crowd and there were no big introductions to the act before they came on.
There was no live DJ to play current and up tempo reggae to the crowd that had a mixture of different ages.
I was looking forward to dancing a bit more, rather than spending most of my time sitting down in my chair in between acts.
It was still a nice day out.
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Would you recommended: Yes |
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21-40
