Kingston vegan and yoga festival enthusiasts see waiting times of up to 45 minutes after the venue withheld entry due to overcrowding on Saturday.
Organisers of the event blame the problem on the limitless amount of tickets sold online, upwards of 2000 people buying tickets to the event at Guildhall, a venue with only a 300 person capacity, lead to the organisers’ decisions to stop entry at lunchtime.
Ticket holders were left angry at the decision – one attendee, Anne, said: “I don’t think the organisers were prepared for the volume of people that are interested in this event, I’m planning on asking for a refund. I’ve been waiting 40 minutes already.”
Overwhelming attendance raised health and safety concerns after an unexpected amount of attendees stayed during the lunchtime peak to the surprise of staff, with a spokesperson stating: “we want to make sure that people at this event are safe.”
The event was advertised heavily on social media it’s broad range of stalls on offer. From ‘Food for thought’ to ‘Rocking Raw Chef’ with yoga and meditation classes, the entire event was volunteer run with £2500 raised from ticket sales being donated to charity.
Organiser of the event Kriti Kolbusz believes the high demand for the event showed that the driving force for the vegan and yoga lifestyle is far stronger than people perceive.
She said: “Demand like this shows food companies and government officials what the public want. I’m glad we are able to provide this event and with what we have learnt today we hope to come back next year bigger and better than ever!”
Organisers show no signs of slowing down with their next event, Windsor’s yoga and vegan food evening, being held March 31.
Kingston Scene 