to think it's bloody outrageous that you can't take food to the Hyde Park screen?

[CelticOlympian]

I went out to watch the cycling yesterday with DH and DS. We planned to be out all day so took a picnic, thought we could watch the early stages of the race in Hyde Park on the big screen and then head out to see the cyclists come past.

Anyway, once we got there, it turns out you can't take any food in at all! They have the rules about liquids and glass bottles same as the Olympic Park but in addition you can't take any food (except baby food apparently, just checked the website). There were loads of people sitting outside stuffing down picnics before going in, giving food away or just throwing it away.

AIBU to think that this is outrageous, with no justification other than profit making? I went to one of the Hard Rock Calling gigs and you could take food and soft drinks so it's not the site itself. If I go out for the whole day, especially with fussy DS, I don't want to have to pay a fortune to eat shite. Was it too much to expect a nice relaxed atmosphere having a picnic and watching the screen?

We didn't go in in the end, queue was too huge by the time we had eaten so we went back to the race, which was brilliant. But I was really narked about the food issue. What do you all think?

Presumably it costs a fortune to offer the opportunity for people to watch giant screens of the Olympics in prime locations for 2 weeks absolutely free. I don't think I can entirely blame them if they try to recoup just a bit of that cost by expecting people to spend some money on food and drink while they are there.

We were there yesterday too, and had eaten before we got there although we did have a few snacks in a bag. They let us take them in, just because I asked nicely and had the right security person!

I don't have a problem with them trying to make a profit, they aren't a charity. And as its a free event, I would expect them to make some money on food. The only thing should be prevented from over pricing is water IMO.

Like you though, we saw loads of people outside stuffing down picnics, but there wasn't a queue at all by late afternoon.

I thought it was brilliant there, the only thing I wasn't happy about was that the Cadbury thing wasn't allowing anyone in when we tried because it was just gone 6.30.

The screens at Stratford and East Ham you can take in food.

It can't cost that much to have the huge screens as there has been one on the lawn at Belfast City Hall for over a year.

It's just another way to profit.

It costs because the have security, and they have put bark down everywhere so it doesn't become a mud bath if it rains. They will also be paying for the toilet blocks, and all the seating there is in there.

The food and drink outlets are probably paying a fortune to be able to sell there, so they have an obligation to try and get people to buy from them. I think it's just nice that theres such a good free place to go and watch the Olympics and get some of the atmosphere. I liked it there a lot.

It's rank profiteering, just like everything else to do with the Olympics, which is one big exploitative corporate wankfest.

I would not be pleased if I hadn't been able to take my picnic into an event I'd paid for, but, to be fair, if they are providing all these facitilies for you for free, it's not unreasonable to ask people to buy food / drinks there.

What's so bad about making profit?

No one is forced to go to this event, people are allowed to stay home and watch it on the telly if they want to.

what about those with specialist diets?

YANBU I'm planning on going there with my DD and 3 niece and nephews for what is advertised as a free day out. However I'm reconsidering because to if we want to stay for a full day then it's going to be upwards of £50 for food and drink for all of us.
I wouldn't mind so much but I suspect we're going to have to pay well over the odds for really shit food.

We probably would have bought drinks in there. Maybe if we liked it we'd have stayed for tea. But we didn't go in and willavoid next week.

Shooting themselves in the foot a bit I think.

We went to the torch relay finale there which was NOT free. We paid £90 to be there and easily another £100 on top because it went past dinner time.

What scandalised me the most was that on a 30 degree plus day they were confiscating sun cream with nowhere inside offering any (at least not that I found).

There were water fountains at which you could fill empty bottles, but they had huge queues.

We're there again for the Blur concert at the end, which again is most certainly not free, and am frustrated to be hitting all those restrictions again.

If you are planning on going for a day you can always spend some time at the other nice parts of Hyde park before going in. I'm taking the dc back next week to see the Africa villiage and play in the Diana stuff.

We took small bottles of suncream and they were allowed in, and as I said earlier, we did take some snacks in so I would imagine that those with special diets would be ok.

I don't work for their promotion team, I promise!

If you are there all day then why not go for the morning, leave at lunchtime and find somewhere else to eat and return in the afternoon if there is space.
You could stay at home and watch it on TV and eat what you want.

I will ask the question re. sunscreen and why there's nowhere to buy it since you can't take it in. I'll feed back on this thread. However, I've seen travel sized bottles in Boots, would that be an option?

I looked up the rules on the website and itsays youcan take sun cream, up to 200ml.

I don't object to people making a profit, just to having people over a barrel so they have to fork out. And it's not even like a restaurant, where you wouldn't expect to eat your own food, it's that you can't go inat all with it. DS is so picky I never go on a day out without a bag of food for him, and I would have had to chuck it all unless some sensible security person let it pass. And then go somewhere to buy snacks for the way home.

There's nothing wrong with selling your wares and making a profit; I do a bit of market trading myself sometimes.

But given that we have already paid for the Olympics via our taxes, being ripped off by wealthy not-even-british corporations like those well-known supporters of healthy eating McDonalds and Coca-Cola just doesn't seem right, somehow.

Yes, you can take sun cream up to 200 ml. It was more that people got taken by suprise and had bigger bottles. It was a very hot and sunny day.

I am from down under and at an event as sunny as that, they would usually have a cancer charity with free sun cream available - and that is when they haven't taken it off you at the door!

I had read all the stuff about liquids, but still somehow didn't equate that with sun cream (maybe I am dim!!) so we had my mum's tiny Clinique bottle from her handbag between six of us.

Are the people complaining about having to pay for food in the venues the same people complaining about the Olympics coming off our taxes?

You can take liquids of up to 100ml unless they are dangerous just like at an airport.

restricted liquids, aerosols and gels

It says you can take a bottle of sun lotion of more than 100ml capacity that's partially filled. Airports make you throw them away.

What's the problem?

Looks like it Limited.

I don't think it's getting through that this is a free event that no one has to go to.

My problem was that when I went it was NOT free and that, at that stage, the restrictions had not been at all well publicised. It was on the tickets but in about size 4 font. I can read most things, but needed a magnifying glass for it.

I felt that by confiscating sun cream and water (there were huge queues for water and you could only fill up if you had known to keep your empty bottle) they were putting people at risk of both sun burn and sun stroke. It was very, very hot with no shade except right in front of the toilets.

The food restriction at Hyde Park is actually more punitive than at the Olympic events themselves, where they say they will allow reasonable food in.

I had been to the trial beach volleyball event and not had any of those things taken from me, despite full security, etc.

Hyde Park is being run by BT - it's not a LOCOG site, it's run by a private company for their gain (or loss!). They can unfortunately put any foo restrictions on that they want and it's nothing to do with the Olympics or tax payers' money.

I haven't been in yet but can anyone advise whether there are only Olympic sponsor catering units in there (McDonalds) or whether it's the usual Hyde Park catering units?

Even my packet of sweets was taken from me before I was allowed in he let me take a few before he chucked the rest in the bin. I'd didnt volunteer to hand them in but they showed up on the security scan

No McDonald's at all but a lot of random food outlets, some sounded rather yummy.