Boomerang Jam

[LocalEditorWakefield]

After the bank holiday kids festival at the Old Tetley in Leeds - Boomerang Jam there are many mixed results coming from both businesses and customers.

I would love to hear your voices and opinions on the event and any information that you can provide to include in our review. Anything from your opinion to something that they could improve in further events.

OMG where to start.

£40 to get in for a cheap fair ground where all rides were of extra cost less. Things that they said would be there either were very misleading or a lie.

Rude staff. Unhealthy food. Not child friendly. Profiteering off children. Dangerous for children due to surfaces. Unjustified cost.

I could keep going on but I have sent an official complaint demanding my money back after they horrifically upset my children with this "event"

Hi trekmandave

After helping to promote the event I am keen to gather all the information to provide an honest review. I have emailed the organisers of Boomerang Jam and offered them to right to reply so hopefully I shall receive feedback from them and be able to discuss it here with our users.

I am in agreement with trekanddave, it was shocking, bad entertainment, major health and safety hazards with the surface, false and misleading advertisement and hiked up prices inside, in no way a festival! I have also requested a full refund. I am intrigued to see what the response will be as i am extremely outraged.

I went with my 2y 10m daughter in the Monday. The weather was good and we arrived at 10 am. There were only two of us.

At first I was disappointed by the rides and the concrete ground (like a lot of people) but I soon realised that was my expectation not my daughter's.

Mostly I thought that I'd expect it to be better but that this was the first year. Next year should be better but won't be if everyone complains and gets there money back. I'd much rather have this than no kids festival at all.

Honestly my daughter loved it. We milked a life size pretend Cow, decorated cakes, saw Peppa and touched her tail, danced with Bob the builder, went on a huge bouncy castle slide, sprayed water cannons (£1), saw an eight year old body popper, saw two dance troupes, ate cheeseburgers (good ones £4), loved but couldn't touch a big friendly monster and finally cuddled six rabbits and three guinea pigs.

We were there for over four hours and she never stopped doing stuff.

These is what I'd improve...

• more seating for lunch
• more food choices
• smart phone timetable so you know what's happening when

These are my thoughts. Sorry for any mistakes as rough and tumbling with said daughter as I type _

Biggest let down ever! Paid over £50 for a family ticket and a child ticket to get in and ended up spending a fortune inside everything had to be paid for apart from an inflatable slide. No food or drinks were allowed in yet there was literally 2 burger vans selling hotdogs at £4 each!!!! Not a family friendly event at all. No where to sit apart from the broken uneven gravelly floor. The slide wasn't even being monitored correctly I saw children somersaulting down and many children getting hurt, my own included. The petting zoo consisted of a pig, donkey, calf, 2x goats, shetland pony and 2x llamas in a tiny, tiny enclosure, made me sick to my stomach! have no idea how the ticket price is justified, what a disgusting UNSAFE event aimed at families in the school holidays. So far nobody from Boomerang Jam has responded to my negative review, complaint and refund request. They should be ashamed.

We went on the 26/5 - 2 x adults and 2 x children (2 & 4yrs old).
Cost to get in was a discounted £27 family ticket.

These are the issues we had with the festival:

1. Environment & Safety - the festival was on waste ground that at best is being used for a car park during the week. Lots of uneven surfaces, trip hazard, etc... Not really the sort of place you'd expect a kids festival. And not somewhere where you feel you can just let your kids run off and play. A nice green open space would have been better.

2. Cost - we were relieved at first to get a discounted ticket as we thought £40 was a bit steep. However, once we were inside and realised what was included and what was extra we felt as though we were duped and were being ripped off. It was not as advertised.

All that was included was a bouncy castle, climbing wall, street artists, stage event plus some Ben10 t-shirts...

Everything else was extra and the cost of these was over the odds.

• £4 each for a bunny trampoline
• £2 each for a mini ferris wheel
• £2 each for a mini train ride.
• £2 for your kid to strike a bell with a hammer!

Expensive.

3. Food - we had prepared a family picnic. We were not allowed to take our picnic inside the festival.
   Inside the festival all there was on offer were unhealthy expensive fast food outlets - burger vans, hot dogs, candy floss, and expensive drinks.

4. Atmosphere - the festival had no atmosphere, no fun, no excitement, nobody was glad to be there. Instead the majority of people looked extremely unhappy at being at the event.

5. Aggressive staff and management
   We asked for a partial refund and were stonewalled with delaying tactics and aggressive behaviour by the event organisers.

• we were asked to send an email to obtain a refund!
• once we persisted the guy hid in the portacabin for 10 mins hoping we'd go away.
• we got a refund on the day of £10, and when we disputed this the organiser and his staff became aggressive.
• we were chased out of the car park by two security staff.

This is a festival charging top attraction prices but delivering mediocre entertainment and services. What was on offer could be got elsewhere for free and only paying for what you want to use.

The organisers of this event do not know how to organise a kids festival nor what is important for a family day out. They should not be allowed back or given a second chance.

I hope these help as questions to address and also they form part of our official complaint letter.

1. The environment was completely unsuitable for children with dangerous, uneven surfaces. Children were falling over and hurting themselves.

1. The bouncy castle, which was the only free activity we were able to access, was supervised by an adult who was more interested in their mobile phone than ensuring the safety and wellbeing of the children using the equipment. There was also only one adult supervising approximately 20 children at a time.

1. The artificial grass which the bouncy castle was situated on was absolutely sodden and no warning was provided to advise of this, meaning our children’s socks were soaked and unwearable for the remainder of the day.

1. From the website there were various activities advertised which appeared to not be present such as the Tip Top Tent and The Big Chill.

1. Each additional activity inside the ‘event’ was either chargeable in addition to the ridiculous fee or so busy that we were unable to access, so we are still at loss to understand what the entrance fee was for?

1. The ‘Acts’ on the main stage were atrocious. How can they describe children from local dance clubs as ‘some of the biggest upcoming talents of the UK’ is beyond us. I am sure the families of these children were very proud but for a £40 entry fee, I think NOT!

1. In the 55 minutes we endured only one character entered the Jam Bam arena. This was unannounced and can only be described as a cage where children were unable to interact with their heros.

1. Guzzle Alley was a couple of burger vans and a bar tent, hardly the ‘start of Leeds Food and Drink festival’ they described.

1. The queue for the Rock Dock was ridiculous due to the fact that it was the only free interactive activity that children could access other than the bouncy castles. Even if we had been able to get to the front it was not suitable for our 2 year old daughter.

10. The description of the Fun Fair Zone suggested it would be a small funfair at an event surrounded by other fun and exciting activities that children could take part in. Our experience of the environment was that it was one giant, chargeable fun fair, with prices that were absolutely ridiculous in addition to the charges we had already paid in ticket prices (again still at a loss to what the entrance fee was for).

11. There appeared to be very little event management going on in the whole space. Staffing was also very limited and rude.

12. There was no signage to identify designated areas of spaces.

Hope these help

please join the group, www.facebook.com/pages/Boomerang-SCAM-festival-Leeds/307838262714045

Thank you dj 2014 I have just liked the page. I also have photos which I can add?

You can add any photos you like, there is a limit of 6 photos though. You can email me them [email protected] if you prefer.

After some research it has come to my attention that the organisers were a company named Grace and Tailor
According to an unnamed source one of the owners at this company is also the manager at the Old Tetley were the event was held.

I am currently still collecting reviews, opinions and photos from both customers and businesses.

I can tell you that the businesses that also attended the event, including the ones that were charging (petting zoo, rides etc) paid the organiser themselves to be at the event and businesses are also baffled as to why there was such a large entrance fee.

Trekmandave. To clarify one of your points. The bouncy castle wasn't even free on the Sunday. We were charged £3 for 10 minutes as we're the other parents on that day.

@rhia1201 that's disgusting. My wife called them Monday morning and they assured us that things were now free and lots to do dispite the reviews (already had a prepaid ticket) when we got there it was even worse to swallow that we had been lied to just to get us in the door.

Thanks for providing the updates on here. I think the promoters will be relying on people letting this go but although not a serious criminal enterprise, I do think someone should be held to account for this otherwise it will happen again. What a poor advert for our good city.

i agree myusername88 and trekmandave. Its unbelievable i am in shock i wasted that much money to spend the day on a bouncy castle! :(

UPDATE

Thank you for your responses.

Boomerang Jam have released an official statement to the public:
^"Dear All

We are very sorry for the disappointment that has been caused to people who attended the event on Sunday and Monday. We are also very disappointed as the event did not go as we had planned and subsequently we take full responsibility.

We are facing this and everyone who emails us will receive a response.

Individuals in our team have been the target of personal attacks both online and offline. They have been frightened and upset. They are working really hard to make sure that everyone receives a positive outcome, please allow them to do so without intrusion or threat.

The event ended 48 hours ago, so we are still organising the process of refunding you. We will refund you as quickly as we can and thank you for your continued patience.

If you wish to contact us please email [email protected].

The Organisers of Boomerang Jam"^

A spokeswoman from Leeds City Council has informed me that in no way did they help organise or sponsor the event. They wanted to share some of the events that were happening in the city over the bank holiday weekend via their website and Twitter.

They are soley reliant on the event organisers to deliver appropriate facilities and activities at their venues when using materials to promote Child Friendly Leeds.

They are using the feedback from the public to improve how they can regulate this more effectively in the future.

They have passed on comments that they have received to the Boomerang Jam team to express their concerns and they hope this feedback will enable the organisers to deliver a better service in future.

Dear All

The ticket selling agency are now on with the process of refunding the money including the booking fee. Once again, we are sorry for the disappointment and please let us know if the money does not arrive in your accounts within the next 3 - 5 working days.

If you wish to contact us please email [email protected].

The Organisers of Boomerang Jam

Dear All

We are trying to work out the best way to get refunds to people who paid cash – we are more than happy to send cheques or pay directly intro your accounts.

Please get in contact with us by email @[email protected].

The Organisers of Boomerang Jam

Dear All

We know that some of you have queries and we’ll try to answer those for you as best we can. Please keep using the [email protected] email address and we will come back to you. Should you instead want to meet face to face to ask your questions then we’re happy to do that.

The Organisers of Boomerang Jam