A shambles’: hundreds call for refunds from Fortnite Live competition

Hundreds of people have demanded refunds after a Fortnite laptop game-themed festival has branded a shambles.

The two-day Fortnite Live occasion at Norfolk showground near Norwich had traffic queueing for hours to enter the web page and accumulate wristbands on Saturday. Attendees complained that the attractions had been underwhelming and understaffed.

Visitors said there were no longer sufficient activities for the predicted 2,800 who turned up. There was additionally handiest area for four children to practice archery on the equal time and simply one hiking wall tower with room for three climbers.

Fortnite: Battle Royale, a free online video game popular with children, permits up to a hundred characters to combat for survival on a dystopian island. It reportedly had greater than two hundred million registered customers internationally in November, making it the world’s biggest online game.

Tickets for the themed competition value from £12 and wristbands for unlimited get right of entry to had been an extra £20. “It ought to have been a laugh day trip – but the entire event was a shambles. My children spent a maximum of the day in queues,” one female said.

“Fortnite is all approximately looking humans down and killing them. I felt like doing that to those who organized it. There might have been hell to pay if they had no longer agreed to pay refunds to folks that bought wristbands.”

Oliver Phillips from Sudbury, Suffolk, stated he and his 10-yr-old son, Theo, were at the front of the queue while the event opened at 10 am, by way of which period early-fowl price tag holders had been already leaving.

“The attractions were quite rubbish. It turned into the form of the issue you see at a faculty fete,” he said. He brought that the cave enjoy become “a trailer, no larger than a car, with a tunnel via it.”

Andrea Suldisho, 47, who offered tickets remaining October as a birthday gift for her 12-12 months-antique son, Zach, and Christmas gift for daughter Zara, seven, said: “We drove 110 miles right here and I paid £60 for a resort to live for both days – however, we will no longer trouble with the second day. It is a shame because the children had been so excited about it.”

Shaun Lord, the proprietor of Exciting Events, which organized the festival, said there were issues with queues as 8 of his 19 personnel had not grown to become up on Saturday. He stated he had given a refund to every person who had requested, however, refused to mention how many people had claimed one. “We are coping with people on a man or woman basis,” he said.

“There are lots of people who’ve advised me they have got had an exceptional time, and their children have very well enjoyed it,” he introduced. “We will take all of us’s feedback into consideration, and we can act on it.”