Famfestlive Reviews 

Shambolic event

Couldn’t even get in due to the ques and having small children with us, no food/drinks etc allowed and expected to stand in the hot sun with no toilets, no shade and no communication. A very poorly organised event and absolutely zero response when asked for a refund. The event organisers should be ashamed of themselves. Especially handling the backlash by “apologising” taking zero responsibility and pretending the event was going well on social media, and then deleting everyone’s comments. It shouldn’t be allowed!

The health and safety sounds like it was non existent. The activities not as advertised and everything overpriced.

Hard avoid. Do not fall for this absolute scam.

If you’re thinking of booking a FamFest event, I’d strongly recommend reading reviews first, if you can find them. We noticed negative comments seemed to disappear from their social media, which made it difficult to see other people’s experiences.

Our experience was terrible. The event was extremely disorganised. We spent hours in traffic followed by over an hour queueing to get in. It became so chaotic that staff eventually stopped checking tickets and bags just to clear the queue.

The event didn’t match what had been advertised. We couldn’t find the dinosaurs, reptiles, Transformers, kids’ yoga, creative play, gentle workshops or educational shows that were promoted. There was also no calm area, despite this being advertised. Instead, it was one loud field with blaring music, inflatables, food stalls and a fire engine repeatedly driving around with its siren on.

The tribute acts didn’t feel suitable for young children, the BMX show was tucked away with very limited viewing, and the food and drinks were extremely expensive. There were no vegetarian options that we could find, and what we ate was poor quality.

For us, it was an expensive and incredibly disappointing family day out, and we certainly won’t be booking another FamFest event.

The FAMFEST LIVE West Sussex on Sunday 26th July 2026 at Fontwell Park Racecourse was a DISORGANISED, TERRIBLE SHAMBLES of an event.

We travelled in 2 cars. Approximately 2 miles from the Fontwell roundabout we joined the queue on the A27, it took just over 1¾ hours to get to the Fontwell roundabout. The roundabout itself was gridlocked and every now and again a car would get through.

One of the adults took 4 grandchildren (10, 9, 5 and 4 years old) and walked to the event. The queue to get into the event stretched through the carpark, no shade, no toilets and took over 60 minutes to get through security, which was totally inadequate for this event.

Once inside the event they went straight to the Inflatable Theme Park area as we paid extra for that and found the inflatables were deflated. They decided to go and get ice creams and had to queue for 20 minutes. The ice creams were extremely expensive. Toilets were disgusting. Eventually the inflatables did get inflated, but the queues were horrendous and the children were fed up with queueing and just wanted to leave the event.

Our plan was to get to the car park and then join the rest of the family inside the event. However, as the queue to get inside the event was so long, we were not prepared to join the queue and wait for over an hour with a child and dogs, so we did not go into the carpark.

This review is for the organisers, not staff who were wildly small in number and clearly overstretched.
The traffic queue was very long and ill conceived, followed by a 1 hr long queue just to get into the venue. It was a boiling day with no cloud cover; people waiting ranged from babies to pensioners.
There was no shade inside the venue, the inflatables were overbooked and definitely not adequately staffed to ensure the safety of children; a lovely 14 year old girl was often left doing her best to fend off understandably frustrated parents and disappointed children who’d missed their time slots queueing to get in, or because their session was overbooked.
As ever, fairground rides were extortionate (£5-7.5 per child), and food was unhealthy and expensive.
Tributes acts were fun, tuneful, and professional; arguably, they were the most redeeming feature.
On such a hot day with large generators going, I could only see 1 clearly marked entrance/exit wide enough for 4 to 6 people to get through which strikes me as being dangerous.
Rubbish reviews kept popping up on social media and were promptly being deleted. In fact, my friend has been blocked by organisers on all of social media platforms because she questioned their health and safety regs, among other things.
Either FamFest was the product of inexperience or just plain negligence. Any which way, don’t bother.

Absolutely awful experience, gates should've opened at 12pm, but nobody made it in before 12:20pm. The toilets were a state, most were blocked off for cleaning (which should've been done before the event) and there were long queues for the few toilets that were open. My daughter cried because she didn't want to use the toilet when we eventually got to one, because it was full of vomit and faeces. It cost £30 for two children to play on the bouncy castles for up to an hour, which also started deflating later on in the day! We left after only an hour at the event because it was awful and becoming overcrowded. As we left, the queue to get in went all through the car park and some people were waiting 2 hours + to get through the gates. The surrounding roads were pretty much gridlocked due to poor event management. There is no way this event was run safely and definitely didn't meet health and safety standards. Lots of other people feel the same, as seen in comments on the Famfest facebook page, which keep being deleted by the pages admin. Would hate for more families to go through the disappointment that so many of us experienced yesterday!

Awful experience. Booked tickets for Fontwell Park, a 20 minute drive took us over an hour, the event made a post on Facebook blaming this traffic on an accident, there were no accidents, just their poor planning!

Once we managed to get to the venue, we queued for over an hour outside to then be told we probably still had another hour of queueing before we made it inside.

By this point myself and my young children were hot, bothered and fed up, they were hungry and we were told we couldn’t bring our own food so we had nothing to eat, thirsty and we were told we had to take in sealed water bottles so we didn’t want to open them in case we couldn’t then take them in.

Once we saw people leaving and telling us they’d made it inside and it was disgraceful, we decided to leave ourselves and go and get our children some food. Apparently the queues inside were no better, most of the entertainment that was meant to be on wasn’t and the toilets were beyond filthy.

They have also blocked me on Facebook after I commented on their posts explaining all of this, and they’ve been deleting negative comments and whole posts!!!!!! Would give 0 stars if possible!

Avoid at all costs!!!!!!!

DO NOT GO!!!!!! by far the worst experience of an event I have ever come across. It took us over an hour to get into the car park (one of the lucky ones that got in before they got told the car park was full.)

Once parked up we was near the back of the field (car park) and we got told that people way ahead of us in the queue had been there for over an hour trying to get in and was still nowhere near the front. Two people on the entrance checking bags which was the first of many problems outside the event.

The event states not to bring outside food or drinks as there is plenty inside. They expected adults, elderly, children and dogs to queue up for over 2hrs to get in without food, water or even toilets!

People and children were running to the closest bush to go to the loo and some poor kid wet themselves.

No point of contact on the site. No explanation of what was happening. No member of staff from the event even out the front checking the welfare of the attendees. For a ticketed event this was utter carnage.

Car park attendants wasn’t even watching what was going on. All they were worried about was being on their phone. And with people fed up with the wait which clogged up the whole local area people were rushing to get parked up.

If you look on social media the toilets were not cleaned from the Friday event! We attended Sunday. Pure and utter filth.

Everyone was complaining and writing on FAMFEST LIVE social media accounts they have now removed all posts so you cannot see the negative comments and other peoples experiences.

After moving 6 metres in the space of 45mins I told my partner to get the kids back in the car and we’re go and actually enjoy a day down the local beach and have some fun and so the kids can cool down and have fun. Not wait for 2.5hrs to get into what could only be described as fairground from wish.

Ive never had an experience like that. I feel sorry for the local residents not being able to leave or get to their house and I feel sorry for all the families that had to endure that experience! I’m glad we left. DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME! DO NOT GIVE YOUR MONEY TO THIS COMPANY!

THIS ORGANISATION IS A PURE SCAM AND A JOKE!

NO HEALTH AND SAFETY
NO DUTY OF CARE
NO ORGANISATION
PURE CHAOS.

they blamed the traffic for a traffic collision. There wasn’t one all day.

The people that “run” this company, well I’d be surprised if they could run a bath.

I’m glad we didn’t stay and wait from what I’ve been told and shown by a friend that got in you have to pay for all the rides. Inflatables are over booked so if you miss your time slot thats all your money gone. 4 coffees for £25 and last if not least false advertising from this company. Half of the acts or activities wasn’t even there.

PURE AND UTTER SCAM! Save your money and put it forward to something better for your children.

Zero stars could not get into event i paid £65 pound for fontwell park queued in traffic 2 hours car park gates closed car park full husband got out saw the massive que of literally 100's of people, people at half way point had been stood thier for 1.5 hours in the sun, he walked up to entrance people coming out had been in thier 20 minutes no toilets available not been cleaned all weekend no water facilitys and lots that was advertised not in thier 2 people bag checking thats it 1000's of people having disabled and elderly in group as well as adhd child thier was no way they would be able to stand in a 2 hour que after 3 half hours total in the car the worst event ive ever known of no organisation and no refunds as of yet!!!!

I think this company should be renamed "scam fest" not famfest. I have never experienced anything like it and WOULD NOT recommend them if i had the option of zero stars it would get that! Disorganisation started from trying to get into the car park to which the parking attendants had no walkie talkies to communicate, faced with a queue right round the car park and would have taken hours to get into the event due to only 2 people checking bags not even tickets so why buy them! Distressed kids in the heat no one to ask what was going on, someone disabled was in the queue who was allowed to park near the entrance but had to then go to the back of the queue disgraceful! After 2 hours of waiting in the queue and still no sight of the entrance we gave up and went home, so glad we did because the video evidence seen which i have to say were deleted from facebook along with all the negative comments!! Were shocking! Something needs to be done about this company they have broken so many health and safety laws. They have tried to cover up their lack of competence to deliver what was advertised blaming it on other things! Please do not believe what u read and do not trust them.

1. Traffic queues 1.5 hours minimum.
2. Once out car standing queue 1.5 hours minimum.
3. No water and no toilets while queueing.
4. Said you can take sealed drinks in. This was not the experience of some who couldn't take any drinks in.
5. Toilets inside disgusting from the night before likley to be covered in sick and other stuff.
6. Inflatable sessions over booked so unlikely to get on even if pre booked and paid for... you wont get a refund!!
7. Events scheduled were not on (so pointless coming for these).
8. As expected no picnics and inflated prices for food.
9. Rides very expensive.
10. Health and Safety questionable. - Would love to see the risk assessment and fire safety for people on site alongside number of staff vs attendees.

As said this is a very expensive. overpriced fairground and health and safety and some of the things advertised maybe there.

The thought 'Its cheap, it cant be thats bad, let's go and have a look' - Just dont!!

Believe its using the same set up/running at the hot air balloons (usually on the day before) - read reviews or local comments on this too to confirm if its poorly organised a good or bad event.

PS facebook commented are often deleted on their pages.

A disappointment of truly epic proportions. In my experience, this was essentially a poorly run funfair that people had already paid to enter. The advertising led us to believe that numerous attractions would be included in the ticket price, but when we arrived, virtually everything we wanted to do required an additional payment, not just the food. We paid around £25 for early-bird tickets, only to meet people in the queue who told us they had bought tickets that day for £2.50, while others said they had received theirs for free.

Speaking of the queue, it took us well over an hour to get from our car to the entrance, all in baking-hot sunshine. The pre-event information had instructed attendees not to bring their own food or water, leaving us without either while we waited. Expecting families, particularly those with young children, to endure those conditions was completely unacceptable in my view.

I felt genuinely sorry for the staff, who were extremely apologetic and appeared to be dealing with the consequences of decisions beyond their control. As for the company operating the event, the whole experience left me feeling deeply misled and wondering how what we received could possibly justify what we had paid. Based on my experience, I would not give this organiser another penny.

If you are considering one of its future events, scrutinise exactly what is included, check which activities cost extra and be aware that other attendees may have paid considerably less. I certainly cannot recommend it. You have been warned.

Would give zero stars if possible. The management and organisation was the worst I have ever experienced. We managed to get into the car park after traffic was mismanaged after 2.5 hours. Immediately met with a queue that weaved around the whole car park and zero stewards managing it. Was told it was a two hour queue at that point so got in the car and left. It was a sunny day and there where no toilets or food/water facilities for a two hour wait in the heat. Baring in mind this was an event for people with children it was frankly a health hazard. Seems like a scam company using AI generated posters and taking money. Will be demanding a full refund!

Absolute shambles of an event!
For the price of your ticket you get a grand total of a few people singing, the grace of being able to walk around the event and overflowing toilets with no loo roll, that have been open for 2 hours..
Not to mention the extremely long queues to enter the carpark, then extremely long queues to enter the event.. It took an hour to get in…
Once you’ve finally entered, you are met with more wild queues for icecream, rides, fire engine ride, the inflatables..
You have to pay extra for the fire engine ride, which wasn’t advertised.
Pay extra for the inflatables and had to pre-book these tickets, which wasn’t advertised on the flyer. This area was also unsafe for little ones with no age restriction it appeared, no sections for ‘big kids’ and ‘little kids’.
Pay extra for the kids fare ground rides, also if you wasn’t to hold onto your child you paid as well…
Didn’t see any characters like dinosaurs or the children’s yoga area which was advertised…
Absolute money grab, false advertisement and they should be refunding everyone their tickets.

Extremely poorly organised festival and disappointing day for FamFest Live West Sussex.

We spent over 2 hours stuck in traffic getting there, only to join another huge queue with no loos and no food/drink facilities, despite being told we could only bring water.

After hours of waiting, we never even made it into the festival. We had to leave because our children were hungry, tired and distressed, surrounded by other poor families in the same position!

This is supposed to be a family festival, yet there appeared to be no thought given to families with young children or even basic welfare in general. The number of people complaining around us made it clear this wasn't an isolated experience, and we also heard from people inside that the toilet facilities were in a terrible state, the bars had run out of most stock, many stalls had packed up and left and rides were £6!!

A complete waste of time and money. The organisers should be embarrassed by how badly this event was managed.

Now they are trying to delete all the negative comments on social media and have made no efforts to offer a public apology or explanation.

Seemed like a wonderful family day out, but couldn’t have been further from that. Firstly, got early bird tickets which were £10. The event was advertised as dog friendly which was a bonus, as wouldn’t have to rush to get back to the dog. A few weeks after purchasing the free dog ticket, I get an email saying that dogs aren’t allowed at this event. But the website and all their platforms continued to say they are allowed. I message them to double check in which they confirm that dogs are not allowed. Ok fine, glad I checked. But get to the event, and the security are petting the dogs that people have taken in?? Loads of dogs around, so I could have taken mine. I messaged and emailed the event organisers and asked why this wasn’t policed as they insisted dogs weren’t allowed. Oh yes, no reply of course.

Access into the event was not managed well, so cars were cutting corners and the queues were insane getting in. When into the racecourse, one man was directing traffic which he clearly couldn’t cope by himself with the volume of traffic.

The event itself was poorly laid out with overpriced fair ground rides dominating the event. The main stage was shoved in a corner and it was very cramped for those wanting to watch the entertainment. There were like 2 stalls selling stuff.

The event was advertised as opening at 12pm then they decided to not open until 2pm, but this was not communicated to their customers and a lot of people were left clueless. Bluey and Bingo were then on at 2:15pm but again, a lot of people missed these due to them changing the event time but not communicating this. When Bluey and Bingo did the rounds again, I was told that my niece couldn’t have a photo with them as they’d been out for “too long”. I basically had to shove her in front of them to get the photo that she desperately wanted and had been looking forward to meeting them all day.

Overall, it was not the event that was advertised, far from it. The event organisers were only in it for the money and didn’t care about the logistics of the event, safety and care of their customers. In the lead up, there were doubts about the reality of this event, and the doubts were fair. The early bird tickets are advertised to the day of the event so you think you’re getting a bargain but in fact, it’s a huge huge disappointment.

Avoid this event and their others (Skyglow, This Ain’t Texas, etc).

The most badly organised event I have ever been to. After parking, we queued for over an hour by foot, (we got off lightly compared to others). There were two people checking tickets and doing bag searches on entry… two, for thousands of families. They weren’t even checking tickets properly. The bouncy castles was massively massively oversold. They said their limit was 180 kids across like 4/5 small castles, but people still couldn’t get on during their pre-booked slot as it was at capacity. People were queuing, again, for hours to get into the inflatable area, and then they all kept collapsing while kids were on them (I assume because too many people on at once). They left two teenagers to supervise and manage this situation (the girl was 14!).. I really felt for them, they were doing the best they could, but so unfair to put them in that position. The food options were horrendous, the worst I’ve ever seen at a festival. None of the advertised entertainment (yoga, facepaint, circus skills, stunt area, arts and crafts). Literally just overpriced carnival rides (with dangerous, inconsistent rules - no height limit at all on the waltzers, other rides they just changed their mind for every customer). They apparently sold out of beer less than half way through the event. Apart from the carnival, I think the only staff I saw were the 2 on the bouncy castles, one letting people on the fire engine rides, (which didn’t look safe), and the two on the gate. 5 across the whole event. Oh and one security staff member as we were entering, who tried to stop a family jumping the queue and just going straight in, and they basically just told him to F-off and walked in anyway, and he had no power on his own to do anything. They need to be inspected by some sort of H&S professional body, before something serious happens

Terrible.

Scam company conning people out of money.

No staff onsite, huge queues - over an hour to get in, toilets were filthy, none of the free activities advertised, inflatable course collapsed & was pre-book only despite not advertising that, food & drink was extortionate, no water available on site unless paying for it.

Basically a funfair with hugely inflated prices.

Mismanaged and dangerous, do not attend their events, even if you’ve already paid for it!

If there was an option to give NO stars I would have!
This event was the most poorly organised event I have ever seen, they would not be able to organise a p### up in brewery! Took and 1hr and half to get into the carpark from Worthing!!! Ive seen comments from them blaming an accident there wasnt, which in itself is disgusting!
Once we had got in the car park I asked if there was a disabled entrance to be told very rudely "No, ques over there" 1hr and half to actually get in to that shambles! My kids missed their slot on the bouncy castles! Which im sure the way that was run is a health and safety issue!
Toilets dont even go there!! Disabled one was actually vile and ive seen the rest weren't acceptable either!
They cant even justify the fact it actually started at 12 but didnt let people start heading in till 12!
People need refunds! And the organisers investigating and shut down!

We booked tickets earlier in the year, it was advertised as a paid family festival event with lots of free activities included- kids yoga, character meet and greets, arts and crafts, circus skills, stunt shows....
There was none of this.
It was nothing more than an over priced, glorified fun fair and some bouncy castles. You could ride in a fire engine for £10, which was skidding dangerously close to inflatables filled with children.
Zero security, zero first aid, zero staff.
Toilets were disgraceful.
Would not recommend this event to anyone.

Basically a fairground you pay to get in to.
Not all that is promised on the posters is there such as kids crafts
Everything costs extra. The fairground takes up the majority of the space with the actual stage in a cramped corner.
This event is organised by the same people that did balloons & tunes and sky glow (which are overwhelmingly negative due to scam claims), beware.