A BIRTHDAY girl’s bubble burst after a highly-anticipated prosecco festival fell flat.

Wenna Smith was celebrating her 34th birthday with friends – but left the event after just 45 minutes.

Pal Lucy Tracey, 35, of Wroughton, whose group had bought tickets as a birthday gift for their best friend, said: “I wouldn’t ever go to a prosecco festival again.

“We were hoping for something similar to the gin festival, with free samples and more selection.”

Several punters have hit out at poor organisation at Prosecco Fest, which was held at the Oasis Leisure Centre’s Starlight Pavilion on December 1 and was advertised on Facebook as having “sold out”.

Alexandra Holloway, 53, from Lydiard Millicent, said that the event was so busy that staff had to serving drinks in “dirty” glasses.

“They were running out of glasses and were handing out dirty glasses, with lipstick and worse on it,” she said. “It was like it hadn’t even been run under a tap.

“The festival was very well publicised as being this amazing thing. There was a lot of expectation and I don’t think it was very well thought out at all.”

She said that festival goers were forced to pay for “tokens” to exchange for drinks and “street food” – with a four-token-for-£10 deal buying you two prosecco cocktails.

“They had run out of tokens by seven o’clock,” said Alexandra, who was at the festival on a night out with friends. “They were ripping up little bits of paper. The queue for these little bits of paper was an hour. It was just a nightmare. We paid £16 to £18 for a ticket just to stand in a queue.”

Alexandra added that she had set the evening up for her friends – who ended the night in an Old Town pub instead.

“It’s so rare for me to have a night out,” she said. “I was so looking forward to it. I felt so embarrassed, because I’d organised it. I felt responsible.”

Fellow festival-goer Tracey said that advertised “street food” consisted of a chicken burger, vegetarian option and “frozen” fries: “The food was terrible. I was sick all the next day.”

She added that birthday girl Wenna, who is a caterer, had been “really annoyed” by the poor food choice.

Prosecco Fest UK organisers were contacted by the Swindon Advertiser for this article.

In an emailed response to one complaint, Prosecco Fest UK said: “We take all feedback seriously, as it helps us grow as an event and make changes for the future.

“The tickets have been priced to cover the fixed costs associated with staging Prosecco Fest, including staffing, security, power and entertainment, such as a theme and the marquee itself.

“Each event features a different variety of entertainment. During the five-hour period, the Swindon event featured live entertainment from rope act performers, dancers, a singer, box actors and living statues.”

The touring prosecco festival was in trouble with Essex drinkers last month, after a Billericay event was dismissed as a “rip-off”.

Responding to the criticisms, a spokesman for Prosecco Fest UK said: “Unfortunately, our supplier could not fulfil our order on one of the labels we wished to have. However, this was replaced with another line [and] we had an excellent choice of prosecco from quality producers available.”