THE team behind Swindon's first festival since the pandemic have apologised after it was blighted by a series of problems.

Ticket-holders at the MFor event – held on Friday and Saturday – complained of long queues for the toilets and drinks, while there were issues with the Wi-Fi and card payment systems and security staff were labelled "rude".

Around 10,000 people flocked to the festival at Lydiard Park to enjoy performances from the likes of Craig David, Raye and Ella Henderson. 

Marcus Carlton told the Adver on Facebook: “An hour and a half to get to the single bar, toilets were overflowing, and acts switched around.”

Denise Styles added: “Security staff were unhelpful and rude, queue for the bar was shocking and eventually they ran out of every drink with the exception of cider. 

“It was advertised as having plenty of hand cleaning stations, I’d seen two! Ran out of vegetarian food. Not well organised at all. I’d contacted the organiser before the event asking questions and I’m still waiting for a reply.”

Organisers Debra Collins and Graham Stobbs acknowledged some of the problems raised during the festival in a joint statement issued on Facebook today. 

They said: “Firstly we would like to thank each and every person who came to the festival. Secondly we want to acknowledge that there were some logistical problems at the event and the MFor team are really disappointed about this.

“The show was absolutely amazing, and I think everyone who saw it would agree on that, however something else we will agree on is that the standard of the toilets and number of toilets was not acceptable.”

They said they were let down by their supplier at the last minute. 

“To make sure the show went ahead our team rallied and found the only toilets available in the south west,” they said. “There is an unusually high demand due to temporary Covid centres, vaccination centres, pubs with an increased outdoor focus on outdoor spaces.”

Problems with Wi-Fi on Saturday affected the card payment system.  

Debra and Graham said: “Our team on site worked all day to rectify this but as most of the technology involved was beyond our control there was very little we could do. 

“This combined with some drinks supplies failing to be delivered resulted in some customers waiting an unacceptably long time for drinks.

“We would like to apologise for these problems.”
Following a debrief on Sunday morning, the organisers said they will be implementing some improvements at next year’s event – which is set to take place on July 29 and July 30. 

“This will include one, if not two, additional bars and toilets to the same standard as those supplied at MFor 2019," they added. "We will also bring in whatever it takes for the Wi-Fi to be sufficient for our event needs."

“We recognise it was not perfect, but what is important is that we acknowledge mistakes and learn from them. That is exactly what we do every year. And every year will bring about problems we need to fix to be able to bring Swindon a brilliant festival every year.

“You, our customers are the most important part of any event we run, and we know we let you down. This will not happen again and hope to see you all in 2022 for our third year in Lydiard Park, home of Mfor Festival."