De La Warr Pavilion — Attraction in Rother

5 star venue 0 stars for event management!!!!! Shocking! Appalling!

I was a gig on 14/10/22. The company (Security and Event Solutions) refused to organise the plethora of different queues that had started, which meant an unfair entry process.

Once inside, instead of organising people into queues inside, everyone was allowed to loiter and block doorways and NO communication at all from the security staff.

Initially one male said we will just have one door and start the queue here (I was first so was ok) but then no comms to anyone else to keep people in a line so there were messy queues and groups everywhere.

Then the rude team leader came over (white, female, 40, slightly plump) and said open both doors and it’s a free for all but don’t let them run.

I suggested well if you had one queue (which could have been organised in the 20 minutes we were standing around in there!), then you wouldn’t have running because it would all be orderly. Moreover people would enter calmly and all soils be fair.

As a professional organiser of humans for 19 years as well as being a queue manager at comic conventions for 7 years I find it extremely difficult that any SIA staff would want or allow such chaos, but unfortunately the female TL was rude and clearly clueless.

When it comes to organising these kind of events it’s so simple: just communicate and the human zombie sheep will do as told. If you don’t communicate instructions or give any instructions then shock horror, it all becomes chaos, and unfairness happens.

Surely a venue would want customers to have a good experience and be happy. Employing such poor companies (well to be be fair the normal staff seemed friendly enough but unfortunately the tyrant female TL was calling the shots and clearly didn’t care about customer service at all!) seems a bad idea if they are not instructed to be good at their role. People won’t come back or say good things if they receive such service.

The venue itself is really quaint. It’s the first time I had been and was lovely. A great little set up with a beautiful view, car park, cafe, toilets, lovely food (5/5 it was so good!).

I am sorry that I had to leave a one star review but perhaps that’s the only way that the extremely poor management for events will get addressed. It’s not difficult to manage 700 people. I frequently do that amount as one person with no loudspeaker or colleagues. It’s easy: just communicate. This company had a plethora of staff but no organisational skills about them at all. This kind of poor organisation would make me very hesitant about...

First and last time I visit this gig venue. I went to a gig last night to see my favourite band play live - needless to say I was very excited having booked the ticket a year in advance! Their music is rock folk, so upbeat with lots of energy from the band onstage - you could see the audience bobbing along on their chairs. I felt for the artists who were playing to such a rigid and motìonless audience so I suggested to my partner for the second half we stand up at the back of the stalls where there was lots of room in the corner to dance. We checked it out with a steward who agreed it was fine as long as we didn't block the fire exit. understandably a few other people came to join us given the genre of music. Then to my dismay a steward (Janet) approached us and said that we needed to go back to our seats. I politely said we'd like to dance and so we'd rather not. She then sternly, robotic-like said we could speak to management but it was a seated gig and we needed to go back to our seats. I said I thought it was very unnecessary as we weren't doing anything wrong and we just wanted to move our bodies, to which point she retorted her demands and went and got 'back up' staff to make her point that no dancing was allowed, otherwise we'd have to leave and speak to management. I was close to tears and I was distraught for the remainder of the gig, words cannot express how much this has affected me in the world we live in, we are no longer allowed to dance!?! We weren't near the fire exit, we weren't causing a nuisance to anyone else, we were merely moving our bodies, being free in an ever more stressed and controlled world. This is a human rights issue where I feel my liberty has been taken away to do the most natural thing in the world. How can something we have done in our ancestry for thousands of years be stamped out by of all places, a concert venue?! There aren't enough opportunities to dance as it is, the science is proven as to the benefits of dance - a much needed antidote and healing to the physical mental health crisis in today's society. We heard many members of the audience as we left and queuing for the toilets/drinks that it was a shame the De La Warr didn't provide a dance area. This really needs to be rethought De La Warr, do the right thing and look to your hearts, be kind, and help your audience to enjoy themselves to the fullest, and train your staff in customer service and in such ways...

Very disappointed and somewhat angry about the explanation received about the fish pie I ordered from the ‘specials’ board yesterday. From the outset, I’d like to say that I have had many nice meals at the DLW. However the fish pie I bought yesterday was extremely poor in many ways. The pie was offered in a very small pie dish and contained about 10% fish for 80% mash and the whole pie was very dry and tasteless. It was served with 1/2 dozen French beans and a cabbage leaf cut in small pieces. The cost £18 !!! Our time was limited as we had tickets for a concert so I didn’t complain there and then and ate the pie. However I mentioned my disappointment to the waiter who said he would pass my remarks to the chef. The waiter (it was his first day in the job and not his fault of course) came back and said that due to unforeseen circumstances the chef had had to buy the fish pies in and so had no control about the quality of but that it would soon get back to normal standard. I was offered a free drink if I wanted!!! My comments/questions are as follows: Why was this fish pie on the specials board especially as chef knew that the pies were bought in? In any reasonably good eateries one would expect the specials to be especially freshly made for that day and good value. Why didn’t the chef try one of the bought in pies before selling them as special? . Had he sampled one he would have concluded that it was substandard and would have removed the pied from the board or at least charge very little for them. Charging £18 for this pie was truly dishonest . To add insult to injury the portion of side greens was a joke and reenforced the feeling of being taken for a fool. The 2 stars are for the new waiter who tried his best and was visibly embarrassed with the offer of a free drink. 0 star for the food yesterday and for feeble explanations for the substandard food served which were hardly my problem as a customer who was overcharged for bad food. DLWP restaurant ,you claim to offer freshly made excellent food but you fell very short on this occasion and so was the...