Cardiff Halloween Festival — Local services in Great Britain

Terribly busy, charged us for tickets to get in but you also have to pay for everything that’s inside including the pumpkins. The rides we went on was £3 per person and wasn’t very long and there was a lack of rides as well, 5/6 in total can’t remember but that’s not a lot in my opinion. The food stalls were interesting in terms of giving cool names with a Halloween twist but I wouldn’t pay the prices, know they have to make money on it but I’d argue the ticket price for entry and for the pumpkins people bought probably covered the cost of running the event. £4.50 for a balloon and I think the face painting was the same or more… which I think is daylight robbery given you’ve already paid entry to be in a muddy field to pay for over priced chips and drinks. You got the disco which kept some kids entertained but it’s not like there was any mascots or proper games for the kids… imagine butlins but out of season. The fun part for us was the pumpkin picking but once we found out we would be charged for that as well (after we found our pumpkins) we decided to get rid of 3 of them as we already paid over 50 quid to get there and then the tickets plus the rides… There is a tiny park area for kids under 5 by the pumpkin picking in case you have younger kids that don’t want to walk around the fields for ages or get bored easily, but I would say it was too small of a park for the amount of kids which creates problems in itself. There wasn’t enough seating either so be prepared to stand or walk for the whole time if you aren’t lucky enough to snag a bench by the disco. I was expecting a lot more Halloween decorations as well but there wasn’t much. We did go in the day so perhaps that’s why, maybe the night time event is better I don’t know.

Oh and the getting in and out, lots of traffic and takes ages. If you get a taxi like we did, you will be waiting ages and then have to hope the taxi driver lets you in with muddy boots, I’d recommend taking a car of yours or a family members as you don’t know if the taxi driver will want mud all over their car; we tipped our driver as he had mud all over the back of his car and we felt guilty.

For the money, I don’t think it’s value for money and apart from the fun of the pumpkin picking which I’m sure we could find closer to home (we live in cwmbran), I found it below average and the ok disco and ok food doesn’t seem to warrant the price and I wonder what you get for the entry tickets…

See attached a photo of the only big Halloween decoration, sure it was cool to look at for about 10 seconds but I expected about 10 of those in different styles and different themes. Probably won’t return as it’s just not worth the travel or money in my opinion. If you live closer to the event then sure you probably would find it worth it...

Cardiff Halloween Festival, a completely missed opportunity. We had attended the previous event last year in the field and the atmosphere was spooky, festive and at times downright terrifying. There were actors galore interacting with the patrons, heightening an already amazing and fun experience. The events; Witches Cornfield, Zombie escape and Murder clown events were fun and freaky. The entertainment included fire dancing and live singing which was great and the food was super tasty too, and we walked away more than satisfied with the experience. The only downside last year was the sheer amount of mud but overall a great time was had.

This year we excitedly booked again for an evening of Halloween-inspired festive fun and were left utterly disappointed. The wait for the initial boat trip was 40 minutes long and staff claimed to have two boats capable of shuttling 100 people at a time. This turned out not to be the case. Firstly, they were bog-standard water taxis that often travel through the bay, one boat was capable of maybe 50 at a push but the other could carry a maximum of 20. The boats themselves were scarcely decorated with small bits of frayed fabrics and tea light lanterns but nothing spectacular, in fact the decor was pretty haphazard and lacklustre.

The event itself including the boat trip was £15 per person not including the 'experiences' on the grounds. What we didn't know was that the 'experiences' cost extra. Each 'experience' costing upwards of £5 and in some cases upwards of £8. There were generic fairground rides available, for a further fee but there was something just a little bit depressing about them like even they didn't fancy being there, with the rotary octopus ride moving slower than my Grandmother driving to church on Sunday. The grounds were mostly empty when we arrived and by the time we left, less than an hour later, every other patron had also decided to leave. The staff themselves were nice but seemed embarrassed by the event and didn't seem at all surprised by the mass exodus. A few positives of the event are the food, which was, once again very tasty although overpriced and the live singer entertainment (The Salem Sisters) was great.

I feel that if the organisers want any kind of continued patronage then severe and immediate improvements are necessary to Cardiff's answer to the Willy Wonka Experience a.k.a Cardiff...

Twilight Festival, party of 6 young adults.

NOT recommended. Wear your wellies if you bother anyway...

The marketing team did a great job with the events at this festival, expectations were much higher than the reality.

Firstly, mud. Mud, everywhere. So much mud, in fact, that people were losing trainers and one part of the field was so churned up that you could start to smell manure.

Let's go through the high(low)lights...

Pumpkin Patch This was actually great, in all fairness. The selection and variety was outstanding, much better than supermarkets, the pricing was a little above what you'd expect but it's not breaking the bank by any means. Wheel barrow stations were top.

Fire Pits Didn't even bother, 3 barely lit fires in a sea of thick mud, I don't think they bothered to replenish the fires after the Daytime Festival.

Fire Show The shows in general were quite short and the same 3 shows repeat throughout the night, nothing special, small stage, lacklustre for adults, ok for kids (kids were more interesting in jumping in mud puddles).

Singing Pumpkins Fun for small children, very small display of pumpkins singing in a tiny tent, could fit about 3 adults in there.

Torch-lit Maze Trail There are no torches, just strings of fairy lights. This was OK, the mud and the fact it's in a farmed field (with crop lines) made it very difficult for people to walk through and navigate. Unless you had wellies on, you'd really struggle to enjoy it.

Neon Spider Quest The most mud-free activity, the guy dressed up as a mad doctor outside the 4-5 shipping containers was the best part of this "quest". Fun for small children, nice rest from walking through mud.

Pumpkin Games Games of O's and X's, bowling and other 'throwing' games however most of the games were covered in mud and the pumpkins to use were mushy and bruised. Likely that they were never cleaned off and replenished after the Daytime Festival.

Street Food & Drinks Let me be super clear, EAT BEFORE YOU GO. They offer Mac'n'Cheese, Hot Dogs, Burgers or Chips. Mac'n'Cheese wasn't even macaroni pasta. The burger and hot dog buns you could tell had been frozen and thawed out that day. The food was crazy priced for what you got and the staff concentrate more on getting the queue down than the preparation of your food.

Very...