UK Christmas market ‘an absolute joke’ with traders asking for refunds a couple of days in

Boris Johnson enjoys Christmas market near Downing Street

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Christmas markets are popular attractions this time of year. And organisers up and down the country are competing with each other to offer the best and most traditional, or unusual, experience.

One market advertised as an “immersive Christmas experience” managed to be singled out for all the wrong reasons.

The Unreal Xmas event in Manchester was supposed to be fantastic.

It promised “an enchanting festive spectacular, on a scale never seen before”.

The event was marketed as two floors taking customers on “a sensory journey through an enchanted Christmas world featuring a magical Christmas village, markets and a breath-taking ice-skating experience through a captivating forest and snow-covered world.

“Two custom-built bars will enable visitors to take in the magical atmosphere and watch family and friends skate.

“Whilst a skate-up bar will be available for festive refreshments ice-side.”

The reality, however, seem to be very far from the marketing material.

Visitor Stacey Slavin said: “I can’t even begin to tell you how bad it was.

“It doesn’t look a thing like the pictures.

“The lumberjack has been and stolen all the Christmas trees. It’s tiny and it’s an absolute shambles.

“By the time you’ve got skates from the cattle market free for all, you get about 30 minutes on the ice.

“The ice was horrendous, left with holes where people had chipped it during the day.”

The event, taking place until January 3, opened on December 3 at Trafford Palazzo.

Both traders and punters say the event is “nothing like it was promised”.

There is no skate-up bar and the décor is not Christmassy.

However, organisers said the bar was separated from the rink due to health and safety and they were asked “not to do your tacky, run-of-the-mill Christmas stuff”.

It would have cost, they claim, about a tenth of what they actually spent.

But traders are already walking away and demanding refunds.

The Makers Market, which was supposed to be there every weekend until Christmas, has pulled out of four dates.

Visitors are also disappointed, with the rink said to look “nothing like the pictures”.

The image used for promotion was in fact taken from another event.

Kerry and Natalie Lobel, who own the Grounded Mcr speciality coffee trike, have a stall at the event.

They said they only served about 80 customers over three days.

Kerry said: “It’s so bad that traders have formed a WhatsApp group and have banded together to ask the organisers for an explanation and a refund.

“The Christmas market is not Christmassy at all, and the ice rink is nothing like what was advertised.

“Punters are unhappy, traders are unhappy, it looks like a jumble sale and the ice rink itself has had to be closed at times because of issues.

“There’s no signage downstairs at all to indicate there’s a market upstairs and most people don’t even know it’s there.

“Not enough has been done to promote the event.

“It’s an absolute joke.”

They’re not the only traders who are dismayed by the event.

Mattia Paradiso, of Italian dessert place Paradiso Authentic Italian, said: “The description of the event as a ‘magical Christmas village’ in no way represents the reality of the event which has been organised – decoration is woefully limited and, for the most part, completely inappropriate to a Christmas-themed event.

“The other traders and myself believe this has failed to attract customers who at this time of year are looking for events in keeping with the festive spirit.”

Gary Curshen, of the Oobe Global Group, the organiser of the event said: “Everybody is entitled to criticise and everybody is entitled to their own opinion, but when it comes to things like the scenology, a lot of it is subjective and what one person likes another might not.

“We have had lots of people who have told us they think it’s lovely.

“People have really enjoyed going round the circuit on the ice, it’s much more imaginative than most ice rinks which are basically like iced squash courts.

“In every crowd you’re going to have people who don’t like what we have done, but there are also a lot of people that do.”

He also said the company “didn’t mean to mislead anybody” and they are “working furiously to put anything right that people aren’t happy about”.

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