Top Gear Live Festival

some_dose

Well what did people think of it? We had a disaster regarding tickets but eventually after an hour and a half wait we got them (they tried to charge us full price too even though we had a half price flyer). Show was ok, probably better for young kids. Also, the liars said that they'd have a Pagani Zonda (my favourite car) and there wasn't a sight of one!

phoneman

Very Disappointing this year, got there at 11.30 for the 12.00 show, all well until after the show when we were ushered out of the building and not let back in. €110 euro for a so called "diamond ticket" for 1 hour and no access to the stalls inside or shops. Went to the show admins office and she let me in....for all of 5 minutes when they decided to clear the building. terrible organisation.
I went to the show the last two years also, no problems in the rds, went and browsed the displays and stalls for an hour after the show. All in all very unhappy with this year, wont be going back in a hurry.

Justjens

What a waste of a day, never mind the money. Disaster getting into the place, no signposts and we were sent every which way but the correct way.
VIP treatment, you must be kidding, shows were running late because no one could get in in time. Back stage pass, you see more at Terenure Classic show for a tenner.
I know one thing for sure, the bastards won't be fleecing me again.

Zero-Cool

I saw Top Gear Live 2 years ago and was brilliant. Got Diamond tickets for 3rd row seats and loved it.

This year, I loved the live show but My God, was not worth the hassle of the day. Worst organised event I ever attended. Got Diamond tickets and was in the very centre at 3rd row, brilliant view and Clarkson and Hamster came up talking to people in our row. Backstage tour was crap but expecting as much. Then shuffled out a side door and not let back in, missed half the exhibition and shops! We didn't have a programme or map and no crew member had one to give. We were constantly given wrong information and directions. I was told the VIP lounge was opposite the ferris wheel, never did find it.

The parking and lack of sign posts was really unforgiveable. The amount of money they must have made, you'd think they would have put a bit of effore into organising it better. They won't be getting my money again, it's a pity, Live Show was a good laugh. Apparentlythe majority of the people feel the exact same on official facebook page as well.

Oh yeah, we were queing up for 3pm live show after I asked 1 crew member and he confirmed. Everyone skipping and turned into a ball of people queing up with 2 crew members looking at them not giving a fook. Then another crew member came out and told us all to go away and come back later at 3.30 and "this is a queue to nowhere" Most people left but I saw a crew member at top of the queue checking tickets and letting people into exhibition centre so I stayed.

Someone should be fired over the organisation as they wrecked a lot of peoples day!

End Rant!

allybhoy

Was there today, the parking was a joke but i knew it would be cos Citywest simply cant handle that amount of visitors and the main car park was taken up with the track. Thought the live show was a bit pants tbh, few good bits but so cliche'd and definately not worth the money. Was feeling disapointed leaving until we wandered over to the track and ended up staying to watch the antics for about 4 hours! There were monster trucks, Drift teams, motorbike stunt displays and then roughly 30 assorted race cars, from rally to circuit and everything in between, thoroughly enjoyed the show and would have stayed except frostbite was setting in.

Wagon

was a good laugh. although some stupid feckin bus driver told us that buses from the red cos were finished at 5 so we ended up getting a taxi to the place. he was thinking of the merrion square service. we still shared a taxi with two randomers who were sound and the show was a good laugh. just a shame about the frostbite. drifters had a hard time but they were still savage.

MustangMick

What a joke.
Friends waited over an hour for the bus at Red Cow Luas. (Supposed to be every 20 mins)

No signs at CityWest exit, Parking stewards that couldn't care less, not bothered.
Abysmal parking facilities. (Thats why there was supposed be a bus service from Town....)
Outdoor F1 Simulators froze up.
"Race track" was a closed off section of car park.
Indoor Coffee/Bar closed at 2.30. Only food options were outside in the cold.

Show was ok (1 hr 25 mins) but the presenters were on for less than half that, mostly Car displays and Promo films..

A complete waste of money.
Mick

helimachoptor

Was at it yesterday and tbh was pretty poor taking everything into account. It was basically a stunt driving show

ButtersSuki

Rather than b*tch and moan bout it here,. why don't you write to the Show Organisers?

Brand Events Management Ireland Limited
118 Rock Road
Booterstown
Co Dublin
Ireland
T +353 (01)210 9290
F +353 (01)288 0379

info@brandevents.ie

I can guarantee you they'll be sitting in their offices today sipping champers and toasting another "marvelous" success........

The Don

Went yesterday and saw the show at 6. It had the minimum necessary signposts getting there and we basically followed people. Lots of great cars and bikes in the showrooms. The food situation was a bit of a joke though considering the weather.

The show was decent and like others have said basically stunt driving but was great to watch. The lads were funny enough and did their bit well.

One of the guys was at it before and said it was almost exactly the same except they had more cars in the show rooms this time. Not sure I'd pay that money again for it. That said I enjoyed it.

Raytown Rocks

I went on Friday. I won free VIP tickets that day. Valued around €90 each.

Thank god I didnt buy them. I honestly thought it was crap.

We had funderland/toys for big boys all rolled into one outside.

No one seemed to know where anything was? Was a shambles


The show itself was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay to choreographed.


The VIP bands got me behind the stage after the show.
We were led like cattle to look at the cars that had performed in the show and to listento some TG behind the scenes guy rave about the TG staff.

Persoanally I thought it was muck.

liamtaaffe

I went to the friday show ireland am endorsed. I sent the following E-mail to top gear and ireland am. but the mail i sent to brand events and complaints at top gear both came back as undelivered. as yet i have had no reply.

staff were rude and whole thing was a massive flop there were a few positives read my e mail. please send e mails to these people to let them know we wont be taken for fools any more. here is the e mail

following an ad in tv3 we looked at the festival website through the ireland am icon on the left of the page. we purchased family diamond tickets to fridays show at 3pm. apart from diamond tickets on the sat and sun. the ireland am tickets for friday promised:

live entertainment with complimentary goodies
try your hand at passenger dream rides driving the smallest car in the world.
take a pit stop at the food village.

(we got none of these).

after a 3-4 hour journey we arrived at citywest. we asked security at 2pm if we could use the on site portaloos. they refused so we had to wait till 3pm. with 2 children who needed to go to the toilet.
at 3pm we asked where programmes guides were they said on the ticket 3-11pm.

we tried to get to the sprint section but were herded round like sheep round entrance to sprints and sent through the area where the ferris wheel was when we got to the lower gate we were told we could not go through we had to go back to the top to get into the sprints where we had previously been and refused entry. by the time we got into the sprint area it was over.

so on we went to the theatre show at 4:30 we enjoyed the show but when it came time for the backstage passes again we were herded round like sheep with shouts of hurry up on through. by the time we had gotten into the backstage from block A we were there about 90 seconds when we were told we had to leave immediately. Not that it mattered as the crowd was so deep that we could not see anything

after coming out an announcement was made that only ticket holders with 8pm show tickets would be allowed to enter the motor exhibition. which we didnt have time to see.

to add insult to injury I heard a call on the security guards radio saying that there were people in with no tickets. this does not surprise me at all as the only time we were asked for tickets was going into the theatre show. we werent even asked for tickets coming in in the car.

when we went to see the peel p50 worlds smallest car it was 25 pounds stg to get in this included a t shirt and other things. it was supposed to be included with our ticket but we were not going to pay 100 stg after paying for 4 diamond tickets.

the car club consisted of 3 cars which was a joke and the car display behind the ferris wheel was very poor around 10 cars in all.
I have seen local car club displays with 10 times the number of vehicles as a car fanatic and club member myself it was extremely disappointing.

the security Guards were rude and unhelpful and none of the staff seemed to know anything about what was going on. anyone approached with a question seemed put out when asked, and dismissive.

we were over charged by 9 euro at the burger bar beside the red bull jeep.

I have 2 friends who wanted me to let them know what it was like as they had tickets for sat. 1 rang me while i was still there. I didn't
answer the phone as I didn't want to tell him anything negative and spoil his trip because of my negative experience as I hope the organisers would get their act together by sat.

the only positives were the children enjoyed the theatre show.
the rides were good value.
and the guy who ran the race pods beside hamleys toys was extremely nice and really nice to our children.

we feel really ripped off and let down by top gear and ireland am. the way things are in the country at the minute for a family to book tickets and travel 300 miles coming up to christmas is a stretch on peoples finances and to be treated as we were is a shame as we were looking forward to this so much.

it was a complete farce and We will never go to a top gear event again or any event endorsed by ireland am or tv3.
and from talking to other people I don't think we were the only negative experience.

yours, Disappointed
william in leitrim.

RoryMurphyJnr

Went on the Sat to the 7pm show.
Got there with a couple of hours to spend on the outside tracks etc before the show.

Loads of lovely bikes to be seen, outside race track was as dull as dish water, watched a couple of laps bored to tears.
Monster truck advertised but think it just sat there for pics certainly didn't see it moving.

High end cars were great

Show was excellent, the lads were very good, better than the first year in the RDS.

After show was as expected, but still had plenty of time to see all the cars from the show.

VIP though is a joke, you get to see the show cars but that's about it.

And waiting to get the bus back to City West took about 45mins in the freezing cold.

Good show? Yes
Worth a ton for a ticket? not a chance
Still the young lad wanted it as a xmas pressie so off we went
He enjoyed himself and that's the main thing

ButtersSuki

I've had the dubious honour of going (for free) to the pre-launch VIP/Press/Media day (or whatever it was called) for the 2 years prior to this years show - and I could have gone to this year's but had a freshly painted wall at home that needed close supervision. I didn't want to go the 2nd year after the 1st year yet had a friend who begged me to take him - he was begging to leave after about 20mins.

It is a joke to even call this a "show". I dread to think of how anyone can pay this money and find anything approaching value in it. It's like a bigger version of that other annual blight on the RDS, Toys for Big Boys. It is plugged to death on all media partners and outlets (Richard Hammond was on The Last Word and The Right Hook AT THE SAME TIME last week ffs!) as being amazing but in reality it is shoyte. Fair enough if kids like it but fock me, it is a rip off.

And I'm just talking about the show - not alone how people are treated at these things. Get 'em in and out as fast as you can to make way for the next group of fools punters.

I feel sorry for anyone who had to pay to go, but don't darken their door again.

Crackle

I enjoyed last year's show at the RDS but not so much this year. The live show was OK, much the same as last year's if I'm honest, but the rest of it was pretty poor. The layout of the exhibit was very poor and the staff weren't very helpful. I certainly won't be going again if it's on in Citywest.

Derekson

The VIP back stage tour has always been a joke I went the first and second years and on both occasions it was very badly organised and everyone felt like cattle being herded out of a field for milking.

I decided after two years of a bad experience I would give it a miss this year and to be honest the tickets were too expensive. A friend went to it in the UK and he reckons it cost the same to go to London with flights as it did to get a half decent ticket for Dublin. He did say the back stage tour was also much better and there was lots of space and time to see everything.

liamtaaffe

brand events contacted me today listened and said the boss would ring me tomorrow. remains to be seen but will hold out hope. Maybe will get some sort of satisfaction.

fryup

so who's bright idea was it to move it to citywest?

RDS too expensive?

ButtersSuki

liamtaaffe wrote: »

brand events contacted me today listened and said the boss would ring me tomorrow. remains to be seen but will hold out hope. Maybe will get some sort of satisfaction.

Keep us posted Liam!

hunter29

I had tickets for the 3pm saturday show and due to the snow i couldn't make it, when i phoned up on the morning to see if it was still going ahead i was told to wait for the update on the website that to this day still isn't up there. reading all these posts i am glad i didn't go. after some calls to "brand events" about the lack of info on the webste and on the phone i have got a full refund on my tickets. Has anyone else been able to get there money back?

smight

I wasn't able to make it due to the snow either. I have been in contact with the organizers and they have given me tickets to one of the other events, which in fairness was decent considering the weather was outside their control.

I was due to fly to the UK yesterday with Ryanair - no such luck with them..... anyone else have this experience?

hunter29

Just out of interest what was the event that they are giving you tickets to. I am sure we aren't the only ones that didn't make it due to the weather and i would like to read everyone else's experience with "brand events"

Johnny one

I had 2 Diamond tickets seat A1 and A2 for the 12 o clock show on sunday.Weather conditions meant i couldnt make it what do i do.
Do we get a refund.

ButtersSuki

Johnny one wrote: »

I had 2 Diamond tickets seat A1 and A2 for the 12 o clock show on sunday.Weather conditions meant i couldnt make it what do i do.
Do we get a refund.

Ah, make contact with the organisers.....details in a previous post above. TBH I doubt though.

Victor_M

Whilst I enjoyed the Top Gear live show 2 years ago in the RDS, I was disappointed by the lack of professionalism by JC and the boys, they were bragging about being on the RIP in lilies until 5 am the previous morning and could hardly speak. Despite that though the show was good fun.

This year on the other hand, was atrocious, brutal venue, no stunts, just a few poorly scripted gags, crap driving (anyone can do donuts) poorly timed pyrotechnics, pretty much every aspect of the show was a letdown.

I'm annoyed that I wasted 4 hours of my life at the show, I got the tickets for free (as did most people by the looks of things) if I had paid for them I'd be raging and would have been onto the event organisers looking for either an apology or a refund!