I’m not sure where to start with this review.I live one junction away from Abingdon Airfield. It’s normally a 12 min drive. Today I allowed an hour for the journey but it took 2. I had three realistic options based on their colour coded routes. The A34 was complete gridlock so I opted to go via Marcham. I later found out that most people on the A34 never made it in at all.The bonfire was due to be lit at 7pm. At 730pm they were still pouring petrol all over it to try and get it to light. Eventually, when they did try and set it alight it just didn’t go up as expected and within moments staff were clambering all over the petrol sodden wood to try and get the thing alight. The correct decision at that point should have been to abandon the fire and move on with the evening. That being said, it did eventually go up, however, the delay meant they couldn’t start the fireworks because someone had the bright idea of putting an enormous fire right in front of the fireworks display, so when they did start, 1hr15 mins late at 9.15pm, you couldn’t actually see them.We made the decision to leave 10 mins in to the display, as did thousands of others, a) because you couldn’t really see the fireworks anyway and b) I knew the traffic was going to be a nightmare.The event has huge potential. For next year I suggest the following:1. Limit the number of tickets to avoid the chaos that prevented many people getting in tonight. The crowd size was definitely not safe.2. Have decision points. If something hasn’t happened by a certain point, move on to the next event.3. Put numbers or letters at the end of each row of cars so people can find cars at the end of the night. The idea of dropping a pin on Google maps is useless when the phone networks completely stop working as they did tonight.4. Don’t put the fire infront of the fireworks display. Look at the weather forecast and build it down wind of the fireworks.5. Have two sets of portaloos, one at each end of the event rather than one big area at the entrance.In sum, lots of potential but a complete disaster tonight due to traffic and poor planning / execution.My review was deleted from Google so I’m giving this a go instead. Makes me realise what a sham all these review sites are when legitimate reviews get deleted.
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Unique and exciting family experiences featuring an Xplosive combination of world class fireworks, air displays and light shows!