News

HAWKINGE FIREWORKS - "WHAT A F***ING LIBERTY"

Dear Ed,

I must say how disappointed I was in the fireworks display at Hawkinge Cricket Club this year. 

I went a couple of years ago and it was an excellent display, so this year I invited a friend along to join myself and my little boy. 

Having read in the local paper that the fireworks would begin at 7.30pm we arrived at about 7.15 and to my amazement (and slight embarrassment as I'd told my friend it was only going to be a couple of quid) was charged £10 entrance fee for two adults. 

What did we get for our money? Almost an hour's wait in the cold and damp watching the safely cordoned off bonfire slowly collapsing in on itself in the far corner of the field whilst a bunch of men jumped in and out of a van and ran around scratching their heads before finally lighting the fireworks shortly after 8.08pm.

By this time my son was grumpy, cold and tired and I was pretty cheesed off myself. At £5 a head you'd think the organisers could have stretched to a PA system to tell us what the heck was going on. I asked a couple of women in front of me if they knew what time the fireworks were supposed to be going off and they said they'd been told between 7 and 8pm! 

Apparently a few had been let off shortly after 7pm. Odd that the man on the gate didn't tell us we'd missed half the show when he relieved us of a tenner!

We could have gone to the biggest display in the country at Battersea Park for that amount or any number of other local displays for half that amount. At a public display at Pfizer in Sandwich I was told there was a fantastic half hour extravaganza and all for just £3.50.

In the words of the TV comedienne Catherine Tate: "What a f***ing liberty!"

Petra S