Heritagelive Omdömen 181

I attended the Michael Bublé concert on Sunday August 17th. The concert was incredible, however, the organisation around the festival site and local area was dreadful. Despite leaving in plenty of time it took over 2 hours to travel from Kings Lynn to the festival car park. There were no marked lanes in the carpark and although we arrived at 2.15pm with a plan to see the gardens and house prior to the concert, once on the festival site we were not allowed to leave again. The seating areas were filling up by 3pm and despite following instructions from the stewards to leave clear pathways in case of emergency, by the time the concert began with Gabrielle people were sitting anywhere and no-one was organising emergency exits. As for leaving at 11pm , having only one dirt track for all vehicles to leave the site, it was complete chaos run by very inexperienced stewards who didn't seem to have a clue on how to clear the area. Cars were driving randomly across the site leading to 5 or 6 lanes of traffic, with cars trying to push into the line from all angles and then, ultimately trying to feed through one very narrow gate, only to be led down a very long unadopted track. We were staying 24miles away and we finally arrived there at 2.15am. I am only surprised there were no major accidents. Although we loved the festival we would not be happy to return to the venue again or attend any event organised by the same company.

We went to see Michael Buble, arrived at 4pm with chairs as we had my partners Mother with us who has very limited walking/standing ability. There was no space in the seating area at the back so everyone that was arriving at the same time sat in front of this area. We had been there about 20 mins when we were very aggressively told that if we did not fold our chairs and sit on the floor they would be taken off us. Clearly there had been no thought to the demographic of the audience for this event as the majority were mor mature who clearly couldnt be able to sit on the floor or stand on the uneven ground for hours. Given the price of the tickets it was very poor and spoilt the evening somewhat. As for the parking well words fail (again the same as 2023 when we went to see Robbie). Food and drink prices were extortionate as well £75.80 for 2 carafes of wine, a small guiness and small cider. If you want to go to an outdoor concert go to Thetford Forest, much more organised in terms of parking and where you can sit (and you can take a picnic). We will certainly not be going to Sandringham again.

Like many other reviewers, our experience was dreadful, bordering on dangerous. The management of the event was a disgrace. I was told on the two nights prior to our visit to see Stereophonics, the attendance was c.16 to 18 thousand. On the night we went, apparently in excess of 36,000 and it felt like it.

The layout of the event was just plain stupid. The refrigerated 40 foot food trailers arranged in a compound directly in the centre of what would have been the perfect viewing area, so dividing the viewing into a huge V shape stretching all the way back to the rear fence line, so the stage was either out of sight or too far away to be viewed by many, us included.

The seated section in the middle (which we couldn't get into as it was completely full) had a very stupidly placed two to three metre high illuminated 'Heritage Live' lettering completely blocking the view! Madness. What idiot thought that was a good idea?

Like others, the toilet queues were crazy, I can sympathise with those who went by the fence, I considered it! We sat at the back near the bar and timed people in the queues. I reckon minimum 30 minutes but closer to an hour for most. All that for an appalling semi warm pint of flat Stella at £7.20. Disgusting.

We've been to other heritage Live events at Audlent End Hall and they've been very well managed. Sandringham though? A joke. We left before the end of the Stereophonics set, knowing that it would be carnage getting out and by the sounds of it, it was.

With a two night stay and tickets we are into £700 and we left two thirds through the set. Disgrace.

The security guy told us they'd been surprised at the attendance, for a TICKET ONLY event! I can only presume that the organisers are happy to just take the money and leave a dangerous crowd to take its chances. NEVER AGAIN.

My 1 star is purely because all 3 acts we saw Sunday were amazing . My Mother booked a VIP Experience which was the biggest joke! Only ‘Gold’ vips were guaranteed a seat so my elderly mother had to sit on the floor. There were plenty of toilets but only 2 choices of food which was extortionate- 2 pork & stuffing rolls & 2 soft drinks cost almost & £40!! The artists playing meant a lot of the demographic attending were more senior in years. There were disabled people that struggled to walk with crutches that had also paid for a VIP experience only to find there was nowhere to sit. You could hire deckchairs but were prohibited from taking them into the VIP area. I eventually asked someone if I could take their table for my 83 yr old Mum to sit down when she needed to. We were sat right in front of the ‘Media Tent’ where there were 2 picnic benches/tables and security refused to allow them to be moved to allow elderly/disabled people to sit down. Exit from the car park was OK as we were in the VIP car park although the path to the car park was very dark with ridiculous spotlights blinding you so I unfortunately took a fall & took my Mum down with me and she badly grazed her knee. The roads outside the car park were absolutely grid locked and took us 90 mins away to get to our accommodation 7 miles away. The artists were all brilliant and completely professional given the shocking sound system. Definitely would not attend such an event again, it turned what should have been a great day into a unnecessary stressful one. Clearly Heritage have a lot to learn from this event.

Attended Sandringham yesterday. Gabrielle, Beverly Knight and Micheal Buble were great, but there was too much time between acts of nothing at all! We spent 5 hours sitting on the grass waiting to see anyone at all. MB didn’t come on until after 9pm
The staff did not manage the crowds, we sat all afternoon in our chosen spot, only to have people push in and completely block my view just as the acts came on.
But the very worse thing was leaving at the end of the night!
There were no exit signs, no designated exit routes, and no staff to assist until the situation got totally out of hand. It was total chaos, and took over two hours just to get out of the parking area. Most of that was spent stationary! We would never attend a Heritage event again!

Unsafe event. I went to see the Michael Buble on 17th Aug. (Also pet shop boys on 14th Aug)
Both were busy & took a long time to get out of the car park. However the event on 17th Aug was far too over crowded, to the point of being unsafe. No room to walk between chairs as people who arrived early were squashed into a very small area at the back. As more & more people arrived they were allowed to sit in front of the original assigned seating area. People complaining all over the place, security staff disappeared.
Overpriced food, filthy bins overflowing. Loud music coming from the fairground when trying to listen to the show. Unfair as people who arrived early were forced to sit nearer to it, than people who arrive later. Screens didn't sync with the sound there was a small delay, some sound issues.
Took 2 hours to get out of the car park, cars driving everywhere, car park full of chocking fumes with all engines running,
All the acts were all amazing, especially Beverly Knight, but the organisation was terrible. HERITAGELIVE are just MONEY GRABBING, no care for attendees.

First time we have attended Heritage Live event and being big festival goers and avid live music fans booked Friday, Saturday and Sunday nghts camping close by. Online it said that picics were allowed, however on the Friday evening we had crips and biscuits confiscated, so very mixed messages. I didn't have a problem with people bringing chairs. The demographic of the event meant that people could relax and chat together between sets comfortably in the sunshine, and stand up when the performers arrived on stage. What i did have an issue with were the lack of toilets, so much so they were disgusting by 4pm, and because of the long queues people (men and women) thought it was acceptable to urinate along the fence line, right by people on seats and by children! Its a shame the "security" didnt spend more time ensuring this disgusting anti social behaviour couldnt happen rather than asking elderly folk to remove their chairs and sit on the floor! The security around the pedestrian entrance by the stage was an absolute joke. In fact it was dangerous. There was absolutely no attempt to keep the walkway free of people leading to the people in wheel chairs unable to see the stage, and meaning that when we came to leave slightly before the finish each night we could not get out as people had stood on the walkway to get a close up view of the stage rather than standing in the designated areas to keep the walkway free. The price of the food and drink was extortinate, not very family friendly or inclusive considering the price of tickets for an outdoor event. It took my brother in law 2.5 hours to get out of the car park on saturday night due to a bad traffic management plan and lack of organisation. All of the "ssecurity" were bussed in from god knows where, they were certainly not local so if you asked them any questions out exits, paths, directions, none of them had any clue. We will not be attending this event again despite the fabulous performances and line up.

Never again.
Gabrielle and Beverley Knight were great, pity they couldn't get any of the screens to sync - at least a 1 second delay.
Was about 1/4 mile from the stage, artists were a mere speck.
Thousands of people left halfway through Buble - why was he on so late ? we didn't get home until 2am and left halfway through his set.
Dust everywhere.

Crazy toilet queues, silly overpriced food, only saving grace was that it didn't rain - that would've been hell.

Sandringham for Michael Buble. My husband and I arrived in good time- 2pm- and headed towards the stage with deck chairs. We were mindful of not being right up close. We were asked to move back with our chairs. We did, and were asked again. We moved right back and settled down. As the afternoon progressed, people arrived with chairs and Sat exactly where we had been and much further forward. No one moved them on. I don't mind people having the space and using chairs in front of me, but what really annoyed me was the fact we could have been further forward. The officials were not addressing the issue. One rule for one and all that.
The venue is huge and given the amount of people, there were not enough food vans or toilets. Michael was fantastic - the venue and officials were not.

Absolutely disgraceful, Terrible organisation which bordered on dangerous. Crowd management and facilities poor and staffed by clueless people with no experience. Heritage live just a money making company with no regard for facilities and safety. Sandringham should not give Heritage Live any contract. Also attended in 2023 that was a shambles with improvement promised, well it was worse this year! If only King Charles knew the bad press and impression that this event has generated for the Sandringham Estate. Will never attend a Heritage Live concert again!

I am writing to provide feedback regarding my experience at the recent concert featuring Stereophonics, Blossoms, and Jake Bugg at Sandringham. While the musical performances were outstanding and thoroughly enjoyed, my overall experience was significantly marred by a number of serious organisational and logistical issues.

As a regular attendee of concerts and festivals, I feel compelled to share that this event was, regrettably, one of the most poorly organised I have experienced.

I was deeply disappointed by the poor organisation and crowd management throughout the day. The queues for food and drink vendors were excessively long, making it nearly impossible to purchase anything without missing large portions of the performances.

Additionally, I have significant concerns regarding safety and crowd control. At various points, the crowd seemed to be unmanaged, leading to a sense of unease. There also appeared to be a lack of adequate space, especially in the areas designated for chairs, which created congestion and potential hazards. The general safety measures felt insufficient for the size of the crowd, with bottlenecks in multiple places.

Finally, the pricing for food and beverages was extremely high, which, combined with the incredibly long queues, added to a frustrating and disappointing experience. It felt as though a basic level of customer care was lacking in these key areas.

While the artists were fantastic, the overall event management fell far short of expectation I had for the event.

I would give a -10 score if I could!
Saw Michael Buble at Sandringham yesterday (not cheap tickets!) experienced the following :
The audience layout was horrendous, the screens were too small. If you were seated you had NO chance of a good view so relied on small screens..
They had sound quality issues and the screens had a sound delay which spoilt enjoyment of the artists. Overpriced dreadful cheap quality food traders only fit for a fair ground! Talking about fairground, WHO decided to put fair ground rides that continued working and people screaming which ruined the show when Michael sung as you could not hear properly!!! SO DREADFUL!! Even Michael commented on the fair site from the stage! The very long bar was located in the wrong area as people could have stood there to get a better view! 1 hour 40 minutes to get out of the car park stayed stationary for 1 hour!! The marshals didn't seem to manage it at all with drivers aggressively jumping the queue, signage dreadful!!
The litter bins overflowed and litter scattered all over the floor.. No thought went in at all to plan this venue properly! I won't EVER attend another concert there. ///// This is a HUGE RED FLAG WARNING to anyone considering Sandringham location as a entertainment venue! AVOID ///// I will be sending a copy of this to Heritage as by the looks of it they don't respond on Trustpilot and their scoring is 1 star!! Says it all really.. But hey, they got their money why should they care! Heritage live website does not have a complain link, I wonder why!

the acts were fab, it ends there - we are sandringham annual pass members and live 10 mins away yet we are horrified, going Fri & Sat and what we experianced
arrival Fri using Big Green Bus, pitch up chair within the allocated spaces no problem
Arrive Sat go to same spot at 2pm not allowed go right to the back behind a diferant line, then to watch everyone arrive after us and pitch a chair up in front is grossly unfair, security can't cope it's a mutiny you MUST either allow chairs and have clearly defined bigger area or not allow them full stop.
Big Green Buss - Fri 10.45pm 6 double decker buses full going to Kings Lynn (8 miles) none are allowed to leave until all the other coaches have left £30 return journey a complete rip off you do the coach to avoid parking issues we were no better off, 3 hours to get out on both nights.

Food & drink rip off
I 100% agree with stopping people taking copiuos amounts of alcohol, ruins it for all however sealed soft drinks and snacks should be allowed, I begrude being forced to queue and eat junk at a rip off price just to survive the day & evening

Who ever thought it's a good idea to have fairground rides near where you are listening to live music needs a sense check

all in we went 2 nights, spent hundreds on tickets, coach travel, forced junk food and apart from the acts basically a big vast rip off

Robbie was the same 2 years ago, I thought they may have learnt from bad reviews then and we gave it a go - NEVER again

Sandringham heritage live concert Michael Buble.
We had 2 VIP BRonze tickets costing over £300 pounds each. The description was that this area therewould have bars food toilets etc with unreserved sitting tables and cushions. We got there early2.30 Michael was not singing until 9. There was not any sitting available even at this time. Lots of people really disappointed, far too few for the amount of people who paid for VIP. The whole thing was not thought out. There were people complaining all the time. My husband has metal plates in his back. We explained that in the car l had some seats that we could get. I was told if we left we would not be allowed re entry . This concert was not thought through by the organisers. The majority of the audience was of an older age group this was set up as if was a Taylor Swift concert. Totally unorganised. Lots of people complaining. Waited standing for 2 hours now 4.30 my husband in extreme pain. We left losing £600. Never again worst concert playing ever.

Probably the worst gig I’ve ever been to.
1 1/2 hours to get in
2 1/2 to get out
£10 for a glass of wine
£20 for a cheese toastie and chips

No available seating in the VIP area, my 78 yr old mum was made to stand all day. I asked if I could rent and bring in a couple of seats, they refused.

We decided to leave early but the exit we needed was completely blocked as it was positioned to the left of the stage!!!So completely impossible to get through during the headline act. Whose idea was that??
It took us an hour of pushing and shoving just to get to where the bus collects.

Absolute shit show of a day DO NOT BOOK TICKETS TO THESE EVENTS!!!!!

We saw Michael Buble and cannot fault the 3 performers absolutely brilliant but the organisation of the event was appauling.
Arrived and parked in Blue zone- that went fairly smoothly.
Walked around the whole stage area- sound equipment was in the middle blocking most of the views (at ed sheeran there were two side contol areas)
We found a spot eventually and checked it it was ok- security said no- everyone here will be asked to move and to go to the back.
So we went right to the back not far from the toilets. View was ok (not that we could actuall see the perfomers as the stage should have been higher) there was a screen by the toilets too,so we thought ok not too bad.
Well the screen was briliant but there was a delay on the sound. No sprakers in our area meant it was out of sync. So diappointing.
Before Michael we moved up as we saw nobody had moved there chairs back and in fact there were chairs everywhere except the very front. We had a better view of the screens by the stage and the sound matched- but again the stage was too low to actually see. Felt rude bringing our chairs up but it was further back than our original spot
Now toilets- they were the worst toilets and were fully blocked by 5pm only 1 location for everyone so cues were massive. There was a smaller block but they were for wristband only which I couldnt see a sign for. I have a picture of the rubbish bins- again not enough. Piled high and overflowing with rubbish all around.

Food was expensive but that was expected.

Probably wouldnt be writing this if the evening didnt end the way it did with leaving the parking nightmare.

We left before the last song so got to the car fine. Felt sorry for the people having to shout which way to the 3 parking lots.
Got to our car and got in the queue to leave. It took hours- we politely waited in the main queue. Others did not! It always shows the worst of human behavior as some drivers were flying up the fields. No security or parking control. The organisers are lucky nobody got killed in that car park. It was horrendous and worse than any other event we have been to.
Sandringham Estate should not allow Heritage Live to host these events. I had hoped, being Sandringham, it would be a wonderful experience. And the acts were but the experience was tainted by poor organisation, lack of security and parking, lack of basic health and safety and hygeine. They were not cheap tickets.

Performances excellent but venue not fit to cope with the numbers.
Stage not visible from most locations.
Unfortunately it's all about revenue.. reflects badly on the Royal Estate.

The stereophonics were amazing.
Jake Bugg and the Blossoms were average.
Parking was fine for the volume of people there, and traffic was fine for us locals who know our way around.

Two real negatives though:
1) the Security team were below standard, especially for this type of event (lazing around/not vigilant; walking around chatting and messing around, rather than pro-activelly patrolling; carrying batons/ASPs!; searching on entry without consent first, searching technique was poor; communication skills were poor-atrocious (some, not all); glad I didn't pay for VIP as the three lent against the fence/barrier were far from delivering a VIP expereience).
2) Smoking: the volume of people smoking and vaping destroyed the whole experience, you just couldn't get away from it, even weed! It's 2025 and paying guests should not be subject to such horrific environment and putting their health at risk. As the light faded when the (amazing) Stereophonics entertained, the clouds of vape being created by selfish people in the crowd really ruined the experience. Based on this, I'd never attend a Heritage Live event again, unless they put strong control measures in place.

Michael Buble was great, but I will NEVER attend another concert hosted by Heritage Live.

Firstly, there was little signage for the event on the roads leading up to Sandringham and we had red about parking zones before attending, yet we arrived and were told to park anywhere. No one was directing the traffic, a lot of people in hi-vis vests were standing around doing very little.

This has got to be one of, if not the worst designed concert space/area I have ever seen. Firstly, why was there a fair ground ride literally metres away from people sitting in deck chairs going off during one of Micheals songs - which ruined part of the show. The ride was extremely loud, you couldn’t hear the song being played and the owner was extremely aggressive and rude. The female owner of the NYC ride was shouting and making a scene during one of the songs which had thousands of people wondering what was going on as she was kicking off. All we wanted to do was enjoy the show, yet there’s a fair ground ride going off just behind us and it’s all we can hear. We didn’t pay a lot of money to be pissed off by a fair ground ride and a rude owner. Why would anything think that it is a good idea to put a fair ground ride in an area where there will be thousands of people in a tight area. There was plenty of room for that ride to go on the left side of the concert area, near the other food stalls. I think a chimp could have mapped out the food stalls/rides better than whoever did this year.

Not being able to go out of the venue to go back to your car is absolutely ridiculous. I needed to grab my spare inhaler and I was told I wouldn’t be allowed back into the venue if I were to leave. We are not children, we shouldn’t be told we cannot do something as simple as leaving and coming back in. Why was there not something put in place to allow people to leave as and when they needed too. Wristbands or even a stamp would have worked or just showing your ticket to someone at the gate. Absolutely horrendous.

Why was there very few bins - you know there is going to be thousands upon thousands of people, yet I think I saw three bins? There was so much litter on the floor, it was absolutely disgusting. Also, how does this work, Heritage Live didn’t want anyone to bring in their own plastic bottled water, yet were serving all of there alcohol in plastic cups, with no recycling bins… seems a little backwards to me.

The layout of where people can stand to see the stage was also ridiculously planned out. Why was there what looked to be an alcohol tent slap bang in the middle of the floor area where people could have stood or sat with a good view of the stage, instead of being crammed to the right corner, in front of the rides and food stalls, where you could barely walk past due to the amount of people sitting down. From the left side of the concert area, you couldn’t even see the stage, just a small screen. Whoever designed and planned out the layout of the staging, rides and food stalls needs to be replaced with somebody with a few more brain cells.

The food was ridiculously priced, as I’m sure you can expect from events like this, but if you’re going to charge extortionate rates, make sure the foods edible. I had Chinese noodles which were cold and tasted absolutely disgusting, which I ended up throwing half of them away. Also just an fyi - the sweet pick and mix stall had hundreds of flies on all of the sweets and chocolate.

Disgraceful organisation and very overpriced tickets.
Looking uphill at the performers was just plain stupid - it meant the stage wasn’t visible. We arrived at 3pm but could not find a decent space to put our chairs. We were moved on by stewards for sitting on the wrong side of an invisible line - as were hundreds of other people.
However, ten minutes later the stewards had given up and people were crowding on those areas as there simply wasn’t enough room to sit.
I’ve never sat as far from a stage - and I’ve been to many summer concerts. All we could see were partial views of the big screen. When people in the audience stood up nothing was viewable at all.
What a waste of money and time!
The food was of absolutely awful quality and very, very expensive. £40 for a jug of Pimm’s which was mostly lemonade and ice. We don’t eat such rubbish as what was on offer there at home and would prefer to bring a picnic like we always used to.
The queues for the toilets were unbelievable! The queues to leave the car park were horrific.
A shambles of an event despite the notably good performers. We won’t waste time and money ey ever again.