Norwich's Fortnite Live Festival Was a Complete Disaster

An anonymous reader shares a report: A festival designed to recreate Fortnite on the outskirts of Norwich has, somewhat predictably, not lived up to expectations. Event organisers flogged 2500 tickets to kids and parents. Entry cost upwards of $15 and unlimited access wristbands a further $26. In return, families got what amounted to a few fairground attractions. Photos from the event show a climbing wall for three people, archery for four people, and four go-karts. An attraction dubbed a "cave experience" was a lorry trailer with tarpaulin over it. An indoors area where you could play actual Fortnite was probably the best thing there -- although it cost money to access and you had to queue to do so. So much for free-to-play. And all of that was if you could actually get into the event to start with. Hundreds of people were left queuing for hours due to staff shortages.

Epic Fail

[Nidi62]

Not only did the festival fail, but it would appear that the organizers had no affiliation with Epic, and (as hinted by the article) no permission to use the Fortnite branding. They've set themselves up for a nice lawsuit, either from attendees or Epic itself.

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[drinkypoo]

They've set themselves up for a nice lawsuit, either from attendees or Epic itself.

Class action by attendees for not delivering whatever was promised, trademark violation by Epic for damage to the value of their brand through misuse of trademark. It's not either-or, it's both. They get all the lawsuits.

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[Richard_at_work]

We don't really have class action suites in the UK, but there might be enforcement action by our consumer rights organisations.

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[mobby_6kl]

They got sued already [rockpapershotgun.com], Epic isn't fucking around with their cash cow.

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[sheramil]

Tell me that they at least had a spider-baby.

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[arglebargle_xiv]

I didn't know the Fyre guys had moved to the UK...

This always happens at Christmas

[xack]

Every year at Christmas you hear of a "winter blunderland" go wrong. The only thing different this time is that a game is involved.

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[Fly Swatter]

Cmon, you could have looked almost all of this up in the time it took to post. But for the unworldly types, a lorry is known as a tractor trailer or semi truck in the US.

A queue is a line - they had to wait in line, from this I have determined that english isn't your native language.

As for Norwich, well the article is down (slashdotted, haha?) But once again a search gives the event details: Royal Norfolk Showground Arena - Norwich - United Kingdom [eventbrite.co.uk]

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[K. S. Kyosuke]

Perhaps it was confusing because it's difficult to imagine a UK event receiving payment in dollars.

Should have signed up for the "Purge"

[mykepredko]

Sounds like fun limited only by your imagination. Just saying.

(IMHO) Fortnite has one purpose for existing...

[Anonymous Coward]

IMHO, Fortnite and Apex Legends have one sole purpose for existing.

They keep the crappy gamers occupied there, ensuring that in every other online game, the people you interact with are a lot better quality. Every multiplayer game I've played since FN came out has had far better people and far less whining than before.

Let them chase after the tomato-head or whatever is the latest in the game. While they do that, they are not infesting other games.

Were any rappers involved?

[bobstreo]

Because Fortnite Fyre Festival kinda rolls off the tongue.

At least it only cost $15-25 and people weren't trapped there without food or water...

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[Nidi62]

At least it only cost $15-25 and people weren't trapped there without food...

Well, they are still in England....

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[xxxJonBoyxxx]

Look up "Harry Potter Festivals" if you want to see similar bait-and-switch in the USA.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Sounds like Fyre Festival but for Kids

[thereddaikon]

Lets see, bunch of people standing around in lines. Promised attractions were either half-assed or non existent. And we have the high likelihood of lawsuits for both fraud and copyright infringement. Yup its Fyre Festival kids edition. Its on an appropriately smaller scale because kids can't afford to drop several grand on flying out to a tropical island. The have to settle for their parents driving them to a field.

The economics don't stack up

[maroberts]

If you have 2500 people paying £15 you are only going to get just short of £40k in revenue, which means you can't spend a huge amount on the entertainment, especially if you've included staffing costs.

To provide a decent experience and to provide the revenue to pay for it, you either need to dramatically increase the entry fee, or get a lot more people coming or some combination of both.

Also Norwich is one of those cities in the middle of nowhere (in UK terms anyway), Unless you live close to it

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[thevirtualcat]

I saw "2500 people times £12" and cringed.

"500 times $50" is doable, depending on your venue. (A hotel will give you a break on programming space if you can fill rooms.) But it's still pretty shoestring. But I can't imagine that being anywhere near enough to hold an outdoor event with minimal existing infrastructure, let alone doing doing it for five times as many people with only 66% more budget.

Realistic though

[slashmydots]

I bet the entire event had nonstop 12 year olds talking shit with audio chat in person though. That's real.