Brighton food lovers cheesed off after 'disappointing' festival

A cheese festival in Brighton has come under fire after leaving visitors queuing for over an hour before some of the stalls ran out of cheese.
A shortage of cheese at Cheese Fest UK (Photograph: Kate Harrison)A shortage of cheese at Cheese Fest UK (Photograph: Kate Harrison)
A shortage of cheese at Cheese Fest UK (Photograph: Kate Harrison)

Cheese Fest UK, which took place at Victoria Gardens on Saturday and Sunday (August 12-13), promised an experience of 'some of the cheesiest cheeses in the world', with melted raclette, cheese wheels, gooey mozzarella sticks and other cheeses on offer. But some of the cheese lovers in attendance expressed their disappointment online after paying up to £6 for a ticket for an event with long queues and 'barely any cheese'.

Kate Harrison, a Brighton author and food writer, said: "I booked it because I thought it'd be a fun event celebrating cheese, which I love. The information was a bit scarce but I expected cheese to buy and some tasters, plus maybe local stands.

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"Instead, imagine hundreds of frustrated cheese fans hemmed into a tiny space, with insane queues for everything, and a DJ who didn't even play cheesy music. The food looked mixed - £6+ for a toastie after you've already paid £6 to get in seemed steep. The Mac and Cheese queue stretched the entire width of the space. It felt like a massive wasted opportunity.

"The weekly Street Diner at Brighthelm has tastier food, shorter queues and is free! And the organisers' attitude on social media was rubbish, they deleted comments from the Facebook page and just gave the same stock answers about it being a celebration of 'contemporary cheese.' Still, I went home and ate cheese there, and the 'unbrielievable' jokes on Twitter made up for the disappointment."

Organisers responded to complaints on Twitter saying: "We welcome constructive criticism during our first event. The demand for the cheese on offer wasn't anticipated, we apologise."

Cheese Fest UK has been contacted for a comment.