'Inexperienced staff and not meeting safety guidelines' reasons behind cancellation of Oktoberfest London

Closed: The remainder of Oktoberfest London was cancelled on Friday morning
Matthew Chattle/REX Shutterstock
Laura Proto10 October 2015

The highly anticipated Oktoberfest London event was cancelled because of low staffing numbers, inexperienced bar staff and safety guidelines that had not been met, it has been claimed.

The event, which opened on Thursday, was due to run throughout the weekend but the remainder of the beer festival was cancelled yesterday just 30 minutes before revellers were due to pass through the gates.

It was initially unclear why the festival had been cancelled but many who had attended on Thursday evening said the event was “massively oversubscribed”.

Today, Tobacco Dock – the venue for the event – posted a statement explaining they had agreed with the organisers to cancel the remainder of the event because, among the issues, strict safety guidelines had not been met.

Tobacco Dock said in a statement: “Tobacco Dock Venue Limited hired space within the venue to Oktoberfest UK Limited for them to run Octoberfest 2015.

“In line with our policies and terms & conditions of hire, our operations team issued strict operational and safety guidelines throughout the planning process and were unhappy that, at the opening event last Thursday night, these had not been fully implemented.

Notices of cancellation were placed outside the venue
Matthew Chattle/REX Shutterstock

“We were not convinced that the operational changes we required the organiser to make would be able to be put in place by Oktoberfest UK in time for this weekend’s events to run safely and efficiently, and at that point agreed with them that these events should be cancelled.

“The decision was not based on guest numbers nor the nature of the event, both of these were well understood in advance, but on the management and operational systems and insufficient serving staff both in terms of numbers and experience that had been put in place by Oktoberfest UK.

“Oktoberfest UK is solely responsible for dealing with the refund of tickets and any other ticket holder queries.”

Earlier this evening, Oktoberfest London posted on Twitter: “We are devastated for the cancellation of the Oktoberfest events.

“Be assured that we are currently working to address all necessary issues in the best interest of all concerned.

“We are doing our best and will provide further updates to you as soon as they become available.”

Oktoberfest London was contacted by the Standard for further comment.

A second, unconnected event called London Oktoberfest, at Milwall Park, Canary Wharf, continues to run until tomorrow evening.

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