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warren and sarah stout
it was a great day, you lot complain about nothing and we were in red car park at the top of the hill no problems getting in just one hour to get out ha ha

katrina
why thus the bull get angry when i see red plz

Malcolm
what are the dates for 2007

David B-L
I'am writing this message weeks after the 'event' happened because i am still so angry about it. After reading other peoples experences i wonder how Red Bull got it so wrong. I made it into the event without any difficulty but our group traveled in 2 different cars to 2 different coloured carparks.This should have been a 20 min drive but the other car took 3 1/2 hours. I was stuck in the crush on the bridge outside longleat house with my 8 month old daughter in her push chair. Never have i been so scared for her safty. We were next to other parents with their push chairs so we grouped together for safty while people paniced around us. I don't need to go on about the struggle to get out to the carpark or to leave it ( thankyou to the guys who were directing traffic in the carpark under their own motivation)because so may other people have writen about simalar experiences but i left that day convinced people had died and it is down to the general public and luck not Red Bull that nobody did.I will never attend a Red Bull event again or buy a Red Bull product again.RED BULL PLEASE PLEASE LEARN FROM THIS MADNESS AND EXCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR IT. DONT TRY AND PASS THE BUCK THEN MAYBE PEOPLE WILL BEGIN TO TRUST YOU AGAIN !!!!!!!.

a dennington
could you please tell me what time the longleat air race was actually cancelled

Peter
To say the last of this mess... I find it sad that Red Bull, usually so good at PR, have failed to email the thousands of poor souls who tried to get to the event, to offer an apology. It would have been as easy as pressing the Sned button on a computer !

Hedley
All the way from South Africa as a keen pilot , at great expense to witness mismanagement at it's best . I hope all future redbull events will have no attendees

Megan
Hi, we came to the Red Bull Air race all the way from Derby. What a sham it was! We drove from Derby to our hotel in Chippenham the day before the race. On Saturday the day of the race, we left our hotel at 9am in Chippenham and stuck out the traffic jams and all of the complete nonsense, because we had faith that the even would still be on. After reports on the local radio that the event was indeed still taking place, we kept going. How foolish of us! We finally arrived at Longleat at 4:30, starving as we had no food and couldn't stop, and lets just say our bladders have seen better days! It was just so disappointing and absolute rubbish. We spent over 7 hours trying to get there, and after we arrived, 20 mins later they cancelled it. We basically drove over 7 hours, to turn around and come back. It took us just over 2 hours to get back to our hotel. Nightmare...a refund on the tickets hardly compensates for the amount of money which was spent on the weekend-ie)hotel and petrol money and food. We are NEVER going again, don't even begin to mention Red Bull in my household!

John Rigg
Same story as everyone else, wasted several hundred pounds on accomodation & travel to watch cars going nowhere. The following web site might be of interest - it is a feedback page for the traffic control people: http://www.sepevents.co.uk/feed.asp

Colin W
Same as Richard - complete waste of a day, also turned back at 2:30 after a 4 hour drive - still 15 miles short. It didn't strike me there was any way this event could be staged - either the roads are inadequate or the entrance process was too slow - perhaps it would work if restricted to 50,000. But I won't be going again!

Mrs Soup
Who was the police liason offcer? I guess he must have been on holiday! To allow such a mess to occur on his patch will surely raise some serious questions.The whole thing needs seriously reviewing. I don't ever recall being stuck in such awful traffic for a "scheduled" event. We took to the backlanes thanks to an extremely good map, but wisely gave up 3 miles out at 15:45.

Chris + Miki
Worst weekend in years. Waste of our lifes. 10 hours to cover 61 miles...People yelling from the cars that it's been cancelled, so after 3 hours of queing we turned around...only to hear on the radio that it hadn't been cancelled! So we turned around and tried to get back in, worst decision in our lifes for we were stuck for another 4 hours until we got to the entrance, at 5.30pm, and instead of going in we kept going, trying to get out of the one-way lane system of blue car park. Congratulations, see you again next year, same place same time?

Adrian W
I don't have too many complaints about the traffic management (but then I didn't have to use the A303 to get there) or the event being cancelled. My big, big gripe is the reckless management on the ground. As others have said it was incredibly dangerous attempting to squeeze tens of thousands of people all at the same time along a narrow road. Public safety definately was compromised.

Richard
Same story - complete waste of a day, turned back at 2:30. Won't be going again!

Jan
If anyone is interested the people who organised the traffic control (if you can call it that) on Saturday are call SEP Events and can be contacted at info@sepevents.co.uk Tel: 01423 326622 Fax: 01423 324006 I haven't tryed yet as I've only just found out but given comments made by Mazzo on this site, I would be very interested to hear what the have to say!

jay
I was so chuffed to get a ticket for the Air Race I couldn't wait. Thinking it was a fantastic idea to give vehicle tickets instead of people tickets a friend and his son came to stay with us so we could go. 2 and a half hours it took to get to Cirencester (three quarters of the way)and a further 4 hours to get from there to Longleet. Appart from the stupid levels of traffic, there were road works on the recomended route including lane closures - who the hell came up with that one then? We finaly got there at 1.30 pm and to be honest, the traffic control on THE WAY IN was quite good. Thinking we've missed the parachutes etc but still got the race to look forward to we walked for half an hour (not the 15 stated on the tickets) from the red car park to the site, getting to the gate to be held up by security and not let in with no explanation of why for another 20 mins! We should have paid attention to the hoards of people walking back up the hill and leaving at this point instead of just wondering if they knew something we didn't. We got to the site, found our spot and settled in, grateful in fact at that point that the race had been delayed - oh how little we knew! at 4.15 the bloke started to say that it was not likely but still possible that the race would go ahead and we might want to think about leaving - whilst the screens were flashing up the exit points - confused yet? yes, so were the rest of us! So we cut our loses and started to leave if only it were that simple. The route to the red car park was blocked by some muppet who thought it was a reaonable place to park an emergency vehicle - presumably so he could quickly treat the people injured in the crush caused by him being there! I am not just being dramatic here, it is only because of the calmness of the people at this point that there was not a major incident or, God forbid, a fatality. And, to make things worse (oh yes, there's more to come), they were still letting people come down the hill as we were trying to get out. One assumes the muppet with the van was by this time in charge of crowd control at the top of the hill! So, after over an hour (and remember, we were among the first to leave), we get back to the top of the hill exhasted. Trying to find out what was happening, I asked a "promotions girl" for info, she was telling us they thought it might still go ahead whilst a security guard behind her was saying it was deffinatly off! She was saying we might get a refund, he was saying we don't know! What the hell was going on??? We finally got to the car but we may as well not have bothered as no-one had any idea how to get out of the car park, the very good traffic attendants that had let us in seemed to have thought "sod that" and scarped as there was not one fo them in sight and so chaos enssued. After an hour and a half (and we were, it became apparant, among those nearest the exit)we acctually started our engine and it was a further 35 mins before we could even see an exit. By the time we left the police were trying to sort out the mess, I did see one poor soul of a lad trying to get people out and getting verbal abuse from some t****r in a 4x4 (we were all p****d off but there was no need for that, you know who you are!). Once out we completely ignored the previous instruction on how to get there, found our own way home and did it in 4 hours! Could not organise the chimps tea party this lot. And how dare they say safety was never compromised, where the hell were they when 25,000 people were trying to get up a hill blocked by a van whislt others were still aloud down, where were you when people were shouting and swearing in the car park and their own staff (the only one I saw) was getting serious verbal abuse and being treated in what I would call a very threatening manner? (and this is just one of the car parks) Their complacancy disgusts me and would be amazed if Longleet were ever aloud to hold such an event again. I would really really love to see the air race but unless it is in a differnt venue by different organisers, I w

rich
Anyone received a refund yet?

Gary Raven
Just a note about The Red Bull Air Race which was scheduled for 2pm Saturday at Longleat safari park and how an international, multi million dollar, 250mph race against the clock was turned into a typically British sporting event. A friend and I managed to bag one of 100,000 tickets at £35.00 each and booked a hotel on Friday night in Tewkesbury which is approx 80miles from Longleat. We left the hotel at 9am in good spirits and looking forward to a walk around the 'pit' lane at the venue, the parachute and helicopter display teams and then the adrenalin fuelled, low level air race. The info we recieved with the ticket included a large blue ticket (which we dutifully stuck to the car windscreen) and directions to the venue which had supposedly been 'specially selected and planned' to make our journey as easy as possible. Unfortunately, the specially selected route was a trip along the A36 which is a narrow winding road which by the look of it, is quite happy to handle a couple of thousand cars - it is not capable of handling a 100,000 car onslaught. Consequently the queue to get to the air race effectively began north of Bath and eventually tailed back to the M4. Having left the hotel at 9am, by 2pm we had covered 70 miles and were still 8 miles from Longleat. The queue of people turning away from the event was obvious thanks to the blue stickers in the windscreens and at 2.15pm we stopped at the A36/A361 services and joined the hundred or so cars who had decided to turn around and go home. There was a bit of Dunkirk spirit on the forecourt though, with everyone showing their best stiff upper lips and promising to demand their money back from the organisers. We spoke to a quartet of travellers who had driven down from Stoke and watched them with envy as they jumped back in their camper van to stock up on beer and find a lay-by so they could stop and watch the England match on the telly. They didn't have to face the journey home. And traffic wasn't the only problem - the organisation at the venue apparently left a lot to be desired. A friend who was well ahead of us in the queue actually called us on mobile to say he was approaching the entrance gate to Longleat at about 12.15 - he actually got into the venue at 1.45!! And then, to make it an obviously British sports event, the flying was cancelled anyway due to bad weather. Good job really, because if they had put aircraft in the air then I'm sure the demands for refunds would have reached well into the thousands. In fact, I would be very interested to know how many vehicles did actually make it into Longleat before the scheduled race time of 2pm! We had travelled down from Ely the night before, a journey which took over three hours; the journey from Tewkesbury to the A361 took five hours; and the journey home to Ely took almost five hours. A total of approx 13 hours travelling and all we got for our trouble was a belly full of coffee, a blue window sticker and a numb backside. So - come to The Red Bull Air Race at Longleat - it's poorly prepared, badly organised, on bad roads,with no signs and no police announcements - but don't worry, because the weather in this country is so rubbish, they won't fly anyway!! Whinge over.

Andy
Glad we joined the National Trust ,so we didn't have a completely wasted 300 mile round trip after giving up on Red Bull,and after reading comments about organisation inside the event I can only feel lucky we didn't get in!! I certainly don't think I'll bother next year and I suspect a huge number of others feel the same. Mind you, full marks for bravery to the driver of the Red Bull Beetle.....and nice to see them stuck in traffic with the rest of us!!

S Meadows
SHOCKING! SHOCKING! SHOCKING! Don't ever try and hold an event like this at Longleat again. Who wants to spend their precious weekends stuck in a 20 mile traffic jam to an event they are not even going to and wasting a fortune in time and money. Not me that's for sure. There must have been people going to special events like weddings or similar which would have been ruined because of the greed of the organisers of this event. Hopefully the locals of next year's air will not have to suffer as we did.

Haydn
Haydn Red Bull Air Race at Longleat on Saturday 2nd September, My self and two friends left Neath at 6.30am we eventually arrived at Longleat by 11.30. We looked around the field at the front of Longleat House at the Red Bull F1 car and Plane and the Rally Car, that took 20 minuets and that was all the entertainment we had all day. As we were all keen photographers we headed for the bank overlooking the course. But the higher we got the stronger the wind was, the wind was so strong the sound boxes had to be lowered to stop them blowing away. We found a spot opposite the Burger Van ¾ of the way up the road next to a trailer. That was 12.45pm at this point it was being announced that racing would be starting shortly as the wind was expected to drop, on the bank the wind was increasing all the time. Steve Rider of the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ was announcing delays of the start every hour but telling spectators that the wind would drop and we should have racing. 3pm two Red Bull pilots cars went passed with 5 people in them? I presume they were pilots leaving as did a lot of other spectators as the flow of people changed from going up the hill to going down. At this point we decided to call it a day but were told by security we could not leave the top area, so the security spread out with tape to stop around 1000 spectators leaving. But the wind was so strong the tape snapped and we were allowed through. On getting to the bottom security had blocked our way again at the footbridge there must have been 10.000 people wanting to leave but police and security would not let anyone pass, but were still sending people over to our side which was making matters worse. At one point I had a little girl in front of me as her mother could not hold the two children, I’m just glad that no one was killed. After 45 minuets being crushed we were finally told we could cross. We were one of the front cars to get onto the exit road but stopped by security again as they let car who were cheating the queue out first, I witnessed cars driving into other cars people almost coming to blows, a lady be sworn at by a security guard because she told him to stop swearing in front of her children. Red Bull and Longleat have a lot to answer for, how did they get a safety certificate for the event with 80 to a 100,000 people having to cross one bridge it should never have happened. The Race should have been cancel at 1pm; the only resone I can find is they wanted people to stay to make as much money on concessionary stalls. Never Again.

Kevin Hunt
It is only by chance that there were no serious injuries at this event. By 3:00pm the majority of spectators that the event would be cancelled and started to make their way to the car parks to leave. With people still arriving a bottle neck developed on the bridge in front of Longleat House which was the only way into and out of the spectator areas. Thousands of people were prevented from crossing the bridge to leave the spectator areas by a handful of police officers and stewards struggling to control the crowd. The number of people trying to cross the bridge was equivalent to a crowd in a large football stadium trying to use one exit. There were serious failures in the risk assessments for this event and the organisers are lucky that there were no deaths on the day.

Caroline Miller
Having read all the complaints...may I be the only person to say I had a good day. I was gutted to not see the Air Race but these things happen. I had good company, a good umbrella, a traditionally dodgy burger, acquired a nice red bull air race cap, saw a sealion and had a fantastic cup of hot chocolate. Roll on next year ;)

John
I am extremely angry by this whole fiasco. As soon as I looked on the Red Bull website and saw that they had sold 25,000 tickets I knew it would be a disaster. Forget the excuses about the weather, the road accidents, etc etc. The facts are simple: Longleat CANNOT HANDLE 25,000 cars. On a normal busy day, if they take in 2,000 cars they are doing well, and still this leads to queueing. So what idiot ever thought that 12 TIMES this amount would ever work? Someone from Longleat said "it was ok last year" - yes, but you didn't have 25,000 cars - you only had 5,000. Duh! Longleat also claims that they engaged 'a profesional traffic management company' to advise them. Why don't they tell us the name of the so-called professional or let's hear their response?? I also want to know who in Wiltshire County Council licensed this event? They take the blame, jointly. Longleat has damaged its reputation badly, irrespective of whoever is to blame!

Mary
We flew from the Isle of Man. It took 9 hours driving to do a journey that can easily be done in less than 3 hours normally. Last year the traffic was not particulary good, but this year it was horrendous. Perhaps Redbull should re evaluate the location. To prevent such severe traffic problems in future they could set up a radio station, similar to other air events, and then at least those unlucky enough to be stuck in queues know whether the event is going ahead, or should turn bad and cut their losses.

Andrew
We are a local retailer in Frome and the chaos caused by the air race traffic caused problems getting staff too and from work. Frome itself was grid locked for much of the day causing substantial losses for many retailers as people could not get into the town. One customer from Bristol took three and a half hours to get to us and faced a similar delay for the return journey. Why move the event from Sunday to Saturday when so many local people are on the roads as well?Perhaps Wiltshire police could do well to talk to their colleagues in Gloucestershire who manage to control traffic into and away from Fairford Air Tattoo, or maybe this is just the wrong venue for such a large event.

Stefan
THANK GOD!!!! my family used a little common sense. Due to travelling almost 300 miles (one way), we decided to travel on the Fri for B&B and arriving mid-day we went around the safari at longleat. If u thought the air race was disappointing try the dull and uneventful safari, you even get traffic jams here due to the odd animal popping up on one side and with 2 lanes of traffic off course people try to get into the correct lane to view. The worst was the so called pride of the park the LIONS! HA! we were queued in this section for nearly 1hr only for them to be right at the end and ASLEEP £84 well spent NOT! As for the air race what a joke it was obvious from the start it wasn't gonna happen. But try they did, well at least to keep u there so as to spend ages in the toilet queues or maybe the beverages queue was more attractive only tobe charged £1.50 for a thimble of liquid that tasted like something the lions would produce due to drinking too much. Admittedly we did find some good eating places i mean what else was there to do, so with fat bellies we headed home on Sun and luckily came across The Hawk Conservancy Trust Center (so why not) we decided to end it on a good note and payed it a visit, and we wern't disappointed FANTASTIC! So many birds to see with loverly little information displays and as for the flying displays in short IT MADE OUR WEEKEND WORTHWHILE!

David T
I went to the Goowood revival, 8 Spitfires and 2 Mustangs flew in spite of the weather and hundreds of wonderful old vehicles raced round the track really fast(less friction in the wet!). LIMITED NUMBERS BY PRE-BOOKED TICKET ONLY ENTRY. Try that next time Red Bull.

marv
where do you start?? I live not far away about a hour drive got up early like most others and headed off, must admit traffic was not a problem arriving at 9 am and getting straight in, event looked set to be great on entering, however decided to walk to furthest point ever to get a great view only to be stuck there all day waiting for nothing, couldn't even hear the speakers to know what was going on, luckily we brought a beach shelter and the four of us stayed in there waiting it out also to mention our 1 year old son stuck in the pushchair under a rain cover, finally at 4.30 someone found the volume control to let us know that a decision was going to made soon whether to go ahead, we got up and left. all this time no entertainment, no organisation. And to mention the journey out it was mad max day, people even offering sausage rolls in negotiation to let them go first, sort it out red bull your drink might as well taste of pee now the amount of people who will get money out of their pockets to help your greed in not considering your organisation skills for the public who without them your nothing. You can't help the weather but to set up a event like that and to be left like blind sheep!!! Personally i would of like to seen the evnt go on again on sunday as the weather was great but all those people who travelled so far and waited in chaos i do feel sorry for and redbull should compensate and i dont want a 24 pack of the drink. fly fly away redbull for ruining our weekend.

David
And have you seen the Red Bull website? "Unfortunately, for the 60,000 spectators who turned up....." WHAT???? How many more do you think had been sitting in their cars for hours and hours? Fortunate for the organisers that the weather was poor, a great excuse to change focus from the massive problem caused in totally inadequate organisation. Fortunate for us too, probably insurers will cough the cash for our refund - do you think we would have got one if the race had gone ahead? If the 60,000 attendance mentioned on their site is accurate, and the figures that have been quoted by others of about 300,000 intending to go, they only managed to get 20% of ticket buyers into the venue, even 2 hours after the official start time. Longleat is a beautiful site but you don't send 100,000 cars to one corner of the country. Find an alternative, central location with multiple feed roads. And come on, Red Bull, do the decent thing and apologise for the farcical situation your customers were left in. By the way, I turned back at 3.00 p.m., still 7 miles from Longleat, having left Dover at 07.15 that morning.

Big Darren
I came all the way from Mid Wales and had to get out of my bed at 7, im not very good at getting up but thought it would be fun. Unfortunately the Curry i had the previous night wasnt as keen on waiting in a queue as my friends peugeot 406 was so had to make a prompt exit into a Warminster Field. No Red Bull's in that field either (luckily!!)

Mark Bendell
There was nearly a major incident on site - namely the bridge we were near the front trying to cross to the lower zones, when people nearer the back started to try to push forward there were some very white faced police - Hillsborough anyone?

Mark Bendell
Coming up from Exeter, we left soon after 8am and were parked and on site by 10.30am (Blue Ticket) following the designated route, it was well signposted from the A303. HOWEVER we were amazed at the fast food prices - other than cans of Red Bull - the prices of Red Bull merchandize - far cheaper direct from Austria!

andy
red bull next year let the monkeys have a say in it?

Eddie Perry, Northampton
MY LETTER: Dear Red Bull Air Race, I totally agree with you regarding air race safety. However, what I am not happy about is the lack to none organization of the event including that of no onward information which has lead to this complete disaster for the fans/viewers traveling to the event. We set off for the event at 06:45am from Northampton for the event with an incredible level of excitement as we were unlucky with the 2005 ticket lottery and the chance of attending in 2006 with a purchased ticket had me talking about the event on a weekly basis. The day arrived and I could hardly sleep the night before, we aviation folk see the event as a milestone in air race sports, we understand priority safety matters are paramount, but nothing can shadow the traffic and expense of every lucky quickly becoming the unlucky ticket holder. The tail backs on the route we used started from Wherwell/Andover and from here we ended up in delays lasting seven (7) hours, and please bear in mind that this is 43 miles away from Longleat and every alternative route was equally traffic jammed. People had to switch off engines to stop over heating and with even this we passed six broken down cars, the long waits forced people to use road side hedges as toilet stops, people crying due to the stress of it all along side the road smoking cigarettes, kids driving parents mad. So many people started abandoning and turning around to go back home as time was just passing minute by minute, second by painstaking second and it just got worse. On occasions the traffic did not move for periods of time and people were out of there cars (including us) chatting with neighboring vehicle folk. I decided to turn on the local radio (Spire FM, whom also own other Wiltshire stations) for updates that just did not talk about anything else but tail backs on ‘all’ routes from every direction going for miles, total gridlock. It concerned me because race begin time (2pm) was fast approaching and we had already missed all events prior for being stuck in cues stretching for miles on end and not one single red bull air race Marshall was in sight anywhere to advise us with updates along the way. It was a complete shambles. We started seeing cars in the masses turning back and many slowed down shouting out of there windows that the ‘blue car park’ was full and no one was being let into other parking areas, thus being turned away. I continued to cue and all of a sudden Spire FM were receiving calls from drivers, at this point we were 6 miles from Longleat and a further hour later we had traveled barely two miles. The radio station then contacted you guys as no one from red bull or longleat had contacted local broadcast information sources, it was confirmed to the radio station that some car parks were full and that the event was on schedule. Well it was now 14:00 and we were still not moving and obvious that by the time we gained parking if at all it would be at the back end of the two hour racing slot and all the return traffic after the event, we had already been car bound since 06:45am. It was decision time and convoys of us turned around and called it a day (14:15). Spire FM at 14:28 called you again and it was announced at the event was to be delayed by two hours to allow traffic additional time to arrive, all at the effort of Spire FM calling you, I cannot believe that red bull PR did not action calling them at any point or inform Police present close to longleat. Out of the convoy five of the cars including ours pulled into the ‘bell inn’ for a well deserved break but the traffic we had passed rejoining it was not an option for the same distance had already cost us delay time. The two hour delay was of no help at all. I called Spire FM as I was so upset and they confirmed that no one from the event had called them or neighboring radio stations, nothing was communicated. I felt sorry for the remaining cue because it continued back for miles beyond Tidworth and it was now 14:35, those that remained in the cue looked miserable...

Emma Townsend
Anyone involved in aviation can't get upset when precision pilots can not fly due to poor weather - that is good planning. We can get upset when we spend a hard earned day off sitting in traffic thinking we are missing the event we have come to see. Only Redbull can take the blame. In true capitalist spirit they put profit before sense - far too many tickets sold for the event, ridiculous venue with 100,000 people squeezed through single track lanes with only one village police officer and no traffic control to be seen, and a complete misunderstanding of the people interested in an event like this. We don't travel miles to listen to bad quality rave music and eat grotty burgers, we come to see the planes, the pilots and the sport. Not much chance of that when you are 20 miles away, in traffic. To top it all Redbull won't refund us our money because we bought our ticket from someone else. Will never go to one of their events again and they can pay for my coronaries to be defurred. Far too much stress for a fun day out. Even the dolly were cheap. 'BULL' is the only thing they got right!!!!

Beth and Geraint
well... what can i say that hasn't been said already!!? For one we're very pleased to have come across this message board, as we did indeed feel the pain that thousands of others felt on the doomsday that was the 2nd of september 2006. 7 hour round trip from cardiff, highlight of the day was our Mcdonalds feast in Frome-They've probably never had so much buisness since they opened! Absolute disaster- waste of time, money, petrol and patience. Isn't it funny that there is no availiable contact number in the Uk? A bunch of monkeys could have run the day better! To top things off, the boy in the car in front of us was throwing up out of the window- beat that!

ady
Same story from me as everyone else. I have emailed Red Bull and told them their offer to refund the ticket money is not satisfactory. I requested reimbursement for my petrol and hotel room the night before but suprisingly they have not bothered to even reply!!

Chris
Thanks to the guys and girls that marshalled the traffic out of BLUE No 2 Car Park while the police stood and watched arms folded. It sound good realy but the fact is those directing the traffic were spectators now officals. WELL DONE and thanks for brining some order and a training spectical to the police. May be they will know what to do nextime !

Steve
Left at 8 am to get Longleat for 9-ish. Finally got parked inside longleat at 12:30. Due to road accidents on the way in several roads were blocked. However there appeared to be NO communication between Red Bull Orgranisers and the police who were doing their best to advise ticket holders of the best route to the required entry gates (doing a sterling job given the circumstances). Yellow road signs very unhelpful and not enough of them. Finaly arrived and pleased to see spectators in high spirits. Having ties with the RAF I had access to a detailed weather report for the day and could see the wind was due to increase so arrived not expecting to see any racing for the day. However was confused to hear they were holding out for better weather, despite (I assume) getting thier weather reports from the same place (a "nearby RAF station"). When the pit lane opened at 13:30 we wondered down to have a look. There must have been 1000 people trying to get into the pit lane. 200 people or so were let in and allowed to browse the aircraft and speak to the pilots for the entire time, whilst the rest of us were kept out. When told the pit lane was closed we started to walk away, only to hear on the tannoy that the pit lane was OPEN for another half an hour. Franticly running back to reclaim our space in the queue we were still kept out, the people who were in there getting an extra half an hour to continue looking around the aircraft. Very dissappointed. With the weather as bad as it was and due to get worse, why was the pit lane not opened for general public access for the entire day. At least then we could have seen the aircraft and pilots on the ground. The closest I came to an aircraft was queueing for the pitlane. What a waste of a day. After deciding to leave at 4pm we were shocked to see cars STILL waiting to get INTO the event. I find it unbelievable how the organisers thought they were able to get all the cars in by 2 oclock for the planned start of the race. It wasnt even as if they didn't know how many vehicles would be turning up either. Reflecting on the weekend, it is clear that longleat cannot cope with 100000 vehicles. It is simply not accessible enough. It is however a fantastic venue. Cana comprimise be made and a better event organiser be chosen next year? I noticed the event organisers signs all over the place on the way INTO the event, but they had been taken down by the time we left...

carol
Took 4 hours to get there. We had a blue sticker what was crazy is we had to pass the red car park to get to it. Stayed until 4 ish then had the mad time trying to get home. It was like WACKY RACES 20 Lanes of traffic trying to get in to one. Only one good think came out of the day My son who is F1 mad managed to get a photo taken with Vitantonio Luzzi Never again

Graham Miles
What planning had been implemented!!!!!!!!!!!! It must have been hell 2005, because it was a terrible 2006. Where were the car park marshalls!!!!!!! It's not difficult to manage exits with radios!!!!!! Where were the Police!!!!!!!!!! The directions on the small roadside boards were not good enough!!!!! I shall not be going to any events organised by RED BULL............and it certainly does not give you wings, other wise the crowd would have flown in...which would have been considerably quicker than the 4 1/2 hours to get in and out of the car park.

Matt
My Red Bull air-race experience was not Longleat but Budapest 2 weeks before. The racing itself was awesome. Sadly a few hours after it had finished whilst everyone was still out in the city for a firework show a freak thunderstorm struck which resulted in the death of 5 people and over 300 injuries. And you're all moaning about getting stuck in traffic!!!!

Mazzo
We had the same bad day as everyone else, so i wont reapeat the moaning on traffic, fuel costs, disappointment etc, but you all might find this very interesting. After not moving from our car park space for a whole hour, some of my passengers walked back to the main entrance/exit to ask for help to control the traffic. They were told the reason there was no stewards in the carpark was because the red bull organisers in charge of the car park had simply left. After realising the chaos being caused by this the longleat staff then came over to do their best to get the traffic out. Red bull have the excuse of traffic accidents causing problems, i want to hear their reason for the staff leaving. Guess they wanted to miss the traffic. I say if red bull think that simply giving us all a refund will smooth things over they are wrong, and that we should picket and block their distrubition outlets until they workout that it will cost them more not to give us some real compensation due to lost revenue. maybe thats a bit extreme, but im so annoyed at their neglegance.

Dazza
Will the 'organisers' (a term I use very loosely) of this travesty stand up & be accountable, or have they gone into hiding for fear of being hung, drawn & quartered by the angry mob? I, for one, would love to hear their spin on what went wrong, & maybe, just maybe, an apology for ruining everyone's weekend??

Peter
As a local resident it was quite clear that this traffic chaos was to be expected given the sheer numbers expected to attend this event. Reading the comments from all who had to endure this misery (including local people) it is clear that the reputation of Longleat has been severely damaged. Last year it took up to 3 hours to enter and exit the car parks with some 65000 fewer people. The blame must rest with organisers. The major routes into the west country cannot sustain the high volume traffic from second home owners and holidaymakers in any place. Combine this with an influx of 100000 people and the result is gridlock. I find it hard to believe the organisers neglected to take this into account. Perhaps they were blinded by greed.

Farnaz
incredibly disorganized event, unbelievable!! I need at least one week to recover from the hard time sitting and not moving in the car for hours and hours. The worse; there was nothing or nobody to keep us posted! it was a big hit and miss!

Ian
I have to agree with every thing that has been said about poor organisation, to put it mildly. But I am also concerned about the way those of us inside Longleat were treated with regard to information. We were told repeatedly that a decision on the race would be taken in the next x minutes and those times came and went We were finally told that the race had been cancelled shortly before 5pm but it seems that those outside were told earlier. The organisers don't seem to appreciate the cost of travelling to the event including hotel costs and in my case air fares. I few with my son from Belfast. Our Journey to Longleat was not difficult but after our frustrating day more misery awaited us. Easy Jet cancelled all its flights to Belfast on Sunday 3rd. We were re routed via Edinburgh and experienced long flight delays. Our journey home took 12 hours. Longleat/Red Bull does not have a monopoly on bad organisational management. Easy Jet is in the same league.

Stanley Jones
We were stuck at North Bradley - waiting for the RAC. It took him three hours to reach us - didn't realize until we listened to Radio Wiltshire the cause of the problem. The folk at the Church Manse kindly invied us in and entertained us to lunch. We certainly came off lot better than most!

Beverly
We often visit Centre Parcs at Longleat so know the journey well. We live in Winchester and the journey - even in the dark, rainy nights of winter usually takes about 1 hour and 20 minutes. We left Winchester at 9.15 am and hit traffic at Andover. Most of the cars around us had the red/yellow/blue car park passes displayed so this was our first sign of something amiss. We met some very nice people in the traffic queues and everyone seemed to be in good spirits, considering. However, when we arrived at Longleat at 2.40 pm! the stewards said they did not know officially if the race was on or not. Whilst we all appreciate that the race could be cancelled due to bad weather the fact is that the journey was dreadful and took us 6 1/2 hours! We then turned round and had to fight our way back but decided to avoid the A303 so headed west for a while and then north to the M4 finally arriving back in Winchester at about 7 pm, extremely tired!

Emma
Very dissapointed, if the event was cancelled solely for weather conditions It would not have been so bad. It was the poor traffic controll and lack of organisation that really got me mad. Red Bull should be ashamed and apologise to those who wasted hours of their lives sat in miles of almost stationary traffic. My Dad and I travelled down from Lancaster at 5:30am to see the event, and came off junction 18 at 10:20, it took us just over four hours to reach within 8 miles of Longleat and passed many cars with the blue ticket stuck in the windscreen coming away, with heads and arms hanging out of windows telling us to turn around and that there was no chance of even getting there in time for the race to start. We qeued for another hour, moving only 4 car spaces (Only because people in front were turning back) before giving up ourselves and attempting to get to our campsite nearby, wich was an ordeal in itself. Total waste of time, and not to mention fuel costs. Personally I felt sorry for the local people who had several thousand cars descend on their roads that just wernt meant for that vast amount of traffic. I took a few photos of the traffic, and my family were amazed and disgusted.

Miles Heathman
Thank you Red Bull for my worst weekend day out for years. Perhaps I should get out more.....

Jackie
I live in Newport South Wales, I don't call myself one of the lucky ones for getting in to event. We only stayed in the traffic jams because a spokes women, from Red Bull, on the radio claimed the race would still be going ahead at 4pm Me and my family spent 8 hours to get to Longleat only to get out of the car for 30 mins told it had been cancelled, and spen another 5 hours getting home. This includes the 1.5 hours we spent in the Blue car park trying to get out. What a waste of a day. A round trip that should have taken, no more tha 2 hours took over 13 hours. NEVER AGAIN!!

steve
we didnt really have any trouble getting in or out.The real fun for us was on the bridge.I was also one of the lucky ones who met the steward telling people to go around the lake.I wouldnt have minded but as it meant walking several miles and negotiating AN ENCLSOURE FULL OF LIONS i decided not to.These genius's also failed to realise that simply forming a line half way up the hill meant people could just walk around them, top crowd management there boys.Put simply these chumps made an iritating day in to a dangerous one.if there had been an emergancy on that bridge people wouldnt have stood a chance.The older marshalls were aggresive and the younger ones looked like they were about to have panic attacks.

mark
left norwich at 5am to get there in time' what a waste of time! the event was overcrowed and badly managed.why did they sting us along when it was obvious it was not getting any better.as for the car parking there were plenty of people to tell us where to park on arrival'where were they when we had to leave total disaster.will redbull refund our fuel and accomdation costs?

Ray Johnson
I must disagree with Graham Bloomfield.People DO realise the format which the air race follows,and they DID make allowances for the weather and understood why it was cancelled.But if the comments of the spectators I encountered is anything to go by, they were outraged at the general chaos and will NOT be going again.

Graham
We set of from the Lake District at 6:00am and got to M4 junction 18 at 10:00am. We finally arrived at the entrance to Longleat at 4:15pm to be told the event was cancelled, and then had all the traffic to contend with again on the way out. I think we managed to do about 28 miles in 8 hours. We arrived home at 10:00pm after 16 hours in the car, for what? – NOTHING. It is no wonder road rage is on the increase. The only toilets we had were behind the bushes along with many other stranded visitors, what the poor locals must have thought one can only wonder! There was no way on earth that Longleat could handle this quantity of vehicles and some heads should be rolling at Red Bull. We did not see any marshal’s or traffic police anywhere - it was disgraceful. The trading standards or some other department should be involved as I consider the selling of all those car tickets should be classed as obtaining money by deception. Red Bull had failed to take all reasonable precautions necessary to ensure the event went ahead safely. Lets face it; the event was only postponed at 2:00 because of the traffic problems and then cancelled at 4:30 (because of the weather?) to entitle everybody to their ticket refunds which if this had not been the case riots would have ensued. Certainly don’t think Red Bull could organise a drunken party in a brewery.

Steve H
Longleat is a good venue for this as it provides an excellent challenge for the pilots. The problem is traffic management. Fairford can do it with even bigger crowds and the same small country lanes. Longleat has many estate roads going in and out of the site. A bit of thought would solve the problem and it is good to hear the organisers are meeting with the police. This can and should be easy to resolve; e.g. Make roads out of Longleat one way and two lanes - don't allow stupid caravans to try and come into the site down a narrow lane when everyone is trying to get out! Oh and get a site managment company who know what they are doing in managing car parks. Whoever they had on Saturday were more of a shower than the weather. By the way my tip for next time - which we did so we did get to see them flying - make sure you have a Longleat Passport ticket and come on the Thursday or Friday and watch the practice. After all it is the flying you're coming to see and not the "show". You get to see more circuits of the "track" than you would in the actual race and there are no crowds. But then if you were desperate to see Steve Rider, then you will have to queue like everyone else.

Tim Martin
We came from swindon. 44 miles. Took 7 hours!!! When we got Got near the event at about 1630 our friend who was already there (and GWR FM) told us the event had been cancelled. luckily we managed to turn back before the rush. Completely wasted day. Won't be going next year! Sending all that traffic through bath was an absolute joke!

Steve Fisk
To the organisers we say; You must have known how many cars were coming, you sold car tickets after all. You must have realised that the local roads couldn’t cope. Do you think you might have sold too many tickets? You must have known that weather could affect the race, why didn’t somebody think to arrange some alternative entertainment, how about a couple of live bands or a funfair maybe? Maybe you should consider tickets for individuals, park and ride, change of venue, that sort of thing. In my view we where lucky, imagine how bad it would have been of the race had gone ahead at 4pm, all those cars trying to get out at 6-7pm in the dark, accidents almost guaranteed.

mrs d hopper
we drove 5 hours to get there for 10,0clock, we stood there in the wind and rain with no entertainment,for 5 hours, it was obvious the weather wasnt going to change why the hell wasnt it cancelled earlier we had 2 nights hotel to pay for plus the food to see nothing,safety has to come first, but the organization was terrible

Craig Keating
What can you say. Poor organisation, Poor layout poor everything. I think even if you had seen the racing it would still have been a disapointing day. Whoever is the health and safety advisor for red bull air races should be sacked!!!!

Rachel Gordon
I lost a day of my life on Saturday. As a pilot myself I couldn't believe the event wasn't cancelled the day before when I read the weather forecasts, I presumed that Longleat knew something I didn't about a local microclimate. We were stuck in traffic from 10.00am at junction 18 of the M4 until finally arriving at 4.OOpm in the afternoon. We were kept going by reports that the start had been delayed until 4.00pm,only to find everyone already departing as we arrived. The hundreds of marshalls and police huddled inside the event and made no attempt to direct the thousands of cars trying to leave. As a result the now tired and fed up public lost patience and one took ones life in ones hand trying to get out of the car park. We spent 14 hours in a car and saw nothing. There must be many better venues than Longleat, how about Nebworth?

fiona darley
i was at the event and feel that public safety was compromised on the day. Believe me i was there with my little baby. I will never visit there or bath or have anything to do with red bull again!! If anyody would like futher information i am happy to be contacted on fionadarley@yahoo.co.uk

Jay
Bleakness! To think I could have stayed at home and watched Friday's racing on TV. Oh well, I'm keen enough on aviation to try again next year - irrespective of where it's held. :-)

Red Bullsh*t
What an absolute shambles. Either Red Bull sold far too many tickets or Longleat does not have suitable transport links. We gave up and went home disappointed and angry after queuing for over two hours covering just a few miles. What a miserable waste of time. The organisers have got some serious lessons to learn from this shambolic misadventure: 1) Find an established venue that already provides similar events like Silverstone, Farnborough, Brands Hatch. 2) Fully engage with the Police and local authorities. We only got to within 7 miles of Longleat but we did not see any signs, police or anyone directing traffic or advising road users. 3) Sell fewer tickets – or ensure that there is proven ability for the transport infrastructure at the chosen venue to accommodate the peak demand and get everyone in and parked over a period of say 3 hours. 4) Have a dedicated radio station for the event. And of course nobody can control the weather but: 1) The forecast for the day was very poor – strong winds, rain, multiple fronts – and was thus for several days prior to the event. 2) Whoever was assessing the meteorology for the event was hopelessly optimistic – there was no way that the weather would have improved sufficiently during the day to allow such flying to take place safely. This could be seen over 24 hours before. 3) Why was there no contingency plan? – like for example the option to slip the event to the following day. Of course this would not be convenient for all but it would have been better than the inevitable cancellation on the day. I will think very carefully before going to another Red Bulls*it event.

Bob
Having left home at 6.00am and allowing 4 hours from the motorway to the car park, it was clearly evident that there was no thought put into traffic planning. What idiot decided to route the traffic through Bath on a Saturday? My guess is that the route and planning was organised from outside the UK, and anyone within the UK would have realised there would have been issues. All very well to review the issues after the event--sounds like closing the perverbial after the horse has bolted. Someone somewhere within the organisers deserves the order of the boot for such a pathetic, poorly planned attempt of geting 100,000 people to one location. Can I suggest that as a marketing exercise it has seriously damaged the brand, perhaps it should be re branded to Red Bullxxxx.

Phil
What a complete Shambles. We were sat in traffic for 3 hours. Cars with air race stickers kept going passed us and eventually someone got out their car, flagged one of them down and asked why they were going back. After hearing what they said people started turning around in the road and going back, us included. I think Stonehenge may have had their busiest day on record.

James
Red Bull gives you - sore legs and a headache!!!

alec
I was in the traffic jam so long that I had to keep drinking red bull to stay awake.

Alanna
Thank you very much to the man in the red t-shirt that was directing traffic out of the blue car park. I have never seen such abismal organisation that led to members of the public directing traffic

graham
We got to within about 5 miles of Longleat at about 11am and got stuck in a traffic jam. Then loads of cars ahead of us started doing u turns (most with blue stickers). I wound down the window and one guy said the police were turning the traffic around but he didn't know why - he got this from another driver who had turned around before him. So there appeared to be a lemming mentality developing. Anyway, we continued on and were in our carpark within 15 minutes. Didn't do us much good though as the show was cancelled after much positive spin to the contrary from the commentator during the afternoon - which surprised me as I am an aviator myself and had been expecting to hear the show had been cancelled in the morning. Another thing I heard was that the show was cancelled at 3pm but we were told that it may start as late as 4.30. Anyway, our personal traffic jam started when we tried to leave. 45 minutes to move 3 car lengths.....

Kay
It took us 3 hours from M4 junction 17 to get to Longleat and another 2.5 hours to do the 20 miles to Bath afterwards. Directing thousands of cars through tiny villages, as directed on the leaflet, is surely not the best idea for an event of such magnitude. Mind you if only there were more competent drivers on the roads these days then there would have been less accidents en route to and from the event and less hold-ups incurred. We were one of the lucky ones to get in before the cancellation, parking miles away from the entrance. However, this worked in our favour being almost at the front of the 'queue' leaving. Drivers were so impatient trying to leave that there was a sea of cars, 20-cars abreast, trying to exit via a single track. Eventually a marshall took on the cars (even the 4x4s) and managed to ease the issue, but some people were aggressive enough to try run the poor fellow over, not that the policeman 'assisting' him actually did anything of worth to ease the problem. Longleat is a conservation area (and where exactly were the rubbish bins??) so allowing thousands upon thousands of cars to turn up at the venue seemed rather a contradiction. Personally I think the chosen venue for such an event should have much, much better transport links and have multiple park & ride systems to relieve similar road pressures in future. We seem to be one of the few that wind and rain didn't dampen our spirits.

Graham Bloomfield
I will probably get stoned for this but I would like to put a positive spin on this. Yes the traffic management was non-existant and I am sure the organisers and the police have learnt their lesson for next year. BUT Longleat did have most of their attractions open at a reduced rate. The pitlane walkabout in the morning was busy but not too bad and you could get to see the aircraft. Nobody can plan for the sort of weather we had. Red Bull did put a warning on their website about the weather and I know this kept some people away. They will refund everyones ticket prices. There will be an air race next year and it will probably be at Longleat, the pilots like it and it's so different to any of the other courses. If the race wasn't cancelled I am sure the reactions here would have been much different. I'd just like to point out, contrary to most of the news reports, this is NOT an air show. There were due to be displays by the Blue Eagles and the Matadors but the main race is like a motor racing sprint in the sky, each of the 2 rounds is 38 minutes so if you do come to next years round be prepared that it will take a long time to get in and out and the race lasts 1 hour and 20 minutes. I'm a little biased because I spent 3 days at Longleat taking pictures, as you can see from the gallery elsewhere on the site, but I am sure that, if they can get the traffic sorted and the weather is better next year it will be a brilliant event.

James
Ditto other comments, Event organisers must have known first thing in the morning that weather was hopeless, as soon as traffic chaos started they could have texted us ALL to say event cancelled (at 11am !), and given people a chance to turn back ! We queued for 3 hours on B3092, with a 12 week baby in car, and gave up at 2.20 still 3 miles away. From hearing the gridlock in carpark, I am very glad we didn't get in !

Lori
I think the moral of the story is don't get greedy and try and pack out a venue to make it 'bigger and better' than last year. Clearly they completely underestimated the crowd capacity and implications for traffic. The fact there was no other entertainment if the flying didn't happen only made it worse. So many people with bored and disappointed children in tow and exorbitant prices for fast food to an imprisoned audience is really poor. Shame on Red Bull and Longleat who must also take some of the blame. Bournemouth hosted the Red Arrows a few weeks ago; it was great - free event, plenty of places to view and no horrendous congestion. Red Bull Air Race organisers take note.

Martin
Disappointed nothing went ahead. Did not experience the traffic problems, arrive for 10:30, straight in, small delay getting out at 16:00. Can't wait for 2007 I will be there.

Mike Hammond
We had exactly the same dismal experience. A total nightmare. But for those that stayed the pilots were absolutely brilliant, talking to people and signing autographs long after the trophy ceremony.

Graham
I like so many below spent 7 hours getting to the event, and then had to put up with stewards not allowing us to get down the hill to the bridge due to congestion. It was real amateur hour. I suggest evryone who has commented below email Red Bull as well. It is only by telling them what a disaster it was and the negative impact it has on their brand image that they will sort things out for next year. I understand they sold 27,000 car park tickets. This was truely irresponsible not only of Red Bull but of Longleat and the police. The venue's infrastructure is just not capable of taking that much traffic and Longleat itself cannot cope with the volume of people it brings. Remember in their advertising Red Bull stated they were only constrained by the number of car park places - No Red Bull cars and people constarin you.

Ray Johnson
I agree with all the comments about abysmal organisation.Hours of queuing to get into the allocated car park and then waved straight past by police with no idea where we were supposed to go then.Finally managed to get into a different car park and even got into the pit lane at 1330,which is a lot more than some managed. Impossible to get into the main spectator areas due to congestion on the one very small inadequate bridge as Tim and Mark said.Why didn't organisers get a pontoon bridge put across the lake,I'm sure the Army would've obliged? Lots of encouraging noises throughout the afternoon by the commentator about the chance of the weather improving when everybody there could tell that the wind was getting stronger. An announcement at about 1600 that the race committee would make a decision in the next 10 minutes,then nothing.They'd even erected the podium for awards based on Friday practice and still no announcement!!!! Eventually, at about 1645 they said it was cancelled and refunds would be given.Then the fun of trying to get out of the car park started.No marshals,no directions,and after 2 hours we'd moved 250yds!!!!Finally got to the services on Warminster by-pass about 5 miles away at about 2000hrs.Complete lack of info via the media - there was supposed to be a dedicated Red Bull radio station on-site but we never heard it.As far as I know,all the other events in the world series are in public places with easy access,why does U.K.have to be different?There'll be an awful lot of people not even considering to try again next year (assuming there is one)if it's at Longleat.Everyone interested in aviation will understand about flight safety and will accept the cancellation,but lack of organisation,control,and communication is inexcusable at an event like this.

Jennie
Can only reiterate what everyone else is saying. What a complete farce! Having had a great day out at the air race last year, we rounded up family (including 6 very excited kids) and piled into a minibus. What a waste of a day! We have been given the corporate line about the cancellation - if the weather really was the problem, they should have listened to Friday's forecast (pretty accurate for once). Come on Red Bull, have the guts to admit what went wrong. So we get our money back - I should think so too - but what about the money spent on fuel and minibus hire? And the frustration we experienced due to a complete lack of information on the day? The organisers just got greedy. I, for one, will be unlikely to attend a Red Bull event again.

Beth from Warminster
You would like to think that as I live 1.5 miles from Longleat, I was one of the lucky few to get in. Alas, no. After being diverted all the way around the outskirts of the Longleat estate on narrow country roads, I sat in a traffic queue for 2 hours before turning round and going home. I find it unbelievable that the traffic was being diverted through country lanes - Longleat and the surronding villages are not designed to cater for that many cars. Get it sorted for next year, Red Bull - on the sea front where everyone can enjoy the day!

Jill Rickson
What a waste of time!! We left Brighton at 8am, sat in traffic for 5 hours, never got to the event and got home at 6pm. 10 hours in a car is not my ideal way of spending Saturday. The organisation was the worst and it should never have been held at Longleat. 'Red Bull gives you wings'- if only i'd had wings yesterday!!

Could it have got any worse from Simon Lock
I'm still trying to decide which part was worst. Whether the 7-hour drive to get into Longleat from Essex, the fact that the event was cancelled, or the Muppets trying to organise the exit from the blue car park 'afterwards'. Why did it take one Policeman to organise what 20 of you couldn't (well done to the Copper by the way). Feel totally let down by Red Bull, shame you couldn't have given us wings to get out of the hell hole.

Philip H. Kendall
Surely someone will start a "Red Bull sucks" website after this fiasco?

cheryl
What a total shambles this event has been - unfortunately the event manager's email address has been removed from the website. I feel fortunate that I decided to turn around after 4 hours thinking ahead to when all the cars were going to leave the grounds. It was obvious that it wasn't going ahead but Red Bull obviously thought of revenue through merchandising and food sales before public interest. I only saw one steward standing on an unsignposted roundabout who agreed that this was an appallingly organised event. I look forward from a response at some point from Red Bull. It was a hugh disappointment for what could have been an excellent day.

Charlotte
After taking nearly 5 hours to get the 20 miles from Alderbury to Longleat, I was less than impressed to find out that the event was cancelled just 10 metres into the car park where we were unable to get out! What were they thinking? 35,000 cars down a single track lane!!!! Plebs It then took us 3 hours to get back out again. It would have been a total loss if not for the numerous petty fights and rows going on - plus at least we all had the time for a glass of wine and a football game! Needless to say, I doubt our group of 10 will be returning to a Red Bull Air Race anytime soon.... Having said that - try the little pub opposite the camp site in Alderbury - great food with the added bonus of a horse sized dog called Henry!

Paul
What a disaster. The whole thing was a complete rubbish from the point we got in the place to when we eventually got out. 100K people and nothing to do, the most entertaining part was when the so called security people almost got arrested by the police. Who ever that bunch are could not run a p*** up in a brewery, the "head" of security was screaming at people to go around the lake top get to the other side of it as the bridge was grid locked...great apart from you couldn’t actually do this, the police knew this and were arguing with "security", eventually the so called head of security ran off in a strop...oh that was after he assaulted a member of the public that was taking pictures....how pathetic. Only good thing, toilets, loads of them in the main area, bad things...erm everything else, no where near enough food stalls, and the ones there were you had top queue 20-30 mins. 4 dounuts £2.50..seen how small were they... very expensive food stalls. Absolutely nothing to do especially if you were unlucky to be on the bit up the hill as you just couldn’t go anywhere for hours. what was that music they were blaring out all day...hold music on phone systems would have been better. And as for the car park exits, what a farce, where did all the marshallers go that were there on the way in, on blue car park exit we had about 30 lanes of traffic all filtering down to 1, and who was controlling it...erm nobody, the 2 guys with orange jackets on were just stood around, then the public took over, and did quite a good job, even instructed the police what to do....what’s that all about!!!!! eventually more police turned up and took over (2 hours later mind you) I have been to many air show and lots of other outside events, non have been as bad as this, after traveling down from Lancashire the night before, staying in a hotel Friday night and Saturday night, this was an expensive weekend to sit in a field under a tree bored (well till the entertainment of the security v police). If this event is held at longleat again forget it, its a disaster, put it on tv only and dont expect the public to come, they wont after this year, not a single person i spoke to there said they would ever go again if it was at longleat.

Stu
"Spokeswoman for Red Bull Air Race Nina Darby said: There were three road accidents as well which wasn't helping the situation in terms of delays" The delays were nothing to do with accidents, they were to do with bad event management, and the organisers should be brought to task. We personally spent £130 on hotel accomodation and £150 on fuel, nobody blames anybody for cancelling the event, but the communication to people stuck in traffic was abysmall, and the chaos in leaving the event was downright dangerous. We are at least owed an explanation. Longleat is NOT suitable for this event, and Red Bull need to find an alternative.

Angela
Went to the race, was there by 9 but there was no information given out during the day to say it had been cancelled. Whole thing was very badly organised, stewards who could not steward or marshall their way out of a paper bag and nothing to do! They should not have sold tickets to vehicles but instead restricted it to number of people as it was massively overcrowded, no doubt because thy sold tickets based on number of veihcles attending as opposed to people. Very very badly organised and we only found out it was cancelled through listening to the radio on the way home! Took 2.5 hours just to get out of the field we were parked in.

Alison
I too was stuck in the traffic and we were not even going to the event. 4 hours it took to drive to Ringwood I felt so sorry for all those people stuck when we finally got past Longleat via Trowbridge and a few country lanes, SAT NAV helped! I will remember to check events if I have to travel that way again!

joe
we came from crew and spent 13 hours in the car that day. even if it had been on we would have missed it as we got there at 4. we left at 7am from crew and didnt get back in london till 11 our friends got back at half 1

Faye Wilcox
We spent 9 hours in a car on Saturday. Didn't see any planes! After a clear run on the motorway we hit traffic 21 miles from longleat and spent 3.5 hours going 10 miles. We gave up and headed home just before the main race was due to start at 2pm. When we called longleat for information they were unable to provide any. There were no police dealing with traffic, we heard no local radio travel updates and there was no information. Utterly dissapointing. At least we were 4 adults in the car, we saw people with kids and I really felt for them. And even though the ticket is refunded, we still paid £50 for petrol and got home in time to see it was cancelled live on channel 4! And to think I could've stayed in bed when I got up at 6.30 for this . .

David
We had the same experiences as everyone else (6 hours from M4 Jcn 18). I am alarmed to see Chris P Bacon below saying next year's event in at Blackpool. Surely not the Blackpool with one motorway in, which backs up approx 20 miles to the M6 at the first sign of a sunny interval ?!!!. To succeed at Blackpool the event desparately needs a "rail & ride" service from Crewe/Preston etc, not barmy ideas such as "you are only allowed in if you are in your car!

David B
We left for the event at 8:30am from south London. The journey would normally take about 2 and a half hours. We sat in traffic for hours and eventually turned back at about 2:00 as we realised that we would miss the race anyway. Red Bull should be ashamed of how they have organised this event, the entire day was a complete waste of time and money.

Alex
Not quite sure how the day could have been worse - I had my mother AND mother-in-law in the car with me for 10 straight hours, and still didnt see any planes. Although I didnt make it into the grounds (we turned around about a mile away at 4:00pm), it sounds as if the chaos was as bad there as it was on the roads. I even saw a Red Bull VW Beetle turn around and go home !!!!! Still, mustn't grumble, as I'm sure I got off lightly.

Bob Pure
A total fiasco that cost me £45 is wasted fuel and £80 on a hotel room when we were stranded down south by traffic. The organisers should have kept attendees informed via TXT messages ASAP so we could make an informed decision to turn back if we so chose. A disaster. I feel mugged.

john thatcher
I live near Longleat. On Saturday there was near total gridlock in the area.If the Air Race takes place next year the organizers must be compelled to sort out the traffic problems so people who live nearby can get on with their lives without being stuck in apalling traffic jams.

Matt
What could have been a great day was spoilt by the poor organisation of the police and marshaling staff on site thhe planes cound not fly due to weather condition but nobody can expect these guys to risk being killed for the amusement of others main complaints are the lact of crowd control on the bridge over the lake causing a crush of people and the chaos in the car parks as people tryed to leave. wont go again will watch on tv instead.

dave
the roads to longleat were a nightmare. there was little if no traffic management. good job the event was cancelled. after 6 hours driving, we arrived at 2:15 pm, to be told the event was delayed. We decided to leave as did many other people. We passed hundreds, if not thousands of cars on the way home, they were still on their way to the event. We'd like to go next year (assuming the UK will host the event), but we must be re-assured that numbers are more limited or transport links are either improved or better managed.

Tariq Hamid
Irresponsibly organised by greedy people. 100,000 tickets were sold, so at least 300,000 people turned up. (Last year only 50,000 tickets were sold.) All the roads were jammed, it took us 9 hours to get there.

Dan
Awful planning and selling to many tickets resulted in our group and many other having a fully wasted day in the car trying to get to this event. pointless and a waste of money!. Stear well clear in future.

Martin Luton
I went to this and after five hours queueing got in. The weather forecast had been terrible but as a cancellation hadn't been issued,we went. The level of organisation was abysmal. Watch it on TV next time.

Vici Bowen
What a disaster it was. There were 5 hour traffic jams to get into the event , Not everyone got in and if you did get in there was nothing for you to do there . One member of Longleat staff ot hurtnd was not able to work the next day . They had a very small entrance for 200,000 ppeople to get into the pits and this was also the exit tooo. In the end the police had to be called because people were being crushed .Never again.

Kerry Abrahams
I travelled from Salisbury to Bristol on Saturday. I left Salisbury at 10.00am and it took me 4 hours to travel 40 miles due to severe conjestion on all routes around Longleat. I saw two crashes. It was chas!!!

Richard Morgan
Saturday 2nd September. What a complete shambles. Most of us never made the event as the traffic was bumper to bumper I left home three hours early but gave up at 3pm 7 miles from the event after only going 2 miles in three hours what a shambles.

well what a day it was from steve
over 8 hours in a car trying to do a 50 mile round trip took 3.5 hours from warminster .. 2.5 hours stuck trying to get out of the car park ..it was a terrible day .. was unsafe and well over alicated .. the commentator ask people to stay in there zone as it was so over crouded between zones and at 4pm he also said please dont stop me making your way home .. about 2/3 walk out and it was khaos .. they had to cancel it poeple were going mad by 430pm and all redbull wanter to was put a plane up before 6pm so they did'nt have to give a refund .. i think alot of us want a bit more than that

Tom
"The competition features a dynamic new discipline of flying, called 'air racing'" Lazy journalism anybody? Air racing has been going on since 1909! The Red Bull press release has just re-defined the term. I went on Saturday - real shame about the weather, but the forcast was always horrible. Maybe the organisers should have cancelled it sooner...

Alex
Safety required that the event was cancelled. However, the marshalls and Wiltshire police should hang their heads at the traffic chaos that the allowed to develop on 2nd September. With one ticket sold per car, the need for decent traffic control and information should have been obvious well in advance.

Lynsey
Don't worry all you who couldn't get tickets i did and spent 4 hours travelling down to the event to have it cancelled 8 hours after we had arrived got wet and cold and then spent 6 hours travelling home 2 of which stuck in traffic. What a waste of a day.

Robbie Clarkson
I think it was a load of rubbish as we sat in traffic for more than five hours and didnt even make it to the event.How do they possibly expect to fit over 100000 people in a town that is built for 1000...

Gary
Such hopes and excitement, such and anti climax

Rob
The event was an absolute disaster. Trying to cram twenty thousand cars through the lanes of Wiltshire ment a 7 hour each way trip from Cardiff. No stewards for 3 hours at our car park after the event was cancelled (no ones fault) so there was a 4x4 free for all going over fences. Should have been at a major sea front with public access not somewhere everyone had to drive.

stuart
I drove from london to see the event. I left at 7am and arrived within 10 miles of the event and sat in lines of traffic for 5 hours missing nearly the whole days event. I was partially relived to hear after my two and a half hour journey home that the event was cancelled.

tim
after attending yesterdays air race i must say that the the event organisers dont have a clue about crowd management and it was with good fortune that there was not an incedent were people had to be evacuated as i dont think it could have been done with out serious concequences and public getting badly hurt we had a stand off on a bridge were people going up met people going down with no were to go even with POLICE ASISTANCE the event safty seemed unable to resolve this problem for nearly 1 hour (by moving some fenceing this could have been solved but that would inconveniance the vips)i hope that they can do somthing about this in the future (also they new what the weather was going to be like before we all arived so why not do the proper thing?)

Jenni
The entire day was an absolute shambles. Poor weather conditions was an excuse by Redbull to rectify the day's mistakes. After 4 hours of traffic queues we arrived at 2pm at the allocated car park to be told it had been cancelled. Poor organisation and a failure to admit or accept responsibility for the shambolic day has seriously damaged the repuation of Redbull UK in my eyes. I will NEVER attend a Redbull event again.

Chris P Bacon
Traffic chaos throughout the region. Indecision over the eventual cancellation. Car park gridlock after the event. Roll on Blackpool Red Bull 2007!!

john
went to red bull air race took 7 hours to get there from birmingham to be told it was cancelled well organised i dont think oh and a nother 5 hours to get home. never again!

mark williams
What a calamity!! Having left birmingham at 8am we got to Bristol by 9.30 it then took us until 2pm to travel the 40 miles to longleat!! Luckily we found an alternative route through single track lanes, if not I think we would still be there! On arrival we parked in a "designated" space, but to our horror were told to move it further down the field or have it removed - due to the event staff expecting an 'imminent mad rush to leave!' We finally got into the park to stand in a 'queue' for the hangars have they not heard of queue management systems!! We got half way to the front and told the hangars were now closing. We did not even attempt the queue for a cup of tea!!! We then attempted to cross the bridge to the main viewing area!! What a shambles - the bridge the width of our drive was overcrowed and dangerous - we had the good luck of changing our minds at the same point as someone collapsed on the bridge and it was closed!! Stranding spectators on the other side. Following numerous announcements that the show would go head we and thousands of others decided to leave. We then queued for another 2 hrs to get out of the car park- friends of ours were still there 3 hours later. Whe we were leaving we were passed not only by specatators trying to get back from the viewing area but also new arrivals that were still being directed into the car parks - unbelievable!! We have been to many motor sporting events over the years and are completely used to queueing in and out of events however, we have NEVER before experienced such an amatuer event!! Lack of organisation and planning were replaced with chaos!!!

Grumpy sod
Red Bull Air Race. I was looking forward to this event..up at 6am..two and a half hour drive from Manchester onto theM4...and then total gridlock. What the hell were the police doing to keep the flow of traffic? Sod all. Surely when 25.000 cars descend onto a hole in the ground (Bath) it is prety obvious the roads wouldn't cope. Did we see any traffic police? Not One. Were they unaware of the event being held? or did they chose to ignore common scense. Wiltshire doesn't deserve to host major events if this is the way visitors are treated.

Andy
The day was a disaster. It was badly organised. The whole area was gridlocked for hours. The organisers got too greedy and sold more tickets than the roads could cope with. Information about the event was poorly comunicated. In the end the event was cancelled apparently due to poor weather. In the end an 12 hour round trip for me when I only live 90 miles away. At least I will get a refund due to the event being cancelled. I won't be wasting my time next year!

Ben "fuming" Mitchell
I literally cannot believe that the organising company would hold an event for 100,000 people at a place only accessible by 2 narrow country roads. It took us 5 hours to get in. The event itself was appaling, no entertainment, nothing. It was perfectly obvious that no racing was going to happen but we still saw people trying to get in when we left. Never has the phrase "the wind is going to drop" made me so angry. Obviously getting back in the car and finding that there were going to be gales put a new truth on it. I recommend that nobody ever wastes money on time on this event. Appalling.

Mark Ryan
20:23hrs I have just returned from what has to be the biggest organised rip off of the century. I have been on the road since 5am and covered460 miles not a plane in sight, just hudreds of confused motorists driving round without a clue where to go or who to consult This none event needs serious investigation. I for one will be speaking to mt lawyer.

Ray
Its just as well that you lot didn't go the race it was the most disorganised event I have been to for years. The roads around longleat are not designed for this amount of people. Having been involved in Aviation as a pilot and controller for nearly 30 years I knew when I got out of bed this morning that the aircraft would not fly. So why leave it so late to cancel. They lied to us at the event advising they were getting weather forcasts and they were looking good, it was obviuos the weather was not improving.They can stick next years event.

Andy
Event Cancelled

Graeme Brouder
Just got home after queing in traffic for 7 hours to get there, turned back 1/2mile from the event as there was only 30mins left. On the way home we found out from radio 1 that the start was delayed by two hours!!! Luckily we didn't turn back as others around us did on hearing this news as it was later cancelled, bigger and better?? Worst traffic management I have ever seen, horrendous!

Dan
You didn't miss anything folks - albeit the organisers were right to cancel - they should have done so much earlier - rather than thousands of people sat for hours in traffic with no information at all. At the very least local radio stations should have been informed.

claire j
we went to the red bull race today 2/9/06, what a shambles, we were in 6hrs of traffic from junction 18, total bedlam, realising it was 2.15 and the race starts at 2.00 we decided to turn back home, i have never seen so many cars ever, alot of hopeful people, who even then had no idea not even me that it had been cancelled, my children were dissapointed, and i am furious, that noone from the red bull race or longleat bothered to let the radio stations know, so we could have been alerted and gone elsewhere to enjoy our day out. they should all be ashamed of themselves.

Andrew Stevens
Longleat today, Absolute farce, queued for over 3 hours to get in eventually gave up no traffic control & no info. It strikes me as this venue & road infrastructure is totally unsuitable for the amount of vehicles attepting to get in. Suggest it is moved to a sea front location, perhaps Bournemouth Bay. easy access unrestricted views.

jennie
teh show didnt go ahead this year as the winds were to high so disappointing

Keith Butcher
What a fiasco! We left the M4 around 11 o'clock. By 1.30 we had travelled about 5 miles. Eventually found a place to turn off and try and go home. By 3 pm we were finally homeward bound. Each car going to the event had a sticker to show the designated car park. We played a game to see which colour was the most popular. We gave up once we had counted over 1000 cars still stuck on the road an hour after the racing was meant to start. That was just on the road we drove out on. There must have been thousands of cars like us that never made it to the event. At £35 per ticket I wouldn't like to guess the value of the 'unused' tickets. They clearly sold far more than the local road system could cope with. Eventually arrived home at 5.30. Nine hours of driving for nothing.

Anthony Morgan
I spent the whole day trying to get to longleat with no success. This year was a total waste of time,the traffic system around longleat just can not cope with this amount of traffic.....I am now seeking a refund.If red bull need an event this big,then the venue has to suit!! A.Morgan,Caerwent,S.Wales

kate
disgraceful organisation.

Jason
Having spent almost 3 hours queuing to get into this event (we left at 7.30am to make sure we had plenty of time) - we gave up and came home. Longleat/Bath just isn't capable of such a high volume of traffic and the organisers need to look at why the event turned into such a nightmare for thousands of drivers. Accidents do happen and obviously caused problems, but even so, there should have been better communication via local radio from the organisers, stewards along the way passing information to drivers, facilities for queuing drivers and the passengers, and indication of distance to the event - just so drivers knew whether it was worth waiting. On our way back home we passed loads of drivers who would have faced at least a 3 hour wait just to reach the A361!

Fed Up
What a total mess - just spent 7 hours in a car mostly only miles from the venue. Only live 1h20m drive from Longleat and left at 9am for a 2pm start but didn't make it. In the end we turned back at 2.15 still several miles from the venue.

Tony
Been down there this afternoon. Short journey from Warminster no problems getting in or out but left at 3pm as no flying as of then. various reports that the race would start sometime after 3pm but the wind speed way to high for precision flying. Feel sorry for the thousands who had obviously, judging by the array of accents, travelled hundreds of miles.

Nick Parker
What an absolute disaster. We left Bristol at 9.30am and decided to give up and turn back at 2.30pm. we were still 8 miles away from the car parks at that point! I think maybe the local roads can't cope with 100,000 people.

robert
been on the road since 6am still in traffic about 10 miles from event 3pm ticket bought for birtday present but no hope of getting to event this country really must sort out this traffic chaos very fed up great way to spend your birthday !!!!

Tom
Hey, I Heard The Race Will Be Showing On TV But What Time And Channel? Please Help Me Out Thanks

Ros
I am going tomorrow and i cant wait! i hope its gonna be as good as all the hype suggests!

oliwia thomas
red bull is amazing i am truely looking forward to it and its going to be the best airoplane show ever

Regina Purcell
What about the poor animals? How on earth do they like loads of fast aircraft zooming over their heads for hours!!!!

Lesley Law
What time does the event start??????

Jimmy
Dear David, I suggest you contact your local seated peer and ask him to pursue the matter as Lord Bath has.

kirsty telling
they stopped selling thickets on the 28th july. And no you can't get there by public transport

stephanie
can we get there by public transport

tracey riley
i tried to buy tickets for september 2nd, you have all my details know but couldnt purchase tickets, why ???

David Mitchell
Dear Sir,Why is it that we cannot have the Red Bull Air Race."ON Morecambe Bay"or"Blackpool".When we can have the Red Arrows on Show and Air Shows up here FREE.Every year...Name the day.