Mistakes were made at the opening of Winter Wonderland but it is now running smoothly, according to Chester Racecourse boss Richard Thomas.

On Thursday (November 24) police were forced to turn families away as around 7,000 people descended on Chester Racecourse.

The racecourse’s social networking sites were flooded with complaints surrounding the organisation of the opening night, which saw the advertised skating display cancelled after the ice failed to fully-set in time.

Now – after a successful weekend seeing 15,000 visitors flock to the Winter Wonderland in just two days – Chester Racecourse have admitted they were ‘unprepared’ and that the venue ‘couldn’t cope’ with the large crowds.

And with organisers hoping to run the event again next year, the racecourse is already considering making it a balloted event – similar to the Olympic Torch Relay – to prevent overcrowding again.

Richard Thomas, chief executive of Chester Race Company, reassured visitors the festivities were now running smoothly and staff were dealing with the numerous comments on the event’s Facebook page.

“What happened was an awful lesson to learn, it wasn’t a great experience for anyone involved,” said Mr Thomas, who said the racecourse has now capped the number of people allowed into the event to 4,000 following the overcrowding.

“If we thought the crowd was going to have that many people we wouldn’t have hosted (the light switch-on) here. The Winter Wonderland cannot cope with that amount of people.”

Mr Thomas said he deeply regretted that people had to be turned away from the event, but the decision had to be made to ensure the safety of visitors. He expressed his relief that no one was reportedly hurt.

Children from Deeside Ice Skating Group, who were left disappointed after their performance was cancelled due to the ice not being set, have been invited back to perform their routine on December 7, along with charitable groups who were turned away despite being part of the parade.

And the cost of the event to families and individuals has been reviewed after families felt the event was ‘too expensive’, with food, drink and attractions having their prices reduced over the past few days, said Mr Thomas.

“People are saying it is too expensive to come in,” said Mr Thomas who explained it cost the racecourse £200,000 to host the new event.

“We have tried to keep prices as reasonable as we can. The ice rink is the only one in the area and it is run at a significant cost, we cannot put it on for nothing, it is competitively priced and we have to cover our costs.

“We have changed the prices on some things and we are constantly reviewing our prices and how we do things.”

Responding to criticism after families were turned away on Saturday as the Winter Wonderland was closed to public until 5pm while a family fun day for 3,000 M&S guests was held for sponsors, Mr Thomas insisted the closure had been clearly advertised on the website.

“We have to hold our hands up and say we have lessons to learn”, he said.

“Chester hasn’t had anything like this in the city before, there are things people like and things they don’t. If it is what people want we will do it again next year, but we would have to plan a lot, and there are a lot of things we will change.”

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