Lingfield blasted over inadequate facilities at sold-out concert

Lingfield has been criticised after a sellout race meeting and concert by singer Craig David was blighted by poor organisation and inadequate facilities, with some customers saying they queued for up to an hour to use the toilet.

The Surrey track, owned by Arena Racing Company (Arc), has received dozens of complaints on its Facebook page from some of the 12,000 customers who attended the meeting.

One, Michelle Mears, said: "This was by far the worst event I've ever been to. [There were] far too many people in there – I actually feared for our safety and left not long after the show started."

Another customer, Linda Padman, wrote: "Horrendous event in every way: too many people, very badly organised, huge lack of facilities. We queued for 30 mins for the loo and same for the bar. Staff were clearly untrained and in some cases rude. Will NEVER go to an event here again, just awful."

Sarah Trist wrote: "Absolutely disgraceful from Lingfield racecourse –you knew how many tickets you had sold, 12,000, [so] why were drinks running out by 4pm? Why no extra toilets provided? Queuing for one hour to get a drink and for a toilet is not acceptable!"

Craig David: his performance was met with widespread approval

Negative feedback did not extend to Craig David's performance, which seemed to meet with widespread approval, while previous concerts at Lingfield have passed without similar complaints.

This latest incidence of customers leaving unhappy with a racecourse concert follows three months after Newmarket boss Amy Starkey was forced to apologise after loutish and drink-fuelled behaviour at a Little Mix gig prompted hundreds of concert-goers to complain on social media.

In response to the Lingfield complaints, a spokesman for Arc said: "We have been closely monitoring customer feedback from Saturday’s event with Craig David and would like to apologise to customers who feel that they did not have a positive experience.

"It was the biggest racing and music event we have staged at Lingfield Park Resort and we can assure customers that their feedback will very much be taken on board for future events.

"We will ensure any operational issues we encountered on Saturday evening will be addressed, while the vast majority of guests had a great evening."

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