A festive drone display in Sussex went awry this weekend, leaving hundreds of people demanding a refund. The Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer drone show was heralded as a “spectacular experience” by organisers Lumina Drones, with “a mesmerising swarm of 600 LED drones” set to light up the sky in the shape of the beloved Christmas character on Sunday, November 30.

However, problems, including technical failures and muddy ground, created a perfect storm at the South of England showground in the village of Ardingly, prompting over 900 attendees to demand a refund.

A Facebook group set up after the event has attracted 972 members sharing their “disastrous” experiences from the night and attempts to secure refunds for the £15.99 tickets and £7 parking fees.

“The showground was a mudbath and dozens of cars got stuck,” Raymond Kemp, who went to the display with his family, said. 

“The drone show was very poor, very short and went black before it had finished, while the poor commentary continued booming out into the dark sky…It was certainly a memorable night out, but for all the wrong reasons.”

Jade Russell, who also attended the festive lights show, added: “Queues were ridiculous to get in, the drone show was delayed by half an hour and half the drones weren’t working. You couldn’t even make out what the formations were meant to be.

“Then the sky went black halfway through and the last bit was cut off. [And we] had to pay £7 to park in a field, where everyone got stuck and were pushing cars, and tow trucks had to come to help people get out. It took an hour and a half to get out. Avoid!”

Carly Gunn, who said she had lodged an official complaint as well as requesting a refund, said she had driven around an hour from West Malling for what turned out to be “a complete waste of time and money”.

“We had such high hopes after seeing how incredible drone displays can be, like the castle show at Disneyland, but this event was nothing short of shambolic,” she added.

A spokesperson for Lumina Sky Theatre said: “Unfortunately, our Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer drone show at the South of England Showground experienced technical difficulties, affecting some of the drones.

“We are incredibly disappointed that we were unable to deliver the entire show to the high standards we had prepared and sincerely apologise to customers whose enjoyment of the show was affected by this issue.

“Our technical team are currently investigating to understand what happened. We have successfully operated nine shows to date across the UK without any technical problems’ however, large-scale drone shows are complex by nature, and unforeseen issues may occasionally arise.

“We will be contacting all ticket-holders via email as soon as possible with an update. We sincerely apologise again to everyone who attended.”