Wedding venue next to a festival

Whitetiger2

Good morning all,

I booked my wedding venue for July 2027 a few months ago. 

This is a luxury venue with the total wedding budget being £30k and the venue costs totalling to £15k (venue, food, and the standard 2 glasses of Prosecco and 1/2 bottle of wine per person) for 80 guests on a Saturday. 

I found out yesterday that the weekend that I have chosen is the weekend for a large festival in the area, which causes massive traffic delays on the motorway and all the roads nearby. As well as this, the festival is less than 2km away. I said to the venue I wanted an outdoors ceremony if possible, with the festival being less than 2km away I don’t even want to think about the noise, surely that would make the outdoors ceremony impossible and so distracting. 

The venue never disclosed this, the date was full price and we got no discounts. I do not want a discounted rate, I want to move the date. My partner is ringing the venue today to ask to move the date but I am expecting we will lose our deposit (1.2k) and will have to pay again to secure another date. 

Does anyone know if have a leg to stand on with consumer rights, as they didn’t disclose the festival being nearby on the same weekend? 

Thanks so much. 

DullGreyGuy

Are they hosting the festival? 

Depending on the type of venue it is they may have no idea and you'll have a hard job proving they did know.

Aylesbury_Duck

As I understand it, if they can replace the booking with one of a similar size, they can't hold on to anything other than reasonable administrative costs.  The trouble is, now the festival is "public knowledge", they may struggle to fill that date.  If they can't replace your booking, you'll have to look at your contract to see what costs beyond your deposit you may be liable for.  They won't be significant (if there's anything at all) because this far out, they won't have ordered anything for your wedding.

As DullGreyGuy says, it's going to be hard to prove they hid the festival from you, and even then, unless you booked with the specific requirement of traffic-free roads and a noise exclusion zone of 3km for example, I don't see how they've breached any contract.  To be frank, wherever you book for an outdoor ceremony you face the chance of traffic problems, farmers running tractors up and down adjacent fields, helicopters going overhead at inopportune moments, etc.   And that's before you even consider the weather.

It's going to worry you for the next two years though, so the right thing to do is cancel and see what action they take.

MattMattMattUK

Whitetiger2 said:

Good morning all,

I booked my wedding venue for July 2027 a few months ago. 

This is a luxury venue with the total wedding budget being £30k and the venue costs totalling to £15k (venue, food, and the standard 2 glasses of Prosecco and 1/2 bottle of wine per person) for 80 guests on a Saturday. 

I found out yesterday that the weekend that I have chosen is the weekend for a large festival in the area, which causes massive traffic delays on the motorway and all the roads nearby. As well as this, the festival is less than 2km away. I said to the venue I wanted an outdoors ceremony if possible, with the festival being less than 2km away I don’t even want to think about the noise, surely that would make the outdoors ceremony impossible and so distracting. 

The venue never disclosed this, the date was full price and we got no discounts. I do not want a discounted rate, I want to move the date. My partner is ringing the venue today to ask to move the date but I am expecting we will lose our deposit (1.2k) and will have to pay again to secure another date. 

Does anyone know if have a leg to stand on with consumer rights, as they didn’t disclose the festival being nearby on the same weekend? 

Thanks so much. 

You stand nowhere. It is not their job to disclose a festival that they have nothing to do with 2km away. 

ElefantEd

If the venue could have found out about the festival, surely you could have done the same and booked a different date accordingly? I do sympathise but I don't think you can reasonably blame the venue. But it's a long time away and maybe you can switch dates at a minimal cost. If not, why not make a feature of it - come to our wedding and get the festival experience for free!

Whitetiger2

Hi all, thanks for the responses. The festival has been going on since 2006, I just wasn’t aware of it because it’s not my local area. I realise I made a mistake and should have googled events on that date in the area but I am not a regular events planner and it didn’t cross my mind! 

It must be a regular disruption for the venue each year, just disappointed they weren’t upfront about it when they are meant to be offering a “luxury experience” 

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

MattMattMattUK said:It is not their job to disclose a festival that they have nothing to do with 2km away. 

This isn't necessarily true, if the venue knew, the information was viewed as material and it's omission would alter the transactional decision of the average consumer this would breach the CPRs.

The issue is, as DGG says, "you'll have a hard job proving they did know".

It's a difficult one OP, what does the contract say about both their and your right to cancel? If both are entitled to cancel under a set period with equal terms then losing £1.2k might be less painful than worrying about it for two years.

user1977

How noisy do you think a festival 2km away is going to be? You might be able to hear it but you're hardly going to have to shout over it.

Hoenir

Which Festival is it? 

ButterCheese

See if you can change dates or cancel without losing money.  If not, weigh up whether you want to worry about it for the next two years or not and see if that os worth losing your deposit amount or not.  Music does travel but it is dependant upon the wind direction.  We can hear shouts from the football ground 1 mile away sometimes, but other times it is silent.  I wouldn't have thought it would ruin the wedding though, you only need quiet for the vows really, and the rest of the time you will have music/chatter of your own

Aylesbury_Duck

Whitetiger2 said:

Hi all, thanks for the responses. The festival has been going on since 2006, I just wasn’t aware of it because it’s not my local area. I realise I made a mistake and should have googled events on that date in the area but I am not a regular events planner and it didn’t cross my mind! 

It must be a regular disruption for the venue each year, just disappointed they weren’t upfront about it when they are meant to be offering a “luxury experience” 

Is it, though?  Have you actually checked?  You said yourself that that date was priced as normal whereas if they usually struggle to sell that date one might have expected it to be reflected in the price.

I suspect you're worrying unnecessarily and that it won't be a problem.  However, you're likely to worry about it for two years, so I still think the best course of action is to cancel and see what happens.