Reminiscent of pop-cultural event failures such as Dashcon and Fyre Festival, a Fortnite Festival was hosted on the weekend that went about as well as expected. Fortnite Live, which was hosted on February 16-17 was held in English town, Norwich at Norfolk showground.
The event’s website boasted the festival, developed by Exciting Events, as “the ultimate battle royale,” showcasing live games throughout the duration of the event. “Dance battles to end all dance battles” were also promised as well as streams of popular Fortnite YouTubers, a laser tag version of the game and shopping and other activities.
These promises boasted exciting and lively events for show-goers but many were left disappointed by what can only described as a misfire, with apparent staff shortages as well as limited resources for the near 3000 children that appeared at the event.
This disappointment left hundreds asking for refunds, finding it hard to believe that the poor allocation of resources (including room for “only 4 people to partake in archery and 3 for the single rock climbing wall” at the same time) was due to staff shortages and not the absence of planning.
Many complaints were made by parents on social media including apparent queue waits of as long as 2 hours just to enter the event. Moreso, parents were outraged at the cost required to play the video game at the event, considering how Fortnite is a video game that otherwise normally would be free-to-play in homes.
Trawl the events Facebook page and you can find disappointed comments poking fun at the event. Comments include statements such as “Now we know why it’s called Fortnite: it takes two weeks to get into the event.” and “A tarpaulin lobbed over a van with a plastic slide sticking out the back [was] billed as a ‘Cave Experience.’ “
Epic Games, the developers of Fortnite had not given the event company permission or approval for the images used in promotion of “Fortnite Live”, nor the name of the event or its existence itself.
About the Author
Charlie Kelly
She/Her, They/Them
Charlie loves her video games as much as she loves dumb, charming JRPG protagonists: probably way too much. You can often catch her spending too much time being emotional over LGBT stories in games. She also thinks Yakuza 6 is the best one.
