This $300 Pop-Up Meal On The Beach Was Such A Disaster That People Ordered Pizza


Now that I am knee-deep in my 30s, friends sometimes invite me to the types of fun events that we would have all mocked back in college. Croquet without drinking? No thanks. Spending a whole bunch of money to drink cheap wine while doing our best to paint landscapes in the basement of some bar somewhere? I’m good. A mass dinner with a theme where you have to eat with strangers, many of them sporting “quirky” headbands and themed costumes? Haha, lose this number!

Some people, sadly, aren’t so lucky or haven’t yet learned their lesson, which is why today’s biggest food news is the fact that a whole bunch of couples paid $500 per pair of tickets to eat food so bad they ended up having to order pizza. How bad could it possibly be? Well, let me tell you a thing: I have never read a review that included the words “a bread roll with olive oil is not a ‘course'” before today.

Some background: The event we’re about to mock mercilessly happened at Bondi Beach in Sydney and was titled A Moveable Feast. Guests paid for dinner (created by celebrity chef Luke Mangan), drinks, and excitement, but when the night of the party came, the only thing guests got was a huge bill for the outside food they had to buy and eat instead.

Eater reports that people waited in line for hours to collect the wine that they’d paid for in advance. Others didn’t get any food at all, despite having paid for the privilege of eating and not just chilling on the beach angrily for a few hours. And the people who did get food? Well, they may have been better off if they’d just stayed home and eaten cereal instead, because apparently the food was so bad that even the stuff they serve on an airplane surpassed it in quality.

Here’s some proof:

It wasn’t any better on the event’s Facebook page, which posted a status thanking everyone for a successful night and urging them to bring their “besties” the next year. The comments, though? They make it clear that if you’re buying tickets to this event for anyone, it should be a person you want to see frustrated, annoyed, and quickly giving up their will to live.

From Eater:

“More like ACF: A COMPLETE FARCE,” an angry attendee wrote on Facebook. “Good luck selling tickets next year. Piss poor organisation, tiny portions of cold, over priced ordinary quality food,” another posted. Others accuse the event’s organizers of greed, claiming that as many as 3,000 tickets were sold despite the fact there clearly weren’t enough staff or resources to support that many guests.

Sounds like fun! Even more fun is the fact that the organizers of the event haven’t responded to critics yet, nor have they offered to issue refunds to those who were unhappy, even though there are more than 100 comments voicing displeasure (at best) and downright anger (at worst). Diners complained about having to wait so long for food that they completely missed the dancing portion of the evening, finding hair in their meals, and having to share one portion of food amongst six people who had paid full price. Even the evening’s end was a mess as dancing completed at 10:30 when revelers had been promised they could promenade until 11pm.

If you’re keeping score, that means that for many people there was no drinking, no dining, and no dancing. They basically paid an exorbitant price to stand in line and then share what meager rations were still available by the time they’d made it to the front.

This might be the only ticket-holder that had a good night:

Better luck next year (if there is one), and remember: Paying hella money to dine with thousands of strangers at a “fun and lively” event will result in hours of your life that you’ll want back at the end. Stay home instead!

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