A host of visitors from the ‘Hot Air Balloon Extravaganza’ in Newbury have said they feel ‘cheated’ after weather conditions halted the headline event.

After months of planning, Xplosive events were forced to abandon their hot air balloon display due to health and safety concerns during unexpected windy conditions.

Festival goers are now asking for partial refunds saying that the remaining events did not make up for the loss of main attraction.

Cheryl Jackson, who travelled to Newbury with her family said: “We bought a family ticket for the event which was around £62.50 for a family of four which included parking and booking fees.

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“We were under the impression that it was going to be a hot air balloon display with some stunt shows and sky diving, but when we got there, it was very different.

“There were four or five different events on in the main arena which were all quite poor. Four people on horses going round an arena waving to the crowd and a single quad bike jumping over a car.

“They could have made up for the loss of the hot air balloon show but after three hours at the fun fair there wasn’t really anything else to do.”

Despite this, the organisers said they only received 43 complaints out of 9,000 visitors. As well as this, the hot air ballon events were cancelled due to safety reasons.

We have compiled the complaints and have been responding to them individually throughout the day, we put our heart and souls into these events, we listen to all criticism and we are always learning," a spokesperson from Xplosive events explained.

"We had some 30 balloons on site, we successfully flew a dozen balloons in the morning press launch before the wind speed increased, three of the crews battled to inflate and tether balloons around lunchtime and again in the evening two teams fought hard to keep two more balloons safely tethered."

However festival goers were also unhappy at the ‘extortionate prices’ of tickets, taking to social media to express their concerns following the event.

Ruchit Bansal took his family of 10 and paid £155 to see 'something they'd never seen before'.

He said: “We paid £155 for my family and friends to come. There were 10 of us and I was excited to bring everyone to see something that we had never seen before.

“I was very much disappointed right from the outset to see it's more of a fun fair with highly overpriced food and rides but not a balloon fiesta as advertised.

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He added: “We left at around 6pm waiting for the balloons to show up but we had been told by the organisers that because of windy weather there would be nothing on display and there is no point waiting till 7 to see anything.

“Even the promised fireworks only started at 10 - with crowds mostly consisting of parents with young kids who wouldn’t be able to stay up on time.

“We left with a heavy heart when we expected to spend our evening there at the event.”