Cambridge Botanic Lights email error sees light trail guests waste trip

The Cambridge Botanic Lights experience takes visitors through the picturesque grounds in the city centre

The organisers of a festive light trail have apologised for an email error that meant many people arrived at the event only to find it had been cancelled.

Cambridge University Botanic Garden closed its lights event on Saturday due to high winds expected in the evening.

It said dozens of ticketholders were not informed of the cancellation in advance due to the computing problem.

"We would like to say how extremely sorry we are to anyone who had a wasted journey," a spokesperson said.

'No prior warning'

One disappointed ticket-holder told the BBC that when she arrived in the city centre, the gates were locked and there was a poster informing her of the closure.

She said there were "a lot of groups of very unhappy customers".

Another described the organiser's decision a "poor showing" on social media, adding: "My wife and daughter pitched up on time to find the event had been cancelled with no prior warning."

The closure came on the same night Anglesey Abbey, in nearby Lode, also cancelled its winter lights event due to the weather forecast.

"We are reviewing our communications around all future events to ensure that this kind of error does not happen again," the gardens said

A spokesperson for the botanic garden said an email informing of the decision to close was sent to guests at 15:15 GMT on Saturday, but an outbox cap meant only 500 of the 650 emails were sent.

A second email was resent at 19:30 once the issue had been realised.

'Reviewing communications'

The spokesperson said they would like to "unreservedly apologise" for any inconvenience caused.

"Cambridge Botanic Lights is running for the first time this year and the aim is to bring people joy," they said.

"But we appreciate that the experience on Saturday may have been far from this for those who did not get our message in time.

"We are reviewing our communications around all future events to ensure that this kind of error does not happen again."

Ticket-holders have since been contacted with refund details and offered a free visit to the garden next year.

The light trail, which started this month, is set to conclude on 22 December.

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