Xplosive Events Reviews 

A really good day. Grandchildren loved it with loads to do and lots of entertainment.

Worst company ever - rude staff and discriminate you for being disabled and be rude to you and tell you to pay like everyone else and then block you on social media and delete all your comments - I've never been discriminated as being disabled before until now with this company and their staff

After 7 emails and lots of phone calls left on answer machine they never get back to you. Avoid anything to do with this company. Complete cowboys

Con artists, will take your money and make it as hard as possible for you to attend the event. Won’t issue refunds to the thousands of customers that paid, and won’t answer the phones or several emails after 6 weeks. We work for our money, this company get their money by stealing from us. Disgraceful

Wow wow wow wow wow! My family and I attended the 2023 Abingdon Bonfire and Fireworks event in November, and we were quite literally blown away!

I’ve seen so many negative comments from others regarding the traffic congestion with the events that are put on by the organisers, and it really does make me chuckle when reading what people have said.

Moaning about how busy it is to get to an event with over 20,000 attendees is comical!

What do you seriously expect? Free flowing traffic and no waiting time in queues?

Have a word with yourselves, please!

It wasn’t all that long ago when we queued outside a supermarket for hours on end to buy our groceries. We didn’t complain. We accepted it and got on with it.

Anyone with an ounce of common sense should know that events like this will be busy, and travel times will be greater than they normally are.

Everyone that has attended any event hosted by Xplosive Events has had months to prepare for the occasion.

If you’re one of those who has negatively reviewed this company, then you are clearly not living in the real world!

If being impatient and stuck in traffic triggers you, stay at home!

The last 45 minutes of our journey was bumper to bumper traffic. And that was only the last mile!

Did we complain? No. Was it unexpected? No. Did we leave in enough time to get to the event? Yes!

We all get held up in traffic every single day. Get over it!

If you have attended the event in Abingdon and you live in the Oxfordshire area, just be bloody grateful that we have the opportunity to experience something that not many else will.

It’s not as if we’re spoilt for choice with different and exciting things to do in the area.

Very good Xplosive Events and Illusion Fireworks. Very good!

Xplosive Events posted a Facebook post, showcasing the Abingdon Fireworks show as an official video. I commented that it was a shame that they couldn't officially respond to the multitude of comments and complaints about traffic management after the show. The response to my comment was awful. Asking me, if I'd rather they lie about matters or Just tell me, as it is, and there's nothing they can do. If I'd rather not have this experience then sadly the event is not for me. Shocked I politely replied, to which Xplosive replied a couple of times. The. Xplosive events Facebook page disappeared from my Facebook view. Family have said they can't see my comments, assuming they have been removed. Family can see Xplosive Events posts, I cannot. I assume they have blocked me. If they have, I am shocked at the immaturity and lack of care for constructive feedback for future improvements. I'm disgusted at the behaviour, and total disregard for visitor safety when considering the safe movement of 20k people off their site. I doubt I'll get a reply to this review. If you want a good fireworks show, find another that take customer safety across the whole experience seriously. Shame on you Xplosive Events!

This was our second visit to Abingdon for the fireworks after also attending the summer show. This show had a bigger fairground which we were happier with and a once again fabulous fireworks display! Overpriced food as we paid £27 for two portions of chips and 4 pieces of chicken, but to be expected I suppose!

As almost everyone else has said, the traffic at the end is a nightmare, even though we left 45 minutes after the show had ended as they advised. I think Xplosive Events should take some responsibility for this mess as they are the ones who allow so many people to attend with literally zero traffic management at the end of the night - the safety marshals look frozen to death as they have nothing to do all night! It took us just under two hours to leave the airfield, which included being verbally abused by another customer in a car as we didn’t happen to let him push in to the lane we were in immediately! As anyone who attends knows, you can’t just lane hop and expect to be let across when you see a lane moving for all of two seconds!

I think the email they sent out this week was more than cheeky, traffic being ‘beyond their control’, surely it’s your responsibility as the event organiser for everyone to leave safely?

The traffic has made us definitely think twice about attending next year, I hear ticket prices will be raised due to letting less people attend (£28 each to waste the same in petrol just to leave the event?), but I think they need to promise some sort of organisation at the end of the event so people do keep coming back!

We had the best time as a family of 4. There was soo much variety for everyone. My 2 and 6 year old loved the rides, music and lights. They enjoyed their food and danced the evening away watching fireworks and the bonfire. The monster truck was a huge hit for my children.
We as a family of young children appreciated the amount of emails informing us that traffic is not controlled on exit and knew even though they put in email and announced on the evening for everyone to allow young families to leave first it was going to be a wait so with knowing this we made the most of our evening and queued keeping in spirit of a fantastic evening we danced and sang in the car to pass the time.

We have been attending for the last few years and it amazes us every year, can't wait for next year!

Fantastic firework display and lovely staff. There were queues to get in and out of the car park but this is to be expected for such a large event. So long as you're patient and respect others around you it makes it a whole lot easier. I've seen people moaning about the traffic marshalls but they are there just to guide you in and out not magically get you out the car park any quicker. Will definitely recommend and looking forward to going again

Amazing firework display- the best display by far that I've ever seen BUT the traffic management getting into and out of the venue is non existent.
22,000 people attend this event so there is probably a minimum of 10,000 cars. A traffic management plan needs to be in place, there needs to be people directing the traffic. We waited at the end to let the families leave first to try and stagger it but it was still chaos! This will put me off attending next year.

This was my second year at Abingdon firework display, it truely is the most amazing show you will ever get to see. Fireworks choreographed to perfection to brilliant music.

Yes, the traffic is a long wait getting out but I really do not think there is a way around this with thousands of people attending the show and having the privilege of free parking onsite, all wanting to leave at the same time. I personally think its a small price to pay for a wonderful experience.
Well done to the organisers. oh I especially enjoyed the hot chocolate with a little tipple in it to keep me warm and toasty too 😊

I loved the show, but...

Sadly, the bad parts made it not worth it.

First - one accessible toilet per whole place, and with 50 people queue in front of it - completely inaccessible.

Second - after realising, that I will have to hold it until reaching closest place with proper facilities, having to wait nearly 2 hours in (from the looks of it) unmanaged traffic.

As a result, I had almost equal time of having fun and having 'if I had known this before, I would not have attended this awful event'.

5 star show, 0 star experience at the end of it.

fireworks were amazing, monster truck rides were great fun, but sadly this could be the last year for us as the fairground rides between 3-5pm were £2 a go but after 5pm price increased to £5 with three kids with us this was far to expensive, we put a 1 year old on a ride, when we asked if mum could stand to the side to make sure she would be okay we were told it would be £5 for mum as well how ridiculous £10 so a child could go on a ride. the food prices was beyond extortionate 2 burgers, 2 chips, 2 drinks cost £32 pounds i know its up to ourselves if we pay these prices but its not fair to put temptation in the way for children and making the parents feel guilty because not all could afford those prices. there was so many people there that i am sure there would have been no loss financially to the vendors to lower the prices so more people could afford to buy from them. Has for leaving the process it was awful, over an hour to leave(i know others took longer to leave as well) but i think if it had been controlled instead of a free for all it would have been so much easier and quicker, we had traffic trying to cut up the side of our queue of traffic just to so slow it all down whilst they tried to cut in everyone wants to get home but you have to expect delays with this volume of traffic leaving an area at the same time, patience from all drivers and someone controlling the traffic would help greatly.

Great evening out. Fireworks amazing and fun fare. Understand everyone's frustrations at lack of traffic management on exit. A 20 car wide drag race down a runway to a supposedly single carriageway exit road is never going to end well. Not helped by impatient muppets trying to gain an advantage by thinking the grass was a shortcut! Unfortunately half expected that to be the case. You definitely need to operate a coned off one way only exit road on the runway next year. Apart from that a great night out

This was the second year we’ve been to this event. The fireworks and light show were spectacular as usual! Loved the ‘light wave’ too! Very well organised. We understand the food venders will charge more for the food but it wasn’t the best for the price we paid! Having said that we will be back next year even though the traffic holdups getting off the airfield were horrendous just like last year! No organisation to direct traffic OUT but loads on the way IN! took us over an hour just to get to the exit! This is the reason I’ve only given 4 stars.

Best firework performance I've been to - lasted over 15 mins. Great vendors and toilets- plenty of them although long queues.

Driving to and from event was carnage. We queued over an hour and a half to get in - which made us miss the lighting of the bonfire, and took us over 2 hours to get out of the event after, despite hanging around for a while after the fireworks. People were making their own lanes on the way out, no security to manage this on the way out like way in. There should have been parking attendants in place to ensure there were no extra lanes being made which slowed everything down.

Just Wonderful. Who knew that a firework display could fill your heart with so much joy!

The firework display at Abingdon was spectacular BUT: need more Food and Coffee stalls; parking and exit traffic is total cahos: they do not have row numbers, so people search for their cars for a long time in the dark around the huge airfield with their phone light; then 12 or more disorganized lines in the airfield converge in a 1 line road funnel…it took 45 minutes to get out! Finally: they DO NOT HAVE LOST/FOUND, do not reply to emails and calls. All the above ruined the experience of the evening

The fireworks were absolutely amazing, never seen anything as good. Great event and will definitely be coming back year after year!

As seekers of great fireworks each year, we can honestly say, 2023's effort was the best we have ever seen - anywhere. Well done to everyone involved! As an event, we were parked quickly and appreciated the regular emails leading up to the event with advice and timings. The man on the speakers did an amazing job of keeping us informed and getting the crowd involved and excited. We liked the request to allow people with small children to leave first after the 6pm display. The rides and stalls were plenty, for all ages and tastes. Couldn't have asked for more. The queues to leave such a large event were completely as expected.