MANASSAS, Va. — For thousands of people, the Prince William County Balloon Festival sounded like a spectacular event in this weekend's glorious weather. But now scores of them are complaining online that the fair was a disaster.
Peggy Sparks was so excited about hot air balloons firing off just a few minutes from her Manassas home that she shelled out $100 for tickets.
"I actually drove to Pittsburgh to pick up my aging mother, borrowed a wheelchair, and also brought back my special needs adult nephew who has autism," she said.
But the traffic jam at the gate of the Prince William County Fairgrounds was so bad, she says it took three hours to cover the couple of miles from her house.
She's furious at the organizer, BalloonShows.com.
"Shame on you is the first thing that comes to my mind," she said. "How dare you put on this type of unorganized, unsafe event? How dare you do that and charge people for it?"
Online, people are complaining about hours-long waits for everything: to get in, to get a ride on a tethered balloon, to get food, to go to the bathroom.
Jim Amos said he piled his two kids in the car and drove 45 minutes from Alexandria before hitting the jam. He said he spent 90 minutes just sitting there stopped a few blocks before the entrance with a cranky toddler, before finally bailing out and returning home.
"I wasn't seeing the traffic moving enough for me to be confident we would ever get in the event," he said.
Jeremy Kwaterski, the festival organizer, sees it very differently.
"It was a fantastic event," he said. "We had balloons up for hours, did 1,500 tethered balloon rides, and people had a great old time."
Tickets in advance were $20 for adults and $8 for children. But they were more at the gate.
Kwaterski said 8,000 people got in on Saturday, and another 4,500 on Sunday. He said the fairground capacity was 10,000 people, so the organization only sold 5,000 tickets on Saturday, hoping to leave several thousand more available for walk-ups. He said he hired Prince William County Police to handle traffic.
"We told them that we were anticipating a big crowd," Kwaterski said. "You know, that's on them for traffic control."
Prince William County Police Spokesman Sgt. Jonathan Perok, said there's only one way in and out of the fairgrounds, and that officers did what they could.
"But we don't build roads," he said.
Kwaterski said he'll consider refunds case by case, or people can use their tickets next year.
"Give it a miss, don't bother," Amos said. "There's something wrong."
Kwaterski said disappointed ticket buyers can contact him at info@balloonshows.com.