THE organiser of a gin and prosecco festival has pledged to make improvements to future events following a number of complaints.

Some visitors to the Wimborne Gin and Prosecco Festival at the Allendale Centre last Saturday have labelled the event a 'waste of money' and 'disappointing'.

Promoted as a "boutique type event of artisan gin and prosecco tasting in a garden party atmosphere", the new event has previously visited the towns of Blandford and Lymington where it attracted criticism, with one person calling it a "disaster".

Ali Small, 32, who had gone to the Wimborne festival with her friends for a birthday treat, said: "I'd been to the other gin festival in Bournemouth and it was really good, so I thought this would be good for my birthday.

"The moment we got in there we realised it wasn't how it had been sold.

"The glasses they gave us weren't branded and they weren't very clean. The guide was just a list of the traders and the bar staff, although lovely, didn't know anything about the drinks on offer.

"They also ran out of some gins very quickly. People were frustrated and a lot of people were making comments."

Other complaints on the Facebook page included one woman who said: "The whole event seemed a cheap attempt to make money out of those attending."

Another said: "Having been to Bournemouth's gin festival, this was massively sub standard and I wouldn't attend again."

Upcoming events will take place at Chichester, Salisbury, Weymouth and Highcliffe. The Highcliffe event in April has sold out.

Event organiser, Michael Maguire, said: "I am aware that there are some unhappy people who attended the event on Saturday.

"We do accept that there were a couple of things that we could have done better.

"We did make some mistakes but it is only our third event and we have got better."

Mr Maguire claims there were 440 people there and "a lot had a really, really good time."

"We have just put in an order for branded glasses and pens", he said.

"We have taken note of what people have said. I do think that people's expectations in small towns are unrealistic

"We're just trying to grow our brand."