Although Friends Fest at Hylands Park is now over, I thought I'd post my review in case they hold it again as there wasn't much information on the festival online, even for disabled guests.
I hadn't heard about Friend Fest this year until the first even was held in London and when I went to see if any tickets were available they were all sold out, so I signed up for info on future dates. A few days later I got an email to say more dates had been released so I booked a disabled and cared ticket for Hylands House on 10th September 2016.
I've been to Hylands House itself before for work but not to the other side where the event was being held.
On arrival I advised I was a blue badge holder and ideally needed hard flooring to get out rather than grass and was passed to someone else who advised me where the disabled parking was. I couldn't find it so just parked in the main car park which was stoney but ok (only after did I see the paved disabled spaces in the area next door! Whoops)
I'm glad I had my scooter as it was quite a distance from the car park to the festival and the staff saw me bumping over the uneven ground and said that on the way back Lee could drive up to the festival exit to collect me, but unfortunately he can't drive but I said I enjoyed the bumpiness.
When we got in we got a time to visit Monica's apartment. This was the only bit you needed a time for. Everything had queues so we sat and waited for our time slot, got an ice cream, watched Friends clips onstage and Lee visited the gift shop, while I sat outside. The gift shop had a ramp but it was so small inside I had no turning space so I just sat outside looking in.
After waiting for our time slot we went to Monica's apartment tour. Due to the steep ramp to get in, we were advised to go to the guest entrance at our time rather than going in the main queue, this really helped. It would have been difficult to get up if I was walking (bit hairy on the scooter)
The first section was recreating the titles. As the sofa is low and Lee and I aren't hugely into random posing we decided to skip this, we went really to look at things rather than take photos of ourselves.
We then had to queue for the apartment which was sooooo hot with studio lights. The queue snaked and as it was so small I thought it best to park up and get out to walk. While standing in queue I noticed the tour round the apartment went sofa, balcony window, kitchen, door. The balcony bit involved getting up a step so we skipped that whole area and went straight to the kitchen as again I couldn't sit on the sofa easily. This is where it was a bit hard to get round as everyone chucked (really chucked) their bags on the floor so I couldn't get round (impossible in a wheelchair!) and people even chucked bags down as I was walking round in my way. Luckily the lovely staff member saw and moved the bags for me. Major health and safety issue due to people wanting photos without their bags....
We had photos in the tiny kitchen area and front door then went through to the smaller recreation of Joey and Chandlers to area. We didn't spend much time here as you were in the way of people posing in the chairs and canoe. It was hard on this tour to actually look at things, it was selfie central! Some people were asking staff to do photos on their phone/camera and then snapchat.
We went to get some food next as I felt a bit lightheaded from the heat inside. We went to the Moonlight Diner and had a hotdog, pulled pork burger, chips and coke which came to £17! The theming of the diner was good and they had two characters dressed up and in character.
Next we went to the Chick and Duck bar and Lee got 'How you doin?' which was coconut rum, pineapple juice and chocolate bitters. £7.50 for a tiny drink but theming of the drinks were good and it came with an umbrella.
It was really windy and starting to rain. My hair started off with mermaid waves and ended up like Monica when she had to plait her hair! Full on frizz.
We were going to go into Central Perk but the queue was at least an hour, and had a step to access it so knew we'd have to find someone to ask how to get in via the ramp too. It was about to pour with rain so we decided to leave and miss Central Perk. It was so tight in there too and again I wouldn't be able to get on the sofa.
Overall it was ok but was more geared towards people to wanted photos of themselves on set rather than being able to look round. I'm glad disabled tickets and carer tickets were half priced as due to a lot of photo opportunities being sat down, I couldn't participate in most of the photo opportunities.
It felt very disorganised and I'm not sure why there were timeslots for Monica's apartment as they were running late anyway and then had huge queues for other things. It would have been better to have had a timeslot and all the sets in one line but I guess once you're in your a captive audience who will stop for food in between queuing.
I wouldn't go again if they held another one and I'm not sure I'd recommend it. Having been to the Harry Potter tour I thought it may be similar but it really wasn't.
The staff were brilliant though and I couldn't fault them.
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