A children-friendly market that was held at the Mississauga Convention Centre on Sunday is drawing criticism over long lines and extensive wait times for people trying to attend.
The event was called “A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes” and hosted by Elevated Society Market; according the event’s website, it offered free face painting as well as 15 Disney characters to meet and greet.
Melissa V, an attendee Global News agreed to identify by first name and only for privacy reasons, said she was excited to go to the event with her daughter.
“We love Disney and we thought it would be a fun afternoon but it turned out to be a traumatic experience,” she said, adding she had to wait an hour and half before entering the market.
“It was pretty chaotic and disorganized and little bit scary and claustrophobic. … It was almost like the amount of booths they had they didn’t have enough capacity for the booths let alone the people who were walking through.”
Peel Police said they were called to the event to assist Mississauga Fire and Emergency Services. Event organizers said authorities were called because fire routes were obstructed.
Some people reached out to Global News saying they were unable to get into the event despite having purchased tickets ahead of time.
A social media statement from Elevated Society Market said long lines were caused by people showing up without tickets even though tickets weren’t available at the door.
She said she spent ten minutes in the market before leaving and has reached out to Elevated Society Market for a refund.
“I just said we attended the event and it was nothing that was advertised and we would like a refund for our money that was spent,” she said. “We didn’t get what we bought, basically.”
In an Instagram post, Elevated Society Market said, “I just have to reiterate that the tickets were already nonrefundable 30 days prior to the event. Therefore, any unforeseen circumstances are out of our control.”
According to the event page, a portion of all ticket proceeds was to be donated to The Make-A-Wish Foundation, but Global News reached out to the Foundation and a spokesperson said no donation has been made yet by Elevated Society Market or the event.
“We have not yet received any donations that are earmarked as coming from this organization or event,” said Stuart Chase, director, brand marketing and communications, Make-A-Wish Canada.
“Our people did reach out or attempted to reach out when we saw that media story last week but to date, we have not been in contact with the event organizers at all and we have no opportunity to find out what their thinking was behind including us as their beneficiary.”
Global News reached out to the Elevated Society Market for comment but did not receive a response for a few days.
On Thursday, Elevated Society Market sent a statement to Global News apologizing to the families who attended the Jan. 29 event
“We are truly sorry it did not turn out as intended. Elevated Society Market had planned a fun filled day for all children and families to shop local from a variety of vendors, with many activities for children to do and see … Elevated Society Market takes full responsibility for the ‘A Dream Is A Wish The Heart Makes’ event as we did not expect the event to go viral over social media so quickly, we were unable to staff and organize the event properly to control the overflow of people that came out that afternoon,” the statement read
The statement said some parts of the contract were overlooked that caused confusion among staff working that day attempting to facilitate two different shows at the convention centre at once.
“We would like to thank the Mississauga Convention Centre for their patients and also Apologize for the event turning out how it did, and any bad publicity associated with their venue and our market that day. Elevated Society Market does not blame the Mississauga Convention Centre for what happened that day. It was a very tough day for a lot of people, including the vendors that came out hoping for an exciting day and event with lots of happy guests. Unfortunately it took a turn for the worst after a large amount of guests were turned away due to the building being over capacity, fire routes being obstructed, and emergency vehicles unable to gain entry into the venue,” the statement said.
“We would like to thank the Mississauga Convention Centre, Peel Regional Police, and The Fire Department that day for working very hard with us to keep the building open for BOTH events being hosted that day until the very end.”
Organizers of the event said tickets are not refundable and vendor fees are non-refundable and a donation has been made to Make-A-Wish Foundation by Elevated Market Society.
Global News has followed up with Make-A-Wish Foundation.
“We are a family loving business that loves children and would never purposely put children or families at risk intentionally at any and all of our events. Elevated Society Market will always do its best to keep everyone safe. We have learned a lot from this last event and promise to ensure we will always do our best to avoid similar turn outs in the future,” organizers said in a statement.
Global News has reached out to the Mississauga Convention Centre who said “there is absolutely no affiliation between Elevated Society Market and Mississauga Convention Centre,” as the event was private and contracted the venue out.
“Elevated Society Market booked a contract for 300 attendees across two rooms,” the convention spokesperson said. “This maximum attendance capacity of 300 attendees was clearly laid out in the contract they signed.”
The spokesperson alleges Elevated Society Market “proceeded to oversell tickets to the event” without informing them.
“Elevated Society Market is now facing the aftermath of their poor planning and deceptive practices, while attempting to blame Mississauga Convention Centre.”
The Mississauga Convention Centre said they are exploring legal action against Elevated Society Market “for the reputation damage they are attempting to cause.”
Meanwhile, Melissa said she and her daughter were left disappointed after the event.
“It just turned out to be a disaster,” she said.
“Just in the fact that I wanted my daughter to have a fun day and it was disheartening for me. She was crying and it was the complete opposite of what we expected.”