I also went to this! I did see a guy with a speaker backpack that played music as well as one pacer bike, but agree it was definitely chaotic in terms of the organisation. I think a big part of that is the registration booth queue was not managed well - there seemed to be a lot of marshals standing around but not really doing anything whilst the queue was happening and then people stood in the booths not doing much. I will say though that having never run in Battersea Park before I felt the course was good (though it could have used more markers - I saw one for 1k and then randomly one for 4k near the end) and I liked the medal and the tote bag. But yeah, agree with everything you've said otherwise!
Also, I was one of the people who ended up going to the start line early, and there was a girl of maybe about 16 who seemed to have way more of an idea what was going on than any of the adults. What that says I don't know...
Good to know the music actually existed! And yep it felt like the marshals had no clue at all, I think that was the main problem. They all looked a bit scared!
It’s really, really difficult to organise a running event (or any event) and make it look effortless to the participants. The bar has been set very high by parkrun events running like clockwork week in, week out. Their secret is keeping it simple with no promises other than free, weekly, timed. The volunteers at parkrun also know that it’s not a money-making endeavour and this really changes the vibe when they’re standing outside in the pouring rain cheering people on - one marshal doing it for the love of the event and community is worth a hundred who don’t really “get it”
Absolutely. I'm not sure if the marshals here were students earning a few quid or friends of the organisers or what, but they 100% had no idea what they were doing and didn't look like they wanted to be there. One of the things that's so baffling about it is that Battersea Park took literally years to allow parkrun in the park, but clearly weren't nearly so strict on this — presumably because it was more of a money maker! The organisers are doubling down on "we're just a husband and wife who love Taylor Swift!" but there's surely no way the event would have been allowed to go ahead if they were really that small-fry, when it's normally bigger operations like RunThrough who do regular events in Battersea very well.
Absolutely brilliant! We heard one particularly frustrated runner volunteering to help the marshals as it seemed none of them seemed to have much idea about what was going on! And as you say, the T-shirt was awful! £105 for a very stressful day out! (and tears from both our 2 year old and 10 year old!)
Yes it felt like the marshals were just as disorientated as everyone else! The best bit was and continues to be bonding with everyone else about how disastrous it was!
You should let Taylor’s Management know. I bet they don’t have permission to use her image etc. The queen won’t this one little bit and I reckon she will slap them with a hefty ‘cease and desist’ pretty quick smart
They were very careful to say “Swiftie”, “Tay” etc rather than actually using her name, plus illustrations rather than photos, but I’m not sure what the rules are.
The company is run by a 25 year old software engineer according to companies house. Looks like they've got lots of future events coming up on a similar theme too... I wonder if they'll learn their lesson!!
It's amazing how easy it looks to organise events until you've got 900 people staring at you...🤣 I agree with the other comments, Battersea park have a few questions to answer. Got to root these people out, learn your craft with smaller events not 1000 people with their kids!!
Shocking! How Battersea signed it all off too is alarming, in a previous life I sometimes did the event licensing in Hyde Park and if you want to hold an event in a major park you need to be organised and provide a huge event plan with lots of checks and measures, or there would not be a licence issued.
Oh my goodness what an absolute sh*t show! I was gutted I didn't make it because I've been unwell - having seen this I'm not at all. Well done on naming and shaming x
I also went to this! I did see a guy with a speaker backpack that played music as well as one pacer bike, but agree it was definitely chaotic in terms of the organisation. I think a big part of that is the registration booth queue was not managed well - there seemed to be a lot of marshals standing around but not really doing anything whilst the queue was happening and then people stood in the booths not doing much. I will say though that having never run in Battersea Park before I felt the course was good (though it could have used more markers - I saw one for 1k and then randomly one for 4k near the end) and I liked the medal and the tote bag. But yeah, agree with everything you've said otherwise!
Also, I was one of the people who ended up going to the start line early, and there was a girl of maybe about 16 who seemed to have way more of an idea what was going on than any of the adults. What that says I don't know...
Good to know the music actually existed! And yep it felt like the marshals had no clue at all, I think that was the main problem. They all looked a bit scared!
It’s really, really difficult to organise a running event (or any event) and make it look effortless to the participants. The bar has been set very high by parkrun events running like clockwork week in, week out. Their secret is keeping it simple with no promises other than free, weekly, timed. The volunteers at parkrun also know that it’s not a money-making endeavour and this really changes the vibe when they’re standing outside in the pouring rain cheering people on - one marshal doing it for the love of the event and community is worth a hundred who don’t really “get it”
Absolutely. I'm not sure if the marshals here were students earning a few quid or friends of the organisers or what, but they 100% had no idea what they were doing and didn't look like they wanted to be there. One of the things that's so baffling about it is that Battersea Park took literally years to allow parkrun in the park, but clearly weren't nearly so strict on this — presumably because it was more of a money maker! The organisers are doubling down on "we're just a husband and wife who love Taylor Swift!" but there's surely no way the event would have been allowed to go ahead if they were really that small-fry, when it's normally bigger operations like RunThrough who do regular events in Battersea very well.
This was wild! I totally would have been signing up for this event if I had seen it advertised, lucky escape for me!
Ha, I would instead recommend just going for a run while listening to your own Taylor Swift playlist!
Absolutely brilliant! We heard one particularly frustrated runner volunteering to help the marshals as it seemed none of them seemed to have much idea about what was going on! And as you say, the T-shirt was awful! £105 for a very stressful day out! (and tears from both our 2 year old and 10 year old!)
Yes it felt like the marshals were just as disorientated as everyone else! The best bit was and continues to be bonding with everyone else about how disastrous it was!
You should let Taylor’s Management know. I bet they don’t have permission to use her image etc. The queen won’t this one little bit and I reckon she will slap them with a hefty ‘cease and desist’ pretty quick smart
this is the most Karen thing i could possibly imagine, well done
Nice one Donny. Well done for bringing your misogyny to isobel’s otherwise supportive comment thread. 👏🏻
probably not my kindest moment, but i’m not sure snitching to taylor’s PR was the right move here and responding to that. my bad.
They were very careful to say “Swiftie”, “Tay” etc rather than actually using her name, plus illustrations rather than photos, but I’m not sure what the rules are.
I’d report them anyway…
The company is run by a 25 year old software engineer according to companies house. Looks like they've got lots of future events coming up on a similar theme too... I wonder if they'll learn their lesson!!
Good intel! This perhaps explains why the website is the only part that ran smoothly.
It's amazing how easy it looks to organise events until you've got 900 people staring at you...🤣 I agree with the other comments, Battersea park have a few questions to answer. Got to root these people out, learn your craft with smaller events not 1000 people with their kids!!
This really sucks - well done for speaking out - but I did laugh at the scarf caption.
Ha, thank you for noticing!
Shocking! How Battersea signed it all off too is alarming, in a previous life I sometimes did the event licensing in Hyde Park and if you want to hold an event in a major park you need to be organised and provide a huge event plan with lots of checks and measures, or there would not be a licence issued.
That's a really good point. It took actual years for parkrun to get Battersea signed off as a venue, so I'm not sure what happened here.
Good on you for pushing publish and shame on them
I'll probably regret it in the morning but when I saw all the comments on Insta it got me all fired up.
Oh my goodness what an absolute sh*t show! I was gutted I didn't make it because I've been unwell - having seen this I'm not at all. Well done on naming and shaming x
Oh I hope you're OK. A lucky escape!