A ‘Giant Cheese Board’ event in London has been likened to the disastrous Fyre Festival after attendees claimed that it ran out of cheese in just 90 minutes.

The ill-fated event, held at Greenwich’s Studio 338, had originally offered ticket-holders the chance to sample a giant cheese board with unlimited amounts of different artisan cheeses from across Europe, along with biscuits and mulled wine.

But it seems like the reality was very different, after attendees paid £40 to discover huge queues and large platters of low-quality cheese which reportedly ran out within less than two hours.


One photo posted on Instagram shows a pile of brie scattered on top of a table, with a small number of chip forks positioned next to it.

“Last night’s ? fiasco. The marketing: ‘The Giant Cheese Board’, “a massive, oversized cheese board. One you can walk around on as if you’re in a giants kitchen”- the best artisan cheeses from across Europe, including a huge baked Camembert, unlimited mulled wine, cheesecake and double-size fireplaces”, the caption claimed.

“The reality: plates of chopped up British cheeses, mostly hard, some caterers packs of chutney, no Camembert (baked or not), queues for cold and very sweet ‘low alcohol’ mulled wine, no cheesecake, and a screen projecting the image of a fire. Hmm.”

Another wrote on Twitter: “The only thing giant about this cheese board was that it was a total giant waste of time. 5 different types of cheese are you fucking kidding me, no giant camembert, ran out of bread, chorizo, crackers, grapes, cold mulled wine, 90 minute wait to get in.”

Others likened it to Fyre Festival – the infamous event earlier this year which saw attendees paying thousands of dollars for a luxury festival in the Bahamas, only to find that it was beset with problems including a lack of running water, proper catering and correct safety protocol.

Me and @hannahjdavies are at the Giant Cheeseboard which is very much the fyre festival of novelty cheese based events — Kate Solomon (@katiesol) December 16, 2017


Cannot overstate how bleak this is pic.twitter.com/9j9uaDS7sD — Kate Solomon (@katiesol) December 16, 2017

In bits at the UK-equivalent of #FyreFestival, a £35-a-head "immersive giant cheeseboard" that turned out to be a chaotic wasteland in a tent serving cold mulled wine and unidentified crumbled supermarket cheese #GiantCheeseboard ??? — Dawn Foster (@DawnHFoster) December 16, 2017

The criticism has since been rebutted by organisers Studio 338, who claim that the vast majority of attendees enjoyed the event – and pledged to improve ahead of its return next weekend.

Guys,If we felt that we had not provided any of the things included in your entry price then we'd be the first to hold… Posted by The Giant Cheese Board on Sunday, December 17, 2017

“The fact is that a LOT of people had a great time ….we have so many videos and photos of all the fun that was happening around the venue – but a small proportion of people had expected something else (we are really not sure what as we made very clear what content would be in place – and even went beyond that to add more in the last few days!) and were not prepared to give the event a chance and spend the full or even half the duration of the session before making accusations which are completely incorrect”, they wrote on Facebook.