• ℹ️ Heads up...

    This is a popular topic that is fast moving Guest - before posting, please ensure that you check out the first post in the topic for a quick reminder of guidelines, and importantly a summary of the known facts and information so far. Thanks.

Fireworks 2021

Tommy85

TS Member
Noticed that there wasn’t a 2021 fireworks thread yet so thought i’d start one. Always my favourite event of the year.
The website shows annual pass pre-book as £19 on top of the cost of the pass! It won’t actually let u book it though, just crashes out. If it really is going to be that much they r gonna have so many complaints :grimacing:
 
Last edited:
Noticed that there wasn’t a 2021 fireworks thread yet so thought i’d start one. Always my favourite event of the year.
The website shows annual pass pre-book as £19 on top of the cost of the pass! It won’t actually let u book it though, just crashes out. If it really is going to be that much they r gonna have so many complaints :grimacing:

Do you have the link to that at all? I can’t see any mention of tickets on the fireworks event page at the moment.
 
Noticed that there wasn’t a 2021 fireworks thread yet so thought i’d start one. Always my favourite event of the year.
The website shows annual pass pre-book as £19 on top of the cost of the pass! It won’t actually let u book it though, just crashes out. If it really is going to be that much they r gonna have so many complaints :grimacing:

A Merlin Gold pass excludes the 5th to 7th November at all attractions anyway so they can charge what they like to upgrade really. People might complain but it is clearly an excluded date.
Merlin Platinum pass is valid all year.
Old passes bought before September 2020 should still allow access just with a booking though.
 
Do you have the link to that at all? I can’t see any mention of tickets on the fireworks event page at the moment.

If you go to book a day ticket and scroll to November the dates are no longer greyed out. It won’t let you book yet tho as it just crashes so they aren’t live yet. But it does say ‘pass holder pre-book £19.05’ at the bottom so looks like thats the price they are going to charge?
 
Fireworks tickets now available. Free for Platinum pass holders, £20 for all other passes in advance. Pre booking day tickets start at £39.
 
Fireworks tickets now available. Free for Platinum pass holders, £20 for all other passes in advance. Pre booking day tickets start at £39.

Wonder how this will down with the old standard/premium passholders as these dates are not in the exclusion list and therefore should not be an additional cost.

However for gold passholders its been very clear from day one the dates are excluded so those passholders in a sense are getting a good deal paying £20 instead of £39.

Edit to add. As predicted, replies on the TowersStreet facebook post about this are people asking how to book for free using their old (but extended) standard/premium pass.
I don't think AT have thought this through and have forgotten about the old style passes. In theory the new passes are simple, as only platinum has free access.
 
Last edited:
Wonder how this will down with the old standard/premium passholders as these dates are not in the exclusion list and therefore should not be an additional cost.
It counts as a special event though, and the T's and C's have always stated that special events may come at an extra charge. For instance, the Christmas offering at Legoland (and potentially Chessington?).
 
It counts as a special event though, and the T's and C's have always stated that special events may come at an extra charge. For instance, the Christmas offering at Legoland (and potentially Chessington?).

Christmas events being excluded are a separate term by themselves and does specifically mention Legoland and Chessington.
But the special events term is vague and states to check the website for specific events that have an extra fee. Given in the last few years they have only charged a £5 booking fee, not a fee to access the event, it does seem off to try and do it this year.
Would be easier to wait a year for the old standard/premium passes to all expire and then it’s nice and clearcut that only platinum gets into the firework days.
 
It's great to see that the platinum pass holders are not getting charge. But it still seem to work out cheaper to purchase a gold pass and pay the £20 (£60 for all three days) where as the platinum pass is £80 more than the gold pass
 
It's great to see that the platinum pass holders are not getting charge. But it still seem to work out cheaper to purchase a gold pass and pay the £20 (£60 for all three days) where as the platinum pass is £80 more than the gold pass
Platinum also allows six pre-books at a time, so if getting to multiple scarefest and fireworks dates is important then the extra bookings will be necessary.
 
Do carers still have to pay £20 to pre-book the fireworks or are carers free as in previous years when a disable person pre-book?

Platinum also allows six pre-books at a time, so if getting to multiple scarefest and fireworks dates is important then the extra bookings will be necessary.

I should imagine that fact that they are charging £20 to pre-book, the 3 pre-booking date restrictions won't count
 
It seems cause theses companies lost so much money last year they want to make all big events a extra charge. Even Drayton Manor if there’s go ahead annual pass holders have to pay half price.
 
Well I've had a few days to think this one over.......

I've had a Merlin Membership since day 1 (also had the membership when they were around the 1st time). I'm just a bit gutted that the dates were greyed out having to wait most of the season for the last few months to be released.

I've been going to Alton Towers fireworks every year since 1998 and its kinda my annual thing I do with my wife. Sunday on park and then stop over onside and then Splash Waterpark on the Monday.

Just feels like a compete cash grab by M£rlin. Yeah 2019 was a £5 fee to reserve which I didn't mind. To pay £40 for the 2 of us and now i have a newborn daughter i just don't think we will be going this year.

Yeah I'm gutted that this'll be my first year not going and I will miss it immensely but my attitude has really changed lately.

Been an annual pass holder since 2000 when they originally were introduced under Tussards but the last 2 years, I don't know if its just me but Alron Towers has just felt a bit off? Be that closed shops or food outlets or just not seeing the park the way it was. I think I'm just paying more attention to how the park was to how it is now.

I used to get the feeling of wow I've been to Alton Towers and smashed a real good day to now feeling like a bit meh...

I now have that special feeling for Blackpool for the Pleasurebeach and the other attractions there, just have good times and memories from days out there including this year.

Do I still enjoy Towers of course I do and I'm still gonna keep our Merlin Memberships because of the value including all the other attractions.

As I said earlier I think I just see Alton Towers now as a place where I can reride Nemesis and Wickerman and ots kinda lost a bit of the magic for me.

I was debating posting this but I think its just cause of the way Merlin are Cash Grabbing for Special Events and not really keeping their loyal fans updated. Mainly cause its breaking s very long tradition for me.

Sorry if this post seems a bit ranty or putting a downer, I just had to get my thoughts across as ive never really lost my feelings for Alton Towers in anyway for a long time.
 
Well I've had a few days to think this one over.......

I've had a Merlin Membership since day 1 (also had the membership when they were around the 1st time). I'm just a bit gutted that the dates were greyed out having to wait most of the season for the last few months to be released.

I've been going to Alton Towers fireworks every year since 1998 and its kinda my annual thing I do with my wife. Sunday on park and then stop over onside and then Splash Waterpark on the Monday.

Just feels like a compete cash grab by M£rlin. Yeah 2019 was a £5 fee to reserve which I didn't mind. To pay £40 for the 2 of us and now i have a newborn daughter i just don't think we will be going this year.

Yeah I'm gutted that this'll be my first year not going and I will miss it immensely but my attitude has really changed lately.

Been an annual pass holder since 2000 when they originally were introduced under Tussards but the last 2 years, I don't know if its just me but Alron Towers has just felt a bit off? Be that closed shops or food outlets or just not seeing the park the way it was. I think I'm just paying more attention to how the park was to how it is now.

I used to get the feeling of wow I've been to Alton Towers and smashed a real good day to now feeling like a bit meh...

I now have that special feeling for Blackpool for the Pleasurebeach and the other attractions there, just have good times and memories from days out there including this year.

Do I still enjoy Towers of course I do and I'm still gonna keep our Merlin Memberships because of the value including all the other attractions.

As I said earlier I think I just see Alton Towers now as a place where I can reride Nemesis and Wickerman and ots kinda lost a bit of the magic for me.

I was debating posting this but I think its just cause of the way Merlin are Cash Grabbing for Special Events and not really keeping their loyal fans updated. Mainly cause its breaking s very long tradition for me.

Sorry if this post seems a bit ranty or putting a downer, I just had to get my thoughts across as ive never really lost my feelings for Alton Towers in anyway for a long time.

Fully understand and get where you are coming from here. I feel the same way too. I've been a loyal pass holder since back in the Tussauds' day. I've not left Norfolk since the first lockdown and Jess and I are slowly edging back into our old routine for going out. We understand things are going to be different because of the pandemic, but it seems that those who are either poor or have a severe disability are really going to struggle to afford or access some of these events.

We had to rethink our plans for this year (last year was a right off for the most of us). Today I've only just book a trip away to Blackpool for next month and an over night stay for the Scarefest (we had vouchers for overnight stay due to cancelation of our accommodation from last year). We also had to whittle our fireworks weekend down to the one day.

I think the staycation hasn't help, pushing up the demand and the attractions have made a lost during the pandemic. I've said this before, I don't feel like Merlin have been treating loyal pass holders like value customers. Instead of paying for the whole weekend of fireworks, I will be taking my money and spending it elsewhere
 
With set up now underway, are there any rumours or bits of knowledge that hint to what the storyline may be for this year’s fireworks event? I know it’s going to be a 40 year celebration but it’d be interesting to know if there’s any info out there on how they plan to tell that story. I’m hoping for something a bit different this time, rather than the usual “magic” storylines!
 
With set up now underway, are there any rumours or bits of knowledge that hint to what the storyline may be for this year’s fireworks event? I know it’s going to be a 40 year celebration but it’d be interesting to know if there’s any info out there on how they plan to tell that story. I’m hoping for something a bit different this time, rather than the usual “magic” storylines!
I don't know but I wonder as its a 40 year celebration they'll do it similar to the year where they had people talking about what they loved about Alton Towers. Got emotional watching it back then as the park wasn't in the best state but it proved people still care about the place.

It was 2017 and the park really needed some love and it showed the care people still had for the place:
Something like this could work but your guess is as good as mine @s_g_k
 
Ahh I remember that year - it was indeed emotional - lots of hair standing moments! It would be great if they broke the display down into decade sections and focused on what defined the decades - 80s, 90s, 00s, 10s.
 
Ahh I remember that year - it was indeed emotional - lots of hair standing moments! It would be great if they broke the display down into decade sections and focused on what defined the decades - 80s, 90s, 00s, 10s.
Yes for the 80's they could do corkscrew coloured fireworks,90's they could do nemesis and oblivion coloured fireworks with accompanying themes and so on. With the memories dotted in. That would be a really cool show.
 
Any thoughts on whether the gardens will still be illuminated during Fireworks weekend? Seems a no brainer to me to keep it going through the final weekend, but the event write-up doesn't mention anything about it. Is it just a Scarefest thing?
 
Top