Cinderella on Ice leaves patrons out in the cold

A technical fault in the ticketing system at the Mediterranean Conference Centre caused an 80-minute delay during Saturday evening's Cinderella on Ice ballet.

The MCC took full responsibility for the delay that frustrated members of the audience, some of whom complained that they had to wait for more than an hour outside the venue before they could take their seat in the theatre.

MCC chairman Peter Fenech said the event organisers, Standing Ovations, had nothing to do with the fault.

He explained that the delay was the result of "a technical problem with the numbering of the seats" and consequently tickets had to be checked manually at the door.

He added that the fault had been looked into and solved and MCC would be adding a security system to detect such faults.

MCC chief executive officer Ray Attard clarified that the problem "was not an issue of over booking, as in fact, we managed to seat all the guests". He apologised for the delay and the inconvenience caused.

Cinderella on Ice, performed by the St Petersburg State Ballet Theatre, was performed on Saturday and Sunday during matinee and evening shows. The fault was experienced on Saturday evening when the show, that was meant to start at 8 p.m., started at 9.20 p.m.

A spokesman for Standing Ovations said MCC had immediately recognised the delay was their responsibility.

In fact, on the night of the performance, MCC had directed presenter Xandru Grech to inform the public about the technical fault. This did not stop the angered audience from expressing their frustration for the wait by booing.

They even booed Mr Grech off the stage when he tried to read out the list of sponsors once the show was about to start, according to members of the audience who posted comments on timesofmalta.com.

Despite MCC's claim to responsibility, some failed to draw a distinction between MCC and Standing Ovations.

"Standing Ovations were the ones organising it, and they are responsible," one person wrote.

Another man commented: "I expect to be fully refunded, if not I shall never attend another event organised by Standing Ovations."

Standing Ovations said it would be holding a meeting with the MCC to discuss what happened and ensure this did not occur again. They planned to discuss the possibility of refunds, among other things.

"We hope people have not lost faith in us over what happened... We are sorry that people had to wait, but we had no control over it," the spokesman said.