The order was given by the park's loudspeakers on Sunday, shortly before nine o'clock in the evening: "We recommend that due to the weather conditions you go to the show with appropriate clothing and a raincoat." It had been raining almost non-stop for about two hours on the famous Puy du Fou theme park in Toledo, considered one of the best in Spain. The attendees believed that with the forecast for the rest of the day ― the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet) activated the yellow warning for strong winds throughout Castilla-La Mancha ― they would cancel the night performance, but at 21:30 p.m., hundreds of soaked visitors with shoes covered in mud were positioning themselves as best they could in the stands. The show was about to start and the downpour was getting worse. Many of those present left before it was over, unable to endure the incessant downpour. It never stopped raining, they say, and the actors – including the animals that accompanied them – had to go on stage despite the downpour, the wind and the cold. The play lasted 80 minutes.
Soon after, the complaints came. The theme park, however, refuses to solve them. This newspaper has contacted the organization, but at the time of publication of this information it has not yet given its version of what happened.
"It was an open-air mousetrap," says Gema Jurado, 50, who went to the emblematic park with her husband and two children. "We were prepared, because there was rain in the forecast, but there came a point where we couldn't keep up. Neither the raincoat nor the umbrella were of any use. We thought they were going to cancel it and we couldn't even hear the actors about how the water was falling," he continues. When the audience realized that the show – titled El sueño de Toledo and with a capacity of about 15,4 people – was going ahead, the shouts and boos began. "Get out, get out! It's a disgrace!" those present cried. Jurado and his family, like many others, opted to leave the venue in the middle of the performance. "We came out shotgunned. Shattered shoes, wheelchairs and carts were stuck in the mud, the road totally dark... There was no one to ask," she said.
It's embarrassing what's happening today in @PuyduFou_espana.
Jarreando agua, all muddy at the entrances to the show El Sueño de Toledo. People booing. Not only do they not cancel, but they suggest that you wear a raincoat. Amazing pic.twitter.com/IeoA1m035S
— Ignacio Huélamo (@IgnacioHuelamo) October 22, 2023
It didn't take long for similar stories to fill the networks the next day. There was also a barrage of negative reviews of the park on Google and in the company's latest Instagram post. Faced with the number of complaints, the organization began deleting critical comments from the social network and eventually eliminated the possibility of writing in its most recent post. Most attendees demand a refund of the ticket money or to be allowed to go another day, because Puy du Fou is not a cheap plan: the evening show alone costs 36 euros per person. Jurado and his family, for example, paid $386 in total for the show, which they couldn't enjoy, and the park. Some, faced with the forecast of rain, tried to change the day of the visit. "I called saying that for tonight they were giving 90% rain, that if I could change the date of the tickets. They told me that [the tickets] are not suspended or changed under any circumstances. That we put on appropriate clothes for what awaits us," comments a woman in one of the many complaints posted on the network these last three days.
"It was inhumane"
Ignacio Huélamo, 33, is one of the people who endured the 80 minutes of the show. "The park is like a village, there's nothing paved, it's all dirt or gravel. Imagine the entrances to the show: mud, mud, rivers of water, ponds... We were told that we could not use umbrellas so as not to hinder visibility. You had to be there, uncovered, in your raincoat, on plastic seats waterlogged by all the time it had been raining, with the cold, the wind. It was inhumane," he recalls. The actors and actresses, accompanied by horses, came out on stage wetter and wetter, while entire families filled the venue, even mudder than at the beginning. "We put up with it because we're young, but it was surreal."
Scoundrels of @PuyduFou_espana, I have few followers, but I hope that in this case tweeter works his magic, and this post reaches as many people as possible. Here are some images to show how you treat visitors. Children of all ages, people pic.twitter.com/mCjgtHQ0gA
— Neo 386 (@75Joseluiscm) October 23, 2023
Both Huélamo and Jurado have filed a complaint with the consumption area of the regional government and have sent a complaint to the park's organization. Both have received an identical response from the company: "All Puy du Fou España shows have been designed to be performed in any weather situation. No show will be cancelled in case of rain. Only those that pose a high risk to the safety of our visitors and teams will be cancelled, but on 22/10 this was not the case. We can't meet your demand. Once the purchase has been completed, it is not possible to modify or cancel it." It is the same thing they warn on their website, where they add that "the use of umbrellas in shows, especially those held outdoors, is totally prohibited", so as not to limit visibility and for the safety of birds.
In numerous reviews, attendees recount how the actors came out "trembling" on stage and some even cried at the end. Some of the workers have shared their experience on social media, where they speak of "inhumane conditions", risk to their health or difficulty in executing certain dance steps due to the cold and shivering. One of the dancers, who prefers not to give her name, remembers it as "the most unpleasant experience I've ever had in a job." The environment where the show is presented is outdoors and in the middle of the countryside, he says, and despite the rain "at no time" were they given the possibility of stopping or suspending the show: "We could hardly do anything we usually do because it was impossible to dance, even walk or be underwater for so long in the cold." He doesn't remember if all the animals came out on stage, even, because he was just trying not to fall.
Alma Rodríguez, 20, went to Puy du Fou with her parents and sister, and she doesn't understand why an exception wasn't made on October 22, if the show was already canceled three days before due to rain and on September 3 as well, due to the high risk of lightning. "The bars collapsed, people took refuge there as best they could because water was pouring everywhere on the tables outside. When you went down to the show area you slipped. Some fell down the metal stairs. Seeing the actors and animals soaking wet, we yelled for them to stop it. To sit was to sit in a pool," he says. Another woman, in a review on the website Trip Advisor ―where more than fifty of the latest comments allude to Sunday's incident―, speaks of a "nightmare": "I arrived at the stands and there were people screaming, children crying, elderly people sheltering in a tunnel, people in wheelchairs asking for help to get out of the mudflats."