ORGANISERS of a Southampton fireworks show have been given a rocket after would-be spectators missed one of the two displays.

The show at the Testlands Hub in Green Lane, Millbrook, was billed as a replacement for an event which had to be cancelled because of maintenance work at the city’s Mayflower Park.

But children and their parents say they were left disappointed after arriving to discover the second set of fireworks had been let off early.

People who bought tickets in advance paid £8 for adults and £4.50 for children.

One man told the Daily Echo: “It was advertised for 8pm but they did them at 7:20pm, which resulted in people turning up to see the display and getting turned away because they’d missed it. They weren’t offering refunds for pre-paid tickets.”

Other people took to social media to voice their disappointment. One woman said: “We turned up for the second lot of fireworks to be told they’d already done them. My two children were very disappointed.”

Yesterday a statement on Testlands Hub’s Facebook page said: “The organisers would like us to pass on their thanks to everyone who attended. Unfortunately the weather caused some issues they had not expected and they are welcoming any feedback people want to give.”

Luke Newman, Testland Hub’s chief executive, said the second display started at 7.26pm.

He added: “When we checked with the organisers afterwards they said people were getting cold and were thinking of leaving, so the decision was made to begin the fireworks early. If we’d known sooner we could have put something on social media and hopefully persuaded people to turn up earlier.”

Spectators included Cllr Satvir Kaur, the city council’s head of culture.

She said: “It’s great the organisers of the annual fireworks display at Mayflower Park could work with Testlands to still bring their incredible show to Southampton.

“There were hundreds of families there enjoying themselves, some of whom told me they would not have attended if it was in the inner city due to it being too far for them.”

Asked about the complaints she added: “I know organisers had some issues at the event and are keen to receive feedback so that they can improve on this for next time.”

One attendee wrote on social media: “I thought it was a decent event. It had a good community feel about it.”