Image: Image: Composite Royal Easter Show
Families attending the Sydney Royal Easter Show have been left frustrated after a technical failure in the event’s digital ride system forced some visitors to spend extra money and wait weeks for refunds.
The issue affected the Easter Show’s Fun Pass app on opening day, preventing users who had preloaded ride credits from accessing their digital wallets.
The Sydney Royal Easter Show, run by the Royal Agricultural Society of NSW, is Australia’s largest annual ticketed event, attracting more than 850,000 visitors each year.
Royal Easter Show App Chaos
Some families reported long queues and additional costs after the outage meant they could not use credits already purchased.
A spokesperson for the Royal Agricultural Society apologised for the disruption.
“The RAS sincerely apologises to patrons who experienced difficulties with the Fun Pass and its accompanying app on the opening day of the show,” they said.
According to the event’s purchase policy, refunds for unused credits will not begin until after the show concludes, with customers needing to wait until April 14 before applying. Refunds will then take up to 12 business days and include a $2.50 processing fee.
Online discussion quickly reflected the frustration, with one Reddit post describing the event as being in “chaos”.
“Anyone that has added money to the app is unable to use it. Thousands of kids are unable to get on the rides,” the post said.
“Don’t add money to the app (you’re throwing it away) but give them cash and they can buy a ‘physical card’ at the show.”
The post was later updated around 2pm, noting that “the kids have been advised its working again”.
Tech provider Ludo confirmed the outage stemmed from an issue with an email service provider, which prevented users from logging in for roughly two hours.
“Which at a live event can cause some confusion,” founder Bart Wildash said.
The disruption came as crowds began arriving for the annual event at Sydney Olympic Park, traditionally one of the busiest family outings during the school holiday period.
The technical glitch also unfolded amid broader cost-of-living pressures, with NSW Premier Chris Minns urging residents to continue with Easter travel plans despite concerns about rising fuel prices.
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