A mum has told how her daughter’s Frozen party was ruined when the Elsa ‘lookalike’ turned up late in a scruffy dress and terrible wig claiming the real one “couldn’t make it”.
Angry Luci Hindmarsh, 35, booked the Frozen performer for her daughter Misty’s party and was promised a magical experience for the five-year-old and her excited pals.
But the girls were left disappointed after the entertainer – who arrived in normal clothes – changed into a tatty dress which looked like “she’d left a rave at 6am”.
Her jet-black hair was clearly visible under her ill-fitting blonde wig and the kids were left baffled when she sang a 70s rock song as well as tunes from the hit movie.
But the booking agents demanded the family cough up the full £175 bill for the impersonator, despite Misty asking her tearful mum “why didn’t Elsa come?”
Gutted Luci, from Hackney, London, said: “The whole point was this year we would get something magical before she gets too grown up and we could sit back and watch the magic unfold.
“She was supposed to come and be Elsa and start off by making my daughter feel very special as the party girl.
“But she arrived late, she came in her own clothes, and then disappeared off and when she came out she had literally put the dress of over the top of her own clothes.
“I think the photos say it all. She looked dreadful, like she’d left a rave at 6am.”
“Apparently the Elsa outfit had been worn by another entertainer earlier that day and was wet with sweat.
“So, our entertainer decided to put the outfit on over the top of her own clothes, which happened to be black.
“She didn’t even bother to put the costume shoes on and wore a pair of tatty black flat shoes.
“The dress came undone at the back, someone did it up for her, but it wouldn’t stay done up, so she left it to hang off.
“The wig didn’t fit her and she didn’t bother to put any make-up on.
“Add to this that the lady had a heavy Spanish accent and you begin to get a picture of the level of care put into providing us with an Elsa entertainer.
“One of the little girls asked ‘where is Elsa?’ and she said ‘Elsa couldn’t make it, I’m here instead’. That grated on me the most.”
Little Misty has been mad about Frozen since she went to see the film for her fourth birthday party.
Luci and husband Adam, 40, booked the impersonator after finding company AEIOU Parties’ website and was reassured when they sent her a photo of an impressive look-a-like.
But she was instantly disappointed when a different performer apparently turned up 20 minutes late in her normal clothes and changed into her less than convincing outfit.
She did some face painting – turning off the music because she needed to use her phone to “time” her stint – and also sang some songs, the mum claims.
“The second of which was some heavy rock number from the 70s, to which she started punching the air and looking like a complete loon,” added Luci.
“This had my fellow parents at the party curling up in shocked laughter.
“Misty was such a trooper. She asked me very carefully ‘why didn’t Elsa come to my party?’ I burst into tears when I wasn’t in front of her. I felt that I had let her down.”
Luci – who had paid half up front – phoned up the agency to complain during the party, but was told to hand over the rest of the cash otherwise she couldn’t later complain.
The married mum, who runs blog Mums Make Lists, posted a photo of the apparent-lookalike on her personal website, which has been viewed more than 30,000 times.
One mum wrote said: “Genuinely appalled at @AeiouParties – be ashamed of yourselves! Princesses spread magic, not shatter dreams!?
Another said: “Looks like she just rocked up from a night out! Shame on @aeiouparties”
She has since been refunded 50 per cent by the company but she added: “It’s not about the money. They ruined my daughter’s birthday party.”
Alex Domingo, regional manager for the AEIOU Parties in London said Luci did not have permission to publish the photos on the internet.
He said: “Really we wouldn’t like to get into any more discussions with Miss Luci.
“We spoke to her, we tried to fix everything so that she was happy in the end.
“The pictures were not taken with the permission of the entertainer and she is now a little upset about the publication of those pictures.
“Some of the things that she has said in her blog are not quite nice about her.
“We have nothing really to say about the party. We’ve already talked about it with her. We don’t really want to get involved any more in all this.”
