A vampire buffs' convention was dubbed a dead loss by fans who forked out hundreds of pounds to see their heroes in the flesh.

Thousands flocked to the Brighton Centre at the weekend to meet stars from cult Buffy The Vampire Slayer spin-off TV show Angel.

But the first two days were a shambles - leaving organisers Jealous Events offering to hand out free tickets for a follow-up event.

Although yesterday's event passed by trouble-free, even die-hard Buffy-philes were left furious when they:

Queued around the block for hours to get in and waited again for autographs
Forked out £49 for a signed picture of Angel star David Boreanaz
Sat patiently staring at an empty stage
Watched a group of lookalikes performing a stilted re-enactment of the show
Spent £79 on tickets for priority seating only to be sat beside others who paid less.

To add to fans' frustration, two of the stars - Armin Shimerman, who played Principal Snyder, and Amber Benson, who played Tara - pulled out at the last minute.

Some obsessives spent £599 on tickets granting them the chance to meet Boreanaz.

But then they were told they could not touch him, request his autograph or pose for pictures alongside their hero.

One fan who attended Saturday's event said: "Angel is my absolute hero but this was a complete disaster.

"Loads of people who had spent hundreds of pounds on tickets spent most of the day just sitting around because there was nothing to do.

"Everyone was waiting for something to happen but it never did.

"It was such a shambles. When I finally got to meet the cast they were really, really lovely - but the people organising it were hopeless."

As frustrations mounted on Saturday afternoon, the compre introduced a question-and-answer session with the words: "I've got a question. How do you run a convention? Answer: Don't - it's a headache."

Jane Wilkes, who was featured in The Argus for being Brighton's biggest Buffy fan, was more positive about the event.

She said: "The long delays at the start of the day were not explained over the tannoys and those without patience and low heels were not enjoying themselves.

"The stewards, though, were friendly and helpful, the organisers strict and almost unflappable and, all in all, we had a great day."

Single mother Sue Karikos, 43, travelled from London after saving up for five months to buy her ticket and a signed photo.

She said: "I've spent £120 and I've got nothing out of it. We queued for over an hour and then they told us we weren't even going to get a personalised photo, just his signature."

Fans attending on Sunday had better experiences.

Paula Welsh, 23, flew in from Cork in Ireland and said: "I think it has been great and the question-and-answer session with the cast was brilliant."

Executive producer Glenn Dellimore apologised to those who did not feel they got value for money and promised to learn from the mistakes.

He blamed many of the problems on underestimation of numbers attending and lack of information points.

Mr Dellimore said: "On Saturday I sat down with groups of people who were complaining and went through everything that needed to be done differently.

"This type of event needs more stewarding and a better way to provide information."

One idea was big screens to keep people informed of any schedule changes.