DeletedUser26532
Ah is this harder than usual? It certainly seems more difficult that the previous few events. Though the carnival event certainly could suck up a lot of time if you babysat the pot.
This is purely anecdotal, but I would say yes.
I have bought/used diamonds only for the Summer event in 2016 when I first started playing to catch up on prizes I'd missed in years past. Excluding that event, ever one that I have played since January 2016 until present I've been able to get every event building I've been after. Usually with extras.
This event I'll be stunned to get one set of 5.
Given I managed two place and two fountain sets last summer without spending diamonds, and a full winter village set (with 3 extras) at Christmas, this suggests there is a mechanic making it more difficult.
Again, I may simply have hit bad luck (and statistically that was bound to happen eventually), but with THIS widespread complaining here and on Beta, it suggests that this event is harder than others.