No, that's definitely not normal.
There shouldn't be any noticable loading time during this part of the event.
I don't have the issue when I test the event, so I can't say what may cause the issue.
You could try to re-download the full game, to ensure your files aren't broken for some reason.
It's possible to continue your progress by copy&pasting the content of the www/save folder to the same location in the new game folder.