No Irish Festival in 2011

[Chick]

Not referring to any one in particular, it could apply to several hundred people on this forum including moi!

Hugs

[Huguenot]

Indeed.

And there is no wit in quotation but the solace and respite of tribalism.

Think for yourself.

[SimonM]

I thought the annual Southwark Show was at Southwark Park, not Burgess. It was 1 of three organised each summer at fornightly intervals in June & July by the Council? The other 2 were at Peckham Rye and Belair, the latter coinciding with the annual Steam mFair there. They were all cancelled for reasons of economy IIRC, but were always packed out and enjoyable except when it rained.

[DJKillaQueen]

The situation is that Southwark are only funding one festival this year as part of the cuts but there is other funding that the Irish Festival could apply for, such as the Community Council Fund.

[rifleman harris]

Simon says:

>I thought the annual Southwark Show was at Southwark Park, not Burgess. It was 1 of three organised each summer at fornightly intervals in June & July by the Council? The other 2 were at Peckham Rye and Belair, the latter coinciding with the annual Steam mFair there. They were all cancelled for reasons of economy IIRC, but were always packed out and enjoyable except when it rained

I'm going back a few years Simon (probably very late 80's early 90's!

[Sue]

I was amazed to read in a local paper that the Irish Festival cost something like ?52k (I think) to run and that the council had been funding half of this.

What on earth were they spending all that money on?

[OliviaDee]

tayto

[SimonM]

I'm going back a few years Simon (probably very late 80's early 90's!

Ah! I was going back even earlier, so maybe they switched the Southwark Park event to Burgess after they had done it up?

[LadyTaTa]

In the heat of July 2006 I had precisely 4 days to find somewhere to live, and ended up renting a flat on Peckham Rye common. But.... my only refuge from the heat of my welll-insulated flat was to retreat to the balcony (and smoke... those were the days...), keep the flat in darkness in the day and madly open all the windows as soon as the sun went down.

One morning, I heard a tannoy system being tested. Then some weird country music started - it reminded me of maypole dancing. It kept going. And kept going. And kept going. The heat, the maypole music, the constant annoucements. No possible escape from all three other than leaving the area. How I came to loathe the Irish Festival (and Zippo's Circus).

And now I find out I was part funding it - horrors! So VERY selfishly, I'm VERY glad it's not on this year!

[zeban]

Sue Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> I was amazed to read in a local paper that the

> Irish Festival cost something like ?52k (I think)

> to run and that the council had been funding half

> of this.

>

> What on earth were they spending all that money

> on?

Whoah Sue that's a ridiculous amount of money. Ok, glad it's been cut!

[DJKillaQueen]

Festival Cuts

It does seem like a huge amount of money. I'd be interested to know how it's spent. Wonder how much headlining acts cost for example. If the event attracts, as the article claims, 16,000 people, then that's just ?1.50 per head to replace the council part of the funding.

[Sue]

zeban Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Sue Wrote:

> --------------------------------------------------

> -----

> > I was amazed to read in a local paper that the

> > Irish Festival cost something like ?52k (I

> think)

> > to run and that the council had been funding

> half

> > of this.

> >

> > What on earth were they spending all that

> money

> > on?

>

> Whoah Sue that's a ridiculous amount of money. Ok,

> glad it's been cut!

xxxxxxx

Yes, sadly I feel the same now.

The year I went, there didn't seem to be all that much going on apart from a bit of music, and not all that many people, but maybe it was just the day and time of day I was there.

I certainly couldn't see what they could have spent around ?52k on :-S

[Huguenot]

The article makes pretty clear what the 52k was spent on, where the organiser says 'profits' from the Festival were used to fund the St. Thomas More hall for the rest of the year.

Since there should be no 'profit' on taxpayer funding for a Festival, it's clear that it was a front for funnelling money to other places.

BTW if 'Chairman Ben Cahill' ?cannot raise that sort of cash in a couple of months? for an event with 16,000 attendees then he's either lying about the number of attendees or demonstrating commercial incompetence of a unique scale.

[Sue]

Ah - the article I read (I think in Southwark News) didn't say where the money went.

That's terrible.

[DJKillaQueen]

Yes that article sheds a different light on things. Although the council funds many things that raise revenue on the basis that the revenue is then in turn used to fund other community things. Many TRA's operate in that way for example.

I think it's the amount of money that's probably the issue here though. The Community Council Fund for example will give grants of up tp ?1000 to fund events. The Tenants Fund that TRA's can apply to also tends to see grants of only ?1-2k on average awarded. Those I think are reasonable amounts of funding. ?28k on the other hand for one event seems a bit disproportionate (and it comes under a seperate channel of funding).

[tiger ranks]

JAMES BARBER I CAN NOT SEE YOU HAVE COMMENTED ON THIS THREAD

[StraferJack]

is he obliged to? What do you wnat to hear?

[DulwichFox]

Main cost would probably be Insurance, Police, Security.

Funny that as a public event people can sit around drinking all day.

Any other time, if you went there for a picnic and opened a bottle of wine

you could have it confiscated and face prosicution.

Nearly always rains anyway.

[Voyageur]

DulwichFox Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

>.... face

> prosicution.

does that involve a large glass of prosecco? http://emotloader.hu/emoticons/drink/00000009%20-%20emotloader.hu.gif

[Otta]

I always thought the Irish "festival" was a pretty poor event to be honest. No great kids.

Sorry if that is a grumpy old man kind of post.

[Alan Medic]

I agree. I thought it was crap. Then, I hate C&W music.

[MissNoodlesHats]

No-one here has been able to verify the Irish origins of the event, I'm part Irish but would agree this is not a particularly 'Irish area' in terms of immigrant profile. I suspect most of us have simply enjoyed it as a well attended fun event. - sue

I hear Nunhead has a large irish community , historically these event was very much linked to this area as well. I think now that the Rye has been gentrified and is used now by the wider community the 'Irish fete' has been effectively pushed out. Obviously looking back on this forum Peckham Rye issues were not considered ED related, now they are. Out then In for the forum so In then Out for the 'Irish festival' . I think that may explain why there is a lack of understanding of the festivals origins.

[Alan Medic]

What do you mean? If this were ED related it probably wouldn't be in The Lounge. The remainder of the post I can't fathom at all. I must be thick!

[Otta]

100

[Otta]

My first ever, and only because it had been hanging there for 4 hours.