In the past, the town council has given £5000 (for supporting the children's events). Last year Devon County Council contributed too.

£30,000 in a few weeks is asking a lot. Try reading the article. Mr Braithwaite is quoted as saying both that the £30,000 figure was not mentioned at the Bedford meeting (so maybe the figure should not have been headlined at all??) and "we are already on the way to achieving our target (which is true if you have raised only £1), although there is still a long way to go."

So there is a long way to go, and there is a recession looming. Read into it what you will, I just made the article more widely available!

Anyone could guess 2009 is going to be difficult - it is going to be difficult for many events where people feel the expenditure is an option for their household budgets.

As for the comment 'what are you going to do?' - I helped in the box office last year, I sent the organisers a large number of suggestions on how to improve the operation of their systems and following the untimely death of Pat B (see another small thread) I offered via John Golightly to do much more to help this year.

Other local people have offered likewise - we await to see if the organisers need or wish to take up our offers.