Sparkling Sidmouth!! :0)

Subject: RE: Sparkling Sidmouth!! :0)
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 20 Aug 06 - 05:10 AM

I said nothing of the kind. I said that such haste was considered inadvisable by many because of the insufficient timescale for planning and booking. It was a risk. The risk you mention of skipping a year is also a real one. An identical dilemma arose at Beverley some years ago. In each case, a sort of festival somehow muddled through, hampered by opposing cliques, each convinced that one or other course of action was the only way, without a great deal of reference to the hard financial and practical considerations.

I am thoroughly tired of many (most) contributors to this thread shooting their mouths off without bothering to read what's been said before nor taking the trouble to look at the simple facts (as succinctly outlined by Steve Heap when outlining his rationale for relinquishing control in 2004), and diminishing the matter to 'you're not in the Middle Bar gang, you're not one of us' as though it was a playground squabble. Sidmouth has meant infinitely more to a whole lot of people than huddling in a pub all day (which could be done anywhere) and yes, we would like the old Sidmouth, that the loud-mouthed gang of recent camp followers actually know nothing about, back. As this would make not the slightest difference to a few people stuck in a bar, it is quite astonishing that they kick up such whingeing, abusive fuss at those who do want it. Not that it's coming: my outline of how it could be achieved would be dismissed out of hand because no-one has the slightest clue about how to raise the dosh. That's why I couldn't be arsed to waste hours costing and explaining it: the present 'management' has neither the vision nor commitment and meanwhile, Sidmouth becomes 'just another festival'. Keep it.

Subject: RE: Sparkling Sidmouth!! :0)
From: The Barden of England
Date: 20 Aug 06 - 04:47 AM

Bahhhhh Dung here - calling the countess richard
I see you are using your usual petty trick, but it bothers me not. I worked in the chemical industry for ten years so I have a sound knowledge of what vitriol is - and I reiterate that you simply spill it everwhere with regard to what Sidmouth has become. I certainly did read what you had written earlier, but took it in the light of you ramming things down peoples throats. You often accuse people of not reading what you have written, and treat them with contempt, or with such disdain that I actually believe that some do not. I have read it and have decided to treat it with the same contempt and disdain that you meter out so freely and frequently.
If you had read mine you may have noticed that I had said that the vast majority who had contibuted to this forum have said that they enjoyed it - and they went. All you can do is quote Bob Walton. One against many in my view - very poor statistics don't you think? However, with your blinkered attitude I'm aware that you will continue to rubbish the festival, me, Lizzie of course, and anybody you think you can bully. You frighten, nor perturb me not, and next year, whilst in Sidmouth I might give a passing thought to the'ACID' that you continue to pour forth and have a good chuckle to myself. That may well be in the Bedford, or one of the concerts that I do attend, of maybe in a workshop enjoying myself like the vast majority will be. You surely will not be missed.
As for the Arena - good riddance in my view.
John Barden

Subject: RE: Sparkling Sidmouth!! :0)
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 20 Aug 06 - 04:22 AM

Diane, what is your evidence that the decision to go ahead with a 2005 festival damaged Sidmouth's long-term future? There's something to be said for continuity in these things: audiences develop habits of attendance, and skipping a year could have been quite risky in its own right.

Subject: RE: Sparkling Sidmouth!! :0)
From: Dave Earl
Date: 20 Aug 06 - 04:17 AM

Look here I can't be bothered to argue with you any more over this issue.

Despite what you say,Sidmouth 2005 was a succuss and 2006 an even greater sudcess.

If it is not to your taste don't go.

Another contributer to this thread has complained to Mudcat Central about you. That person and I have agreeed that we will leave you to your own oppinions and will not engage in further discussions with you>

Dave

Subject: RE: Sparkling Sidmouth!! :0)
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 19 Aug 06 - 08:35 PM

prejudice: verb = to disadvantage

As any fule kno, it takes rather more than a year organise a festival and rather a lot of people thought it a hell of a risk to change the plan after the original stated intention of taking a year off. It could have gone pear-shaped but did not far more by good luck than management.

PMs: it is normal procedure to confine personal exchanges to offlist messages which is where such matters belong. It is also standard behaviour to reply to them, rather than to bring the issue back to the forum.

Subject: RE: Sparkling Sidmouth!! :0)
From: Dave Earl
Date: 19 Aug 06 - 08:06 PM

What prejudice?

When the "Fringe" declared their intention to be back for 2005 John Dowell, Derek Schofield, Barry Lister,Tom Addiscombe John Golightly and the others all came onside and worked together to put on 2005 which in fact made a bit of a profit to put in the kitty for future years.

All in all 2005 assited, the "original plan" to produce a 2006 festival.

Again I say I resent your suggestion.

Also I object to the PM you sent to me and also, I hear, Lynne. If you can state you case why can't we?

Dave

Subject: RE: Sparkling Sidmouth!! :0)
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 19 Aug 06 - 07:44 PM

So why did you prejudice it by deviating from the original plan to miss out 2005 in order to give the festival a better chance of getting off the ground with properly co-ordinated planning in 2006?

Subject: RE: Sparkling Sidmouth!! :0)
From: Dave Earl
Date: 19 Aug 06 - 07:03 PM

In words of one syllable!

Yes

Subject: RE: Sparkling Sidmouth!! :0)
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 19 Aug 06 - 07:00 PM

Do you?

Subject: RE: Sparkling Sidmouth!! :0)
From: Dave Earl
Date: 19 Aug 06 - 06:57 PM

Were it not for my friends from the Middle bar and the rest of the the Fringe sessions and singarounds Folk Week 2005 (yes 05) would not have occured.

People from these Fringe events are now Directors annd Trustees of the Festival and many others gave their time and effort as Stewards in one form or another.

Yes I am one of the Middle bar Singers but a lot of my time is given to the festival while I am at Sidders.

I resent the fact that you suggest I don't have the future of the festival at heart.

Dave

Subject: RE: Sparkling Sidmouth!! :0)
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 19 Aug 06 - 06:39 PM

I was answering a question put by a contributor about reintroducing Arena concerts and an international element. That would be the scenario to do so. Isn't it a tad selfish to care little whether this ever happens just because you and your mates spend all your time in the pub anyway? Aren't you supposed to have the festival's future at heart? Doesn't sound like it.

Stating the bleedin' obvious is not ranting. It is stating the bleedin' obvious. Ridiculous, hostile responses which have no bearing on aforegoing statements might, however be considered as such. 'The rest of us' is no homogenous mass. Odd that you disregard everyone else whose view of recent Sidmouth history is as lukewarm as mine. Do you know that they're all bigger than me, by any chance?

And madlizzie's inane behaviour is far from civilised and merits an uncivilised solution. Or give her the funding application to do. It'll be so crazed it might even succeed.

Subject: RE: Sparkling Sidmouth!! :0)
From: Dave Earl
Date: 19 Aug 06 - 06:26 PM

Are you drawing up a list Giok?

Dave

Subject: RE: Sparkling Sidmouth!! :0)
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 19 Aug 06 - 06:25 PM

Could be fun though Dave ¦¬]

Subject: RE: Sparkling Sidmouth!! :0)
From: Dave Earl
Date: 19 Aug 06 - 06:02 PM

As it happens I don't think the Arena concerts will be reintroduced for several years yet - if at all.


I rarely attended arena events anyway so it makes little difference to me and most of the people I assciate with at Sidmouth.

I know you fell Sidders is now a mundane festival but for goodness sake, having made your point several times, stop ranting at the rest of us.

And pushing anyone off Jacobs Ladder is hardly civilised behavior.

Dave

Subject: RE: Sparkling Sidmouth!! :0)
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 19 Aug 06 - 05:35 PM

I outlined it much higher up. Thought you said you'd read it. As no-one has even begun to think about funding, it would obviously not be feasible till 2008 at the earliest. This, as somebody might recall, was the projected timescale of the original plans as outlined by Derek Schofield i.e. Sidmouth would be relaunched this year. Cos that's how long funding applications take, Additionally, that's how far forward many bookings need to be made. Even then, it's a massive initial outlay without knowing whether a funding application will succeed. Can't see them biting, do you? Nah, they'll just stick with CBS and a Lakeperson or two, zzzzzzzzzzzz. And I wouldn't be climbing on board anywhere without artistic freedom and enough working capital upfront - but push that madlizzie off the top of Jacob's Ladder anyway.

Subject: RE: Sparkling Sidmouth!! :0)
From: Dave Earl
Date: 19 Aug 06 - 05:13 PM

So do you want Arena events Diane?

It seems to me that's what you feel is missing.

So do you have a suggestion as to how that might occur?

Dave

Subject: RE: Sparkling Sidmouth!! :0)
From: Lizzie Cornish
Date: 19 Aug 06 - 05:12 PM

Er....do you think that the Directors of Sidmouth Folk Week would actually WANT you on the board Diane???????

Just a thought....

Subject: RE: Sparkling Sidmouth!! :0)
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 19 Aug 06 - 05:00 PM

. . . oh, and do I want to 'help stagemanage' The Ham? No thanks. Done that. The challenge from 'the pragmatist' was how to reincorporate the Arena and the international aspect. Yes I could do that as an overall project but as there is not a hope in hell of paying for it there's not a lot of point in submitting proposals. They would hardly be viewed as helpful.

Subject: RE: Sparkling Sidmouth!! :0)
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 19 Aug 06 - 04:52 PM

Oh come on now Diane, say what you really mean, don't hold back on our account!
G ¦¬]

Subject: RE: Sparkling Sidmouth!! :0)
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 19 Aug 06 - 04:36 PM

Mister Bahhhhh Dung

Oh, so it's why don't I pay for it now? Moi? Actually, I wrote quite a lot earlier about arts funding at governmental level which you obviously didn't read either. I also said far above, quoting Bob Walton, that he doubted whether Sidmouth could be anything more than just another festival. I commented that this was scarcely a bad thing to say and certainly not a matter for twisted knickers. Odd that you call it 'vitriol' Do you know what this is? BW, me, and quite a lot of other people see Sidmouth falling prey to what Giok calls the 'identikit high street' syndrome. In other words, it matters very little which festival you go to (or which branch of Tesco), they're all the bleedin' same. Some people, presumably your Bedford clientele, like this. Any semblance of edge makes them feel unsafe. Not for me. That's boring, not special.

Actually, it's becoming increasingly necessary to ram the truth down the throats of those incapable of assimilating what's been said many times over. I know what I've said. You just haven't been arsed to look at it. It's a diminishing option to treat anyone with the reading capability of a deranged, educationally subnormal gnat as an actual adult person.

Subject: RE: Sparkling Sidmouth!! :0)
From: Dave Earl
Date: 19 Aug 06 - 04:05 PM

"but are you capable of that?"

I don't think so John!

Dave

Subject: RE: Sparkling Sidmouth!! :0)
From: The Barden of England
Date: 19 Aug 06 - 03:58 PM

OK, so Sidmouth is no longer special to you. I have assimilated that, no problem. So where's your problem Dianne (with two n's for that's the way I spell it - or have you not assimilated that yet?). When you do people the simple courtesy of treating them like adults then I might try and do that too - until the you are just two n's to me.

To continue - Sidmouth is no longer special to you - but the vast majority of people have come here to say how much they enjoyed it, and what do you do? - just poured vitriol. Seems to me that Sidmouth may well indeed be special them, but you want it to be as it was. Well, how's about putting up the money for it to be as was? There is no funding from EDDC - there never was going to be and that's the main reason why Mrs. Casey pulled out as I see it.
I intend to live the future, not the past - and Folk music, and Folk events include not only the past, but the here and now, and of course are looking to the future too. And bring on the family fests - the more the merrier.
As to ramming things down throats - perhaps a look toward oneself might be handy, but are you capable of that? I sincerely hope so.
John Barden

Subject: RE: Sparkling Sidmouth!! :0)
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 19 Aug 06 - 03:26 PM

Waiting for what? Last time you spoke to me it was just after Sidmouth when I'd been (obviously) at Womad and you promised to clear me a space at the Bedford this year. I was unable to come but didn't shed tears over it because I missed very little that I couldn't catch elsewhere (the Reeds concert & Mike Waterson - that's about it). Sidmouth is no longer special to me for reasons fully outlined which you clearly have not assimilated. If it's special to you or anyone else, that's entirely up to you, go but don't try and bludgeon anyone else into a boring and distasteful 'family and continuity' fest. It's insulting.

I mentioned MOR crap in the context of what a certain contingent appears to favour at what used to be the Marlborough. Again, a literacy deficiency in thread-reading. I don't consider open mics to have a great deal to do with the Sidmouth I used to know. Each to their own but again, don't ram it down my throat.

I've been asked what I could contribute. I've said what I could do. Another literacy failure? This was in the context of what would need to be done to incorporate Arena and international events. It would be entirely pointless to present such proposals which could never be afforded without massive fundraising (and no-one to do it) and as such would not be regarded as helpful. It's all been said before. Not disruptive. Realistic. And stop putting an extra 'n' in my name.

Subject: RE: Sparkling Sidmouth!! :0)
From: melodeonboy
Date: 19 Aug 06 - 03:12 PM

Oh, here we go again. Yet another thread dragged into the abyss by our two dear matrons, LC and CR.

I'm off elsewhere (and I hope they don't follow me - watch your backs!).

Subject: RE: Sparkling Sidmouth!! :0)
From: Dave Earl
Date: 19 Aug 06 - 03:08 PM

Horses for courses Diane.

If you have a skill that can be utilised why not offer it?

I read what you said earlier but if you have Stage management experience it could be that you help out with ,say, the Ham concerts.

Dave

Subject: RE: Sparkling Sidmouth!! :0)
From: The Barden of England
Date: 19 Aug 06 - 03:05 PM

Well - how unexpected that Dianne Easby would come here and be disruptive. All she can ever spout is what Other people write about a festival she has not attended for the last few years , nor wishes to attend in future. Vitriol from a non entity thrills nor bothers me. Come on Dianne - try sticks and stones, rather than inanely spouting that it's all MOR crap. For a so called knowledgeable person, how comes the majority who went to this festival found it fun, and you - who never went - are such an almighty authority? My opinion - You're just a sad person who just pours forth garbage - and now I expect you will then spew forth fire and brimstone in my direction. Well - please bring it on - I'm waiting!!!
John Barden

Subject: RE: Sparkling Sidmouth!! :0)
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 19 Aug 06 - 02:58 PM

Oh good, then you will realise how ridiculous it is that madlizzie assumes that I should volunteer myself for fundraising when I don't do sodding fundraising. It is an entirely different skill which I don't have a clue how to carry out. I said above what I could do and how pointless it would be to elaborate on what I would need when there was no bleedin' dosh to do it and no-one to raise it.

Why does nobody ever read the fucking thread?

Subject: RE: Sparkling Sidmouth!! :0)
From: Dave Earl
Date: 19 Aug 06 - 02:50 PM

What you don't know Diane is that I work for an Arts organisation and know exactly what is needed in the way of fundraising and event co-ordination.

And before you leap in and suggest I offer my services ,be advised that I did what I was able to do for Folkweek both this year and last.

Dave

Subject: RE: Sparkling Sidmouth!! :0)
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 19 Aug 06 - 02:43 PM

. . . that was, of course, to Ron Davies, not madlizzie, though I'd not offer her a glass of wine either though might pour a particulary vile bottle (such as an oversweet Gewürztraminer - and don't bother to tell me if I haven't spelled that right, I'm hardly likely to have a bottle here to check - ) over her head.

Ah, yet another case of literacy deficiency. The reason why I couldn't be arsed to contribute anything to the Sidmouth committee is because what I could contribute couldn't be paid for. It would be pointless to offer my skills when there is no-one to do the fundraising. In common with the hatted person, madlizzie clearly hasn't a clue what event organisation entails. Go and ask the crumpet, who does.

Subject: RE: Sparkling Sidmouth!! :0)
From: Dave Earl
Date: 19 Aug 06 - 02:39 PM

And 500!!

Subject: RE: Sparkling Sidmouth!! :0)
From: Dave Earl
Date: 19 Aug 06 - 02:38 PM

S'alright Lizzie.

I've got a bottle of my is all

Dave

Subject: RE: Sparkling Sidmouth!! :0)
From: Lizzie Cornish
Date: 19 Aug 06 - 02:36 PM

Sorry Dave, my messge there was for Diane, just to avoid confusion.

Subject: RE: Sparkling Sidmouth!! :0)
From: Lizzie Cornish
Date: 19 Aug 06 - 02:35 PM

Sounds like you'll soon be singing Show of Hands 'Cutthroats Crooks & Conmen'....or even 'Country Life' (!!!!!) ;0)

Subject: RE: Sparkling Sidmouth!! :0)
From: Dave Earl
Date: 19 Aug 06 - 02:34 PM

No, I'm not sharing my wine.!!!!


Who asked you too?

Subject: RE: Sparkling Sidmouth!! :0)
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 19 Aug 06 - 02:28 PM

No, I'm not sharing my wine.
Get yourself down an identikit high street and get your own.

Subject: RE: Sparkling Sidmouth!! :0)
From: Lizzie Cornish
Date: 19 Aug 06 - 02:27 PM

Hello guys!

Gosh...Sweetums HAS been busy!! ;0)

First of all could I just comment on one of her remarks about helping with the organisatin of Sidmouth Folk Week, funding or indeed much else..

"I . . . really . . . can't . . . be . . . arsed".

EXACTLY!!

I'm sure I can hear the Directors of Sidmouth Folk Week possibly heaving a collected and huge sigh of relief from here.

However I think I should point out that unlike Diane, they DID bother to be 'arsed' over Sidmouth.

Indeed they barely sat down on their situpons for the whole of the end of last year or most of this year, as they worked their fingers, and their minds, to the bone, to ensure that Sidmouth Lives! And even during Sidmouth they were all dashing round most days, phones in hands, sorting things out, having daily meetings whilst most people were still asleep or munching their bacon sarnies....

If you've nowt to offer Diane, then possibly you ought to put your foot into your mouth, or your head up.........somewhere else.

With regards to Ian Anderson, I'll not be goaded into bringing Ian into any of this madness that you're pouring out on here, in the slightest way whatsoever, and that's all I've got to say about that.

Sidmouth Folk Week is it's own wonderful celebration of traditional/folk/roots music. It is NOT Sidmouth International Festival. It never set out to be that. It is new, has just had it's 2nd birthday and will go on to grow from a slightly troubled toddler who wobbles a bit on unsteady feet now and again, to a strong, striding adult, who knows exactly where it's going, with it's head held high and pointing in the right direction.

I'm afraid you can't go to Sidmouth International Festival anymore, so you'll have to mourn in private, where at least you may be able to keep your dignity.

We're loving OUR Folk Week, it is very, very special, mainly because it is OURS! It belongs to Sidmouth again...to the town and to all the people who've chosen to remain with it.

And now...it's time to make tea in my Sidmouth house...so..if you'll excuse me.....


Lizzie :0)

Subject: RE: Sparkling Sidmouth!! :0)
From: Ron Davies
Date: 19 Aug 06 - 02:23 PM

Now all you have to do is develop just a bit of tolerance.

Subject: RE: Sparkling Sidmouth!! :0)
From: Ron Davies
Date: 19 Aug 06 - 02:22 PM

You mean there's a chance you actually may know what you say. That's a relief. Congratulations. That was close.

Subject: RE: Sparkling Sidmouth!! :0)
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 19 Aug 06 - 02:18 PM

I didn't buy any kitchens and certainly not any bloody children while I was out. What I'm eating out of a bag must, therefore be either churches or cherries. I don't really know or care that much. Or maybe they're hot cross buns. Or simnel cake. Or communion wafers. Ah, that reminds me, a bottle of Merlot . . .

Subject: RE: Sparkling Sidmouth!! :0)
From: Ron Davies
Date: 19 Aug 06 - 02:08 PM

"Countess"--


"Kinder, Kirsche..."--just be sure to proofread if you want to impress--or put us down. Otherwise it's just possible you may come across as an arrogant--but ignorant- prat.   And I'm sure we wouldn't want that.

Subject: RE: Sparkling Sidmouth!! :0)
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 19 Aug 06 - 01:54 PM

I went to Sainsburys actually. And bought some cherries from the stall by the church. OK? No idea why I'm telling you this. I'm not anonymous. Far too many people know me, or presume to do so. Nor have I Asberger's. If I had I'd ignore all the shite some people come out with and be totally unaffected. As it is, I'm barracked by the literacy-challenged who are capable only of picking out words in isolation regardless of grammatical structure and context.

I've not been in Sidmouth for two years for oft-explained reasons. It's not written down anywhere that I must to go, nor that I should put up with a format I'm not satisfied with, nor that I must assume 'family and continuity' as a goddam motto. People keep forgetting, or more likely, have a compulsive urge, to put words into my mouth that I never said, the latest being that I am refusing to offer assistance to the organising committee with a funding application. It's because it's not what I DO, fer chrissake.

I come on forums (with decreasing frequency} to answer questions and impart information. Those who never bother to read what's gone before are one kind of irritant. More insidious is the boorish anorak who has detailed knowledge of one tiny area. You make a statement about whatever. Oh no, he says (jeez, isn't it always a he?) and launches into a hectoring diatribe that's entirely unrelated except for . . . yeah, it's that 'one-word' syndrome in another form. (I just said . . . ah, sodoff). If it's 'bullying' to snap at them to shut the fuck up occasionally, then I'm a bully.

'lizziecornish' has more pseudonyms and aliases than anyone on the internet. She's a random spam generating program, y'know, who has cloned all the posters who claim they 'know' her. When she's not embarrassing the hell out of performers that she's 'discovered' and fawns over with sycophantic inaccuracy, she's spreading inexplicable rumours like I and others were secretly in Sidmouth last year. None of us was. One such was the Editor of fRoots against whom she launched one of her most vicious hate campaigns. She imagines it irritates him greatly to call the mag 'Folk Roots' and does so at every opportunity yet when some poor punter asked where to buy a mag of this name (which it used to bear), she swooped in with her 'gypsy' cloak snarling that getting the name right might help. Oh, but it's not just me and him, it's anybody who actually knows more than her about music (and that's a lot of people) that she gets into a strop with when they don't agree that her latest fave is the best ornot agree with her about anything, really, from education policy (she knows best and home educates - jeez, can you imagine?) to what to do when she's finally driven her children to drink). She did a lot of that during the MySpace controversy when floundering about way out of her depth, even to the extent of telling a prestigious musbiz lawyer that Rupie Murdoch wouldn't screw artists (ha!)

So 'gervase', in your quest for bullying online pests, do cast your eyes in the right direction, there's a good chap.

Subject: RE: Sparkling Sidmouth!! :0)
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 19 Aug 06 - 12:52 PM

Of course Sidmouth will be 'just like any other festival' as long as it books the same acts as all the other festivals seem to do. It may be just me, but every festival I look at seems to have Seth Lakeman, Coope Boyes and Simpson,Spiers and Boden, Flook etc.
Good acts they may be, but are folk festivals getting like our identikit high streets have become?
Giok

Subject: RE: Sparkling Sidmouth!! :0)
From: Gervase
Date: 19 Aug 06 - 12:24 PM

At fRoots I rip up misguided boorish anoraks before breakfast.
I think that says it all, really.
I can breathe a sigh of relief that, insofaras I am aware, my path and Diane's have never crossed. The internet may be a remarkable phenomenon, but it has alllowed rather too many people with Asperger's a free rein to show their bullying side under the cloak of anonymity.

Subject: RE: Sparkling Sidmouth!! :0)
From: Ron Davies
Date: 19 Aug 06 - 12:18 PM

"Countess"--

Just what do you have against cherries? (Kinder, Kirsche, Kuche) (sic)

If you're trying to put us down through your erudition, you'd best proofread a bit more carefully.

And by all means go to Tesco--just please don't patronize Asda (now owned by Walmart).

Thanks.

Subject: RE: Sparkling Sidmouth!! :0)
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 19 Aug 06 - 10:48 AM

. . . does anybody mind if I go out to . . . er . . . Tesco now?

Subject: RE: Sparkling Sidmouth!! :0)
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 19 Aug 06 - 10:41 AM

How much more simply can I put it?
Give me the money and I'll do it.
But they haven't got the money.
So what I say I want to do won't be seen as helpful.
Will it?

Subject: RE: Sparkling Sidmouth!! :0)
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 19 Aug 06 - 10:37 AM

I have neither the patience nor the skill. I've already said that in no way would I involve myself in funding applications. I know about the long and intensive process from others who have been embroiled in it. I didn't 'take a swipe' at the grant you succeeded in getting, I merely drew attention to the fact that many, many other equally valid projects would have missed out because allocation is so unfair and the amount of money available so inadequate. Even if a fundraiser post, which I agree is desirable, were to be created I wouldn't be applying for it. My skills lie in spending the money effectively once in place, not worrying about where it's going to come from. And it's not going to get better without radical reorganisation of priorities at governmental level which result in vastly increased arts funding on a par with other European countries (and probably others but I don't have adequate information) where massive free festivals with municipal and national funding are the norm.

Subject: RE: Sparkling Sidmouth!! :0)
From: Dave Earl
Date: 19 Aug 06 - 10:36 AM

Thats strikes me as an Own Goal Diane.

You are saying that what you have to offer isn't going to be seen as helpful and I imagine that means you are not goiing to offer.

Therefore all your postings to this thread have been to no avail.

You haven't convinced the rest of us and you can't convince the festival organisers so the whole thing has been a waste of your effort and our time.

Goodbye!

Our paths (and swords?) will cross somewhere else in Mudcat I'm sure.

Dave

Subject: RE: Sparkling Sidmouth!! :0)
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 19 Aug 06 - 10:20 AM

you haven't the patience, or you haven't the skill? Fundraising is a highly skilled area, but the funding itself is so skewed in particular directions that getting funding for programming in festivals is VERY difficult. I've managed to get £4k towards my programme, but I was very crafty. I was told at the outset of the consultation process that funding for programming in festivals is rare as hen's teeth. And anyway, any funding achieved is year-on-year (must be re-applied for, with no guarantee of renewal) and you have to prove that what you're doing in subsequent years represents "new activity". The only reprieve from this loop is to become a Regularly Funded Organisation, and that is VERY hard. So The organisers of Sidmouth could re-introduce the arena one year, and not be able to achieve the funding for the next. The application process is long and labour intensive. For large-scale fundraising you really need a dedicated member of staff - I doubt the current committee would be in a position to create such a post.

It is incredibly easy to be flippant about all of these issues; addressing them in any meaningful way is another matter.

BTW, I presume the "iniquities" of the funding system refers to grants like mine, as you took a sidelong swipe at it earlier. Well, I played the game. I looked at the Arts Council's priorities and criteria, I consulted with my local office, and made sure my project was fulfilling a need, which is essential to a successful application. The system may be imperfect, but the key is not to get bitter and negative and instead try to make good things happen within its confines.

Subject: RE: Sparkling Sidmouth!! :0)
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 19 Aug 06 - 10:17 AM

Well, of course, I could. I could say 'this is who I want to book and this is what I want to do and this is how I want to organise it. I'll need x-no of stages all under cover, x-no of crew, technicians, runners etc. Additionally, I need rehearsal space (so often overlooked) and cash on hand for props, costumes, day payments. You have the money upfront (not from box office receipts) to pay for venue hire, fees and expenses and accommodation that my faithful sidekick producer has detailed here, haven't you?'

I don't think they'd regard this as a 'constructive contribution'. Not until they'd sorted the funding hurdle.