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13 Nov 05 - 04:03 PM (#1603970) Subject: Sidmouth Festival - Quote Found From: Folkiedave When the discussions regarding the future of Sidmouth were to the fore I mentioned I had seen a quote from a number of years ago complaining Sidmouth was too "big". I have found one dating from the 1969 festival, in English Dance and Song Winter/Christmas Edition 1969. Written by Tony Rose as part of a review of the festival. "....and yet there is a feeling among the regular visitors to the festival that the intimacy of the smaller gathering has been lost in this rapid increase in size and popularity.......". Plus ca change........ Dave |
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14 Nov 05 - 02:04 AM (#1604329) Subject: RE: Sidmouth Festival - Quote Found From: Chris Amos I remember 69, Carthy and Swarb were the main guests, I hung out with the hairies on the beach, it was smaller than last year, (what I saw of it). Perhaps this tells us that the people don't like change. |
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14 Nov 05 - 09:10 AM (#1604545) Subject: RE: Sidmouth Festival - Quote Found From: fiddler Eureaka! We have a realisation, well done guys. Thanx Dave Andy |
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14 Nov 05 - 09:17 AM (#1604548) Subject: RE: Sidmouth Festival - Quote Found From: GUEST,Edward Well it's certainly reducing in size now! I hear it will be reduced further in 2006 with less concerts at the Ham and no LNE at Bulverton. Let's get back to where we were some 40 years ago with a nice, small, intimate gathering of singers, dancers and musicians. We don't need household names at Sidmouth. Edward Burgess |
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14 Nov 05 - 10:38 AM (#1604615) Subject: RE: Sidmouth Festival - Quote Found From: GUEST,Giok Well I for one would like to see a return to the roots at more festivals. I have been preaching for years against the galloping inflation, both of numberts of 'Big names' and the cost of booking some of the so called 'Top Acts'. I blame Cambridge in a way for this as it seems to me to be the originator of this fad, I can remember many people who said they wouldn't go to Cambridge because it was too commercial, but it is happening to other festivals. We now even have the spectacle of promoters running more than one festival and sometimes not even local to them so there is no feedback from the residents who may be for or against the event, and many of them will resent it being imposed by an outsider. A folk festival is not like any other large entertainment event in that it involves locals and many local venues much more than a pop festival. The only comparable thing is the Edinburgh Festival, and that certainly ruffles a few feathers, to the extent that people who can do so move out of town for the duration. Just remember that not everybody shares our enthusiasm and to many we are a source of annoyance and inconvenience. So don't be selfish about what 'we' want to the extent of antagonising others. I think it was Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mocking Bird, who suggested we try to walk a mile in the other person's shoes, in order to understand things from their point of view. Rant over. Giok |
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14 Nov 05 - 11:26 AM (#1604667) Subject: RE: Sidmouth Festival - Quote Found From: GUEST,Gadaffi I don't know where Edward Burgess heard his information, but to the best of my knowledge (actually spent at a planning weekend in Sidmouth last month), it is intended to maintain and build on the successes of the Ham concerts and Bulverton sites, especially to attract more younger people. |
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14 Nov 05 - 12:02 PM (#1604692) Subject: RE: Sidmouth Festival - Quote Found From: fiddler Here we go again! Can't Sidmouth be built as Sidmouth NOW!!!! Not what is WAS 20 Years ago and Not what is was when Mrs Casey left. It has got to be itself as it is NOW It should not be rejuvenated to what it ever was, it needs to be invented (not re invented!) for what it is now, yes learn from the past, but don't try and re create it! It needs to relate to the audiences / customers of today whether they be session musicians or concert goers there is a happy relationship. Sidmouth 2005 we had Saul, John and John and Eliza amongst others playing on the camp site most nights. They were there for bookings as artists but also contributed immensley to the rest of the festival the two cannot be separated. This place is turning in to a bigoted bunch of ostriches - lets not recognise that times have changed lets just go do it all exactly like it was when I were a lad - I won't put my next expletive in! hugs Andy Andy |
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14 Nov 05 - 01:23 PM (#1604748) Subject: RE: Sidmouth Festival - Quote Found From: Folkiedave Chris is correct - the main guests were Carthy and Swarb. And damned good they were too! Dave |
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14 Nov 05 - 02:44 PM (#1604846) Subject: RE: Sidmouth Festival - Quote Found From: GUEST,Barry Harris What a shame Giok attacks the "spectacle of promoters running more than one festival and not even being local to them". If it wasn't for promoters like Gordon Newton there would have been NO Sidmouth Folk Week in 2005. If it wasn't for other promoters from outside Sidmouth who organise sessions in The Anchor and throughout the town, also all the dance tents, there wouldn't have been anything at all in Sidmouth this summer. Why do people like Giok continue to criticise Sidmouth and those who have worked so hard to keep a Folk Week in the town? |
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14 Nov 05 - 03:06 PM (#1604869) Subject: RE: Sidmouth Festival - Quote Found From: BB No, of course there wouldn't have been anything at all in Sidmouth... Oh, who was it running the events in the Bedford? Well, well, local entrepreneurs, Barry Lister and Tom Addison... I'm not saying that those from away didn't contribute hugely, but please don't ignore local Devon people like Barry & Tom, The Wren Trust, etc. And they were the people who were working with the townspeople to get them on side, too - successfully! |
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14 Nov 05 - 03:08 PM (#1604871) Subject: RE: Sidmouth Festival - Quote Found From: Folkiedave From Giok.... to the extent that people who can do so move out of town for the duration Well, I know people in Edinburgh who leave for the duration of the festival. By a strange coincidence they also rent their house out for large sums of money. Happened in Sidmouth too........ I was really just making the point at the start of this thread that people have complained for years that ".........Festival" is not what it used to be..... . Good IMHO it is nice to see festivals changing. I like to see the big stars and I most certainly like to see them making a decent living. Not the easiest thing in the world of music. Again IMHO they deserve every penny they get. And I would have hated to have missed......well, the list is too long. Dave |
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14 Nov 05 - 04:23 PM (#1604919) Subject: RE: Sidmouth Festival - Quote Found From: Lizzie Cornish Hi Guys, Well... I live in Sidmouth all year round and Folk Week is, quite simply, the BEST week of the whole year and the one my family and I all look forward to. Hugely enjoyed this year and I too have heard that next year will be built upon the success of this year. I think 'Guest Edward' is er...winding people up...."What! On a SIDMOUTH thread? Surely not!" I hear you cry....and chuckle into your hankies! ;0) ;0) Hurry back everyone and bring my town back to life once more! Oh...and so many local people that I've spoken to thoroughly enjoyed this year and feel that their town has been 'given back' it's festy once more. There you go..... Lizzie :0) |
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14 Nov 05 - 06:52 PM (#1605058) Subject: RE: Sidmouth Festival - Quote Found From: GUEST Barry I think you;ll find my criticism was general and not particular, I did notice you didn;t leap to the defence of Cambridge which I did criticise by implication, but of course when you look at a subject with an eye for only your pet subject blindness to all reasom ensues. Giok |
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14 Nov 05 - 08:39 PM (#1605135) Subject: RE: Sidmouth Festival - Quote Found From: GUEST,Barry Harris Well I'll certainly leap to the defence of Cambridge now as the Cambridge Folk Festival is organised by a 'local' Eddie Barcan and by Cambridge City Council who give tremendous support to the Festival... unlike East Devon District Council who give no support to Sidmouth now. Maybe they refuse to support the Folk Week because it's mostly organised by 'outsiders' with no base in the town? P.S. To Lizzie. I know you live in Sidmouth Lizzie and do everything you can to support the Folk Week but you don't actually organise any of it so far as I know. I'm not getting at you though. You must be the Folk Week's most loyal champion. |
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15 Nov 05 - 04:11 AM (#1605304) Subject: RE: Sidmouth Festival - Quote Found From: GUEST "Well I'll certainly leap to the defence of Cambridge now as the Cambridge Folk Festival is organised by a 'local' Eddie Barcan and by Cambridge City Council who give tremendous support to the Festival... unlike East Devon District Council who give no support to Sidmouth now. Maybe they refuse to support the Folk Week because it's mostly organised by 'outsiders' with no base in the town?" Just a couple of points. If you visit the BBC folk website you will see Cambridge emblazoned all over the place. They have cameras there to record things for showing later on BBC television - something they don't do for week long festivals like Sidmouth, Broadstairs or Whitby, so I believe they help this festival no end, which is more than they did for Sidmouth last year - in fact they still have things on the website extoling the virtues of Sidmouth 2004 - what a lot of help that is!! Let's hope they return to Sidmouth this coming year. Secondly - regarding the jibes at outsiders and EDDC. I suppose Steve Heap was a local then? The reason he pulled out was that EDDC refused to guarantee the £60,000 grant after 2004 let alone the £200,000 that he needed to keep the Arena going, and I don't believe it was because he was an outsider, but because the EDDC wanted to use that money elsewhere . I for one thank all those people who put their money up front this year to make Sidmouth the success it was, and are doing so again this coming year. By the way, if a finger is being pointed at a certain Kentish man for being an outsider, please be aware that he lives just outside of Seaton. |
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15 Nov 05 - 04:37 AM (#1605315) Subject: RE: Sidmouth Festival - Quote Found From: fiddler Here we go again! Can't Sidmouth be built as Sidmouth NOW!!!! Not what is WAS 20 Years ago and Not what is was when Mrs Casey left. It has got to be itself as it is NOW It should not be rejuvenated to what it ever was, it needs to be invented (not re invented!) for what it is now, yes learn from the past, but don't try and re create it! It needs to relate to the audiences / customers of today whether they be session musicians or concert goers there is a happy relationship. Sidmouth 2005 we had Saul, John and John and Eliza amongst others playing on the camp site most nights. They were there for bookings as artists but also contributed immensely to the rest of the festival the two cannot be separated. All festivals have different attributes different funding streams and atmospheres, some I love some I do not. Sidmouth (where I worked for about 18 years) had its own atmosphere. It does not need to be re created and new Sidmouth needs to be created, standing or falling by its own merits. This place is turning in to a bigoted bunch of ostriches - lets not recognise that times have changed lets just go do it all exactly like it was when I were a lad - I won't put my next expletive in! hugs Andy |
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15 Nov 05 - 05:40 AM (#1605345) Subject: RE: Sidmouth Festival - Quote Found From: GUEST,Anon. I think you will find that the reason the BBC are no longer interested in Sidmouth is because it is no longer a major event on the folk festival scene. It is just a relatively small gathering of like-minded folkies now, not the major International Festival that used to attract BBC coverage in the way Cambridge still does. Please don't criticise the BBC for pulling-out of Sidmouth. With the best will in the world they can't be expected to broadcast every little gathering of session singers and morris dancers. |
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15 Nov 05 - 05:41 AM (#1605346) Subject: RE: Sidmouth Festival - Quote Found From: Don(Wyziwyg)T I hear you Andy, and agree with most of your points. One of the things that has helped to make folk music unfashionable is the insistence on dwelling in the past so prevalent among certain posters to this forum. Sidmouth Folkweek is an entity with a life of its own, and needs to grow and develop in order to survive. And I don't mean grow in size. If that were the only criterion, this world would be inhabited by 50 stone monsters, barely able to move. Sidmouth WILL go from strength to strength, simply because we who support it want it to, and it doesn't much matter where we live for the rest of the year, as long as we are there in the first week of August. The townsfolk certainly seemed much happier to have it centred within the town, and inconveniences of traffic and parking notwithstanding, there were many more smiling faces to be seen this year. There is, IMHO, no reason why the arena should not return as one venue for large concerts and dance acts in the future, but I strongly feel that it would be a mistake to return to the days when it was a closed enclave, cut off from all the other events, and from the town itself. I hope to be going to many more Sidmouths, and I think that hope will be realised, thanks to the efforts and money put in by "outsiders" like Gordon Newton, who comes all the way from Seaton to organise it. Don T. |
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15 Nov 05 - 12:33 PM (#1605613) Subject: RE: Sidmouth Festival - Quote Found From: GUEST,Sidmouth Resident Don Anyone who lives in Sidmouth certainly regards anyone who lives in Seaton as both an 'outsider' and something of a heathen from o'er the hill! Not sure we want them invading our town, plundering our shops and ravishing our women (watch out Lizzie!). I agree with you Don that it would be good to see shows in the arena again but who is going to risk it given that it was the costs of the arena shows and the associated risks if the weather limited attendances that drove Steve Heap out of town. |
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15 Nov 05 - 05:10 PM (#1605843) Subject: RE: Sidmouth Festival - Quote Found From: Lizzie Cornish Good Lordy! Plundering And Ravishing.....in SIDMOUTH!!!! Are you sure?? Well.........Count me in then! ;0) Brings a whole new outlook to Siddy 2006 doesn't it! Time to get my Camp Follower's Outfit out again by the sound of it! Which part of Siddy do you live in then 'Sidmouth Resi'....sounds much more fun than my part....... ;0) .....Hang on....are we talking Sidmouth or Sidford here? EVERYONE knows what a Den Of Iniquity Sidford is....why...'tis almost as bad as Cleethorpes! Mmmmmmm.....I've heard about those Sassy Seaton Men too.....Mmmmmmmmmm! Rolls on the floor giggling wildly! :0) Lizzie :0) |
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15 Nov 05 - 05:48 PM (#1605861) Subject: RE: Sidmouth Festival - Quote Found From: treewind Re cost of Arena shows: In a conversation recently (at least I don't think it was here on Mudcat) somebody pointed out that the arena showground could have a marquee at least as big as the one on the Ham, and put on some shows for the day trippers like the ones that were such a financial risk before. It's not as romantic as the outdoor arena format on a good evening, and wouldn't be ideal for the big foreign dance shows but they aren't going to happen anyway. They'd be the place for concerts by big names, and the attendance would no longer depend on the weather. Anahata |
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15 Nov 05 - 05:49 PM (#1605863) Subject: RE: Sidmouth Festival - Quote Found From: treewind P.S. Lizzie - behave yourself! Anahata |
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15 Nov 05 - 06:09 PM (#1605880) Subject: RE: Sidmouth Festival - Quote Found From: Don(Wyziwyg)T Yep Anahata, That's about what I had in mind, especially after seeing a suggestion that there will be a 1000 seat marquee on the Castle grounds at Sweeps 2006. Sounds a good possibility, don't it? I don't know how big these marquees get, but it would surely solve the weather problem. Don T. |
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15 Nov 05 - 07:45 PM (#1605953) Subject: RE: Sidmouth Festival - Quote Found From: GUEST,Topper "I don't know how big these marquees get" - Don (Wyziwyg) T Bridgnorth had a 1600 capacity big top this August. Eastleigh had a 2200 capacity big top this August. I guess it might be difficult putting such large tents on the steeply sloping arena showground though. |
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15 Nov 05 - 07:57 PM (#1605962) Subject: RE: Sidmouth Festival - Quote Found From: Col K I went to Sidmouth this year for the first time for a full week, and I have to say that I enjoyed it without going to any of the concerts. I had been the previous year for two evenings only and my impression then of the arena was of an exclusive place where outsiders were not welcome. I think the new Sidmouth ie. this years, seemed to be much more inclusive for all, both folkies and others. Lets not go back to the days of appearing not to want the town involved. This year the town got its festival back, lets leave it there not move it out again. I talked to many Sidmouth residents during folk week and they were very glad that we were there and were glad that the arena was not.Also the craft fair attracted locals this year, something that has not happened in recent years according to many of the traders there. Give credit to those who stepped in this year and lets hope that it all happens again next year. |