"Festivals under threat"

No one commented earlier when I asked what people's reaction was to the Dickensian Festival.

The press reports:  the Gazette concentrates on the need for marshals whereas the News emphasises the costs of future policing.

As ever we need to make our views heard to our councillors who will be guiding future events.

There will be people from both sides of the argument.

For me the main issue is  - Do the majority of Ulverstonians enjoy this particular festival?

Forget the other benefits - Do we enjoy ourselves?

Some argue that if there are too many people it gets to the point that the financial benefits are not outweighed by the inconvenience to 'normal' living. But then it's not meant to be a normal week end.

Many of the stalls have nothing to do with Dickens and only result in those providing the stalls taking money away with them. Some like this one got few customers and blocked access to the donkeys behind.

In The Gill the local donkeys had a hard time because they could get round The Gill for the massive out of town machinery and stalls that were brought in.

But then there will be a spin off for others that benefit from the increased numbers in the town.

If there is a need for expensive policing in the future then the whole concept  of bringing large numbers of people in from outside should be questioned.

There are plenty of our festivals that don't involve large numbers of people such as the Flag Festival which in my view is one of the best. I doubt that the Lantern Parade needs many police either.

For our part in the Gill we are very happy with our Halloween activity which is aimed at bringing local people together just to have a bit of fun. We want to steer away from anything commercial and 'official' and are pleased that our event required no stewarding or input from the police though they were well informed.

It cost the town - or the participants if they chose - nothing. Next year we believe we can  put the whole event on less than ten pounds.

It's good to have different kinds of activity going on in the town, then if one concept starts to run into problems, then another can fill the gap.