Monday, August 30, 2010

Should Sunfest be run by the Town Council?

On Saturday I went down to see the what was going on at the Town Council run Sunfest. I took a quick look around. The weather had taken the toll on the ground with standing water over the site. The main attraction was the commercial fun fair. The other large attraction was the music arena. The community part was small and somewhat sidelined.

The Town Council eventually promoted Sunfest as "one of the best free musical festival in the area". I don't know what is meant by this statement as this is the only free musical festival in St Neots. I do feel this is an over hyping of the event.

Is this what I pay my Council Tax for? I have no worries about the Town Council supporting the Community Events where St Neots people organise events for other St Neots people. What I define as support is the Town Council can provide seed money and land for events to happen. What I don't mean by support is the Town Council organises these events.

Sunfest has gone the other way. Local fĂȘtes and local events should be promoted and helped by the Town Council. Where Sunfest differs is it doesn't cater for the community but only a small part of the community.

If Sunfest is to continue and has support amongst the community then residents should be organising this event and not the Town Council. Times have changed. There are many other music events and other things to do on this Bank Holiday weekend.

The trouble is many Councillors are naturally conservative. This has caused the Town Council to take over this event. If residents don't want to support these events I don't see why the Town Council thinks it can make a success of this event where residents fail.

Time to end the Town Council organising this event and let residents organise these events themselves if they want them to continue.

2 comments:

Justin said...

I attended Sunfest with my family; we all had a very good time. We enjoyed the music, Fair and other attractions very much.

I completely agree with the Town Council running this event, Why shouldn't they?

Clacton Council successfully run an air show every year and have been doing so for that past 17 years. You could argue that at the beginning residents there had the same "Issue" with the council running such a thing, but with persistence they have turned it into a huge success, something St Neots Town Council can do with Sunfest.

The band members i spoke to in the crows after they performed really enjoyed it as did the members of the public which did attend.

SNTC is slammed, criticised and moaned at with every event they support or hold. Yet a great number of people still say they do nothing in promoting the town of St Neots.

Dave said...

Clacton is an unparished area and Tendring District Council runs the Air Show. The cost to the Council Taxpayer is budgeted to lose £43,000.

As to why the Town Council shouldn't run these type of events is because it becomes the whole reason for the Town Council. One or two employees at District level is one thing. One or two employees IS the Town Council.

Even if people don't support the Sunfest event it will carry on as the Town Council has money.

As for criticism of the Town Council, I don't criticise with good reason. I also look at alternatives to how the Town Council is running things. All I want is the Town Council to be run properly.