Christmas Shopping Fireworks

[garinda]

Leon, the overall consensus, from what people have posted here, is that they don't want some naff pop concert.

There does seem to be a number of people who'd be more likely to attend any event if it was more 'traditional', and 'Christmassy' in concept.

Do a poll, ask people if they'd rather have some one hit wonder belting out some bouncy house tunes, or school choirs, belting out carols.

To me this is more to do with any lack of vision from those in control.

Leon has a bar and a nightclub act, therefore let him put on a bouncy pop concert. Gayle knows something about art, so put her in charge of the borough's art scene.

Lazy, and with poor results.

Which isn't down to the people drafted in to do these things, who probably work very hard, it's down to the lack of imagination and confidence, from the powers that be.

[Leon Kelly]

[quote=mobertol;951349]OK so you've defended what you did this year and it seems to have been successful up to a point -but those who have been writing on here about this don't seem to have any hidden agendas to me. The over-whelming voice is that something more traditional, up-market and which appeals to a wider cross-section of the community is what is wanted. A bit less lowest common denominator...yes, i am a terrible snob, but quality counts.


So where does me living in Blackburn have anything to do with the event or the running of it as an agenda...... As previously stated i have read through the feedback but what i will say again is that yes i do think we need a cross between traditional and modern withot it being boring and one of these events that people go im not going there it was boring..... I know a lot of you are seeing it from one side but the demographic is from 1 year old to 80 year old so its a hard market to please, The onus now and i feel it from being involved is it has to be bigger and the need for the celeb endorsement is the question i get asked all the time, Whos the main act and thats by everybody, so if we can work on traditional and also new stuff as well.

This year is the first year we changed the switch on and allowed a two local heros to switch the lights on along with the mayor.

Re the Christmas Fayre i think this is something that would be taken up by Hyndburn Leisure and not myself however ill pass the information onto Kerry and Rob and see where we can go, However as Gayle has pointed out, Its a thankless task at times for a lot of man hours

[Leon Kelly]

Originally Posted by garinda

leon, the overall consensus, from what people have posted here, is that they don't want some naff pop concert.

There does seem to be a number of people who'd be more likely to attend any event if it was more 'traditional', and 'christmassy' in concept.

Do a poll, ask people if they'd rather have some one hit wonder belting out some bouncy house tunes, or school choirs, belting out carols.

To me this is more to do with any lack of vision from those in control.

Leon has a bar and a nightclub act, therefore let him put on a bouncy pop concert. Gayle knows something about art, so put her in charge of the borough's art scene.

Lazy, and with poor results.

Which isn't down to the people drafted in to do these things, who probably work very hard, it's down to the lack of imagination and confidence, from the powers that be.

garinda - did you attend the christmas lights ?

[mobertol]

[quote=Leon Kelly;951356
So where does me living in Blackburn have anything to do with the event or the running of it as an agenda ....
[/quote]

Twas just a quip - don't let it become a chip on your shoulder Leon!

Just seen your post -I didnt attend the lights switching on either..

[Leon Kelly]

Garinda - We smashed previous xmas lights records for attendance wth zero incidents, hardly naff and hardly lazy with poor results, This is what i mean, how can you expect anyone to take these comments seriously when you no doubt didnt attend

[jedimaster]

[quote=Leon Kelly;951356]

Originally Posted by mobertol

Re the Christmas Fayre i think this is something that would be taken up by Hyndburn Leisure and not myself however ill pass the information onto Kerry and Rob and see where we can go, However as Gayle has pointed out, Its a thankless task at times for a lot of man hours

so rather than look at it from a different angle you'd rather dismiss it altogether.

[Leon Kelly]

[quote=jedimaster;951360]

Originally Posted by Leon Kelly

so rather than look at it from a different angle you'd rather dismiss it altogether.

No not at all but i am not the man in charge of the Market Hall or town centre thats down to Rob Grigorgevs, and he would run any christmas fayre market, which is why i said i would pass this onto him and leisure in hyndburn, not dismissed its something they would handle

[cashman]

Originally Posted by Leon Kelly

Ok -

Few questions to answer

Cashman/Garinda - I own a buisness in the town i have rates and other bills to pay to
to the council so its irrelevant where i live as i am still paying taxes to Hyndburn BC
for my buisness.

Cashman - You are somewhat obsessed with the budget for this event, And the constant well
you want more budget Leon but who will pay for it, I shall explain the budget is set by the
controlling council the year before who are also dictated to by the goverment to what they
deem fit to be spending on public events, This events budget is not high but i do think that if
we receive an increase next year i am pretty sure your council tax wont go up because
of the xmas lights.

Well if wanting a straight answer to a perfectly reasonable question,yeh regard as obsession Leon, then yeh just lost out, cos i would love yeh to highlight were i have knocked yer efforts. as far as i'm concerned carry on, i sure won't lose any sleep.

[jedimaster]

[quote=Leon Kelly;951361]

Originally Posted by jedimaster

No not at all but i am not the man in charge of the Market Hall or town centre thats down to Rob Grigorgevs, and he would run any christmas fayre market, which is why i said i would pass this onto him and leisure in hyndburn, not dismissed its something they would handle

so how do we go about meeting with him then because as acrylic bob has pointed out there is an area that could be used AWAY from the market hall WITHOUT existing traders thus promoting NEW business and possibly income for local groups and charities.

not only that as we are starting small i'm sure these groups would provide their own stalls and tables and local groups could lend tables to be used as stalls therefore NO COST

[garinda]

Originally Posted by Leon Kelly

garinda - did you attend the christmas lights ?

No.

I like Christmas to be Christmassy.

If I want to bounce along to some house I'd head off to the Love Parade in Berlin, or whatever the new must go destination to experience dance music currently is. It wouldn't be Accy.

I probably would go to hear brass bands, carols, and eat roast chestnuts.

Perhaps this year's poptastic Christmas lights switch on might have been even more well supported, if the event's organiser hadn't publicly slagged off the local newspaper, just prior to the event happening?

http://www.accringtonweb.com/forum/f...ing-58969.html

[garinda]

Originally Posted by Leon Kelly

Garinda - We smashed previous xmas lights records for attendance wth zero incidents, hardly naff and hardly lazy with poor results, This is what i mean, how can you expect anyone to take these comments seriously when you no doubt didnt attend

Naff is my considered conclusion, which I stick by.

Then again I don't own a tracksuit, and wouldn't tuck it into my socks, if I did.

So I'm not really the target audience, that some naff chav-fest attracts.

[jedimaster]

Originally Posted by garinda

Naff is my considered conclusion, which I stick by.

Then again I don't own a tracksuit, and wouldn't tuck it into my socks, if I did.

So I'm not really the target audience, that some naff chav-fest attracts.

as is probably the case for most of us

[Leon Kelly]

Tit for tat, and i stand by my comments re what they did to the towns nightlife sector using a five year old story, since then they contacted me and did retract their comments a week later so im sorry Garinda, spend more time please actually getting your facts correct, as asked already you didnt attend so you cant comment, and as for bounce hows about this one for you .... Have you checked the Matalan CHRISTMAS ADVERT this year.... ill show you below.... Its Set You Free the same Set You Free Kelly Llorenna sang so call it coincidence but im sure matalan thought the same obviously.... As you wasnt in attendence you didnt see Boomin who did a 30 min set of classics, You didnt see snow white and Pantocast, You didnt see Sandersons Dance Studio, and you didnt see the two local heros do the switch on...........

[Acrylic-bob]

Errmmm, before this degenerates into an overheated slanging match, could I just say that my idea for the winter festival was envisaged to run in addition to any council sponsored event. Why not? The tweenies can have the poptastic lights and the spray tanned celebrities. While we traditionalists can organise ourselves and maybe at some future date the two could merge, or be spread over a whole weekend, or even better The whole of the week before the big day! Surely the whole thing is about creating growing anticipation for Christmas Day. The more, and more varied, the better as far as I can see.

And remember there are as many different Christmases as there are people who celebrate it.

[Gayle]

Originally Posted by Acrylic-bob

Some of the towns stallholders and shopkeepers might feel agrieved at being left out of the festival - that's good - encourage them to take part by taking a stall for the evening.

Gayle could actually do a bit to help by persuading her various groups to make stuff especially to be sold for the event and talking endlessly to the Observer and the Telegraph about it. Schools could also take part through competitions which would have their culmination on the evening of the event.

Your only expenses so far are the Christmas Tree and the fee for the Special Events Notice, which, as the event is for the good of the town centre, the council will be leant on or, shamed into, waiving. Take what is available voluntarily and use it to the maximum and that way it won't cost much at all. Get all the participants blogging and tweeting and posting vids on Youtube prior to the event - free publicity. A poster in every school and community centre etc etc.

But the most important thing of all it will be the people of Accrington organising the whole thing. Doing it for themselves instead of allowing the council to fork out vast sums of taxpayer cash directly into the pockets of Z-list celebrities and wanna-be's for a few half-hearted renditions of half-witted pop ditties.

This is the big stumbling block of course.
Finding some people to actually do these things - there are plenty of people willing to pitch in with good ideas but they seem to expect some mythical body to actually do these things.

Let's look at some of the tasks needed

Decide what the actual event would be
Design posters
Print posters - who's going to pay for that?
Distribute posters - all around Hyndburn, Blackburn and even Burnley
Sign up stall holders/participants
Notify all shop keepers as to how they can be involved
Get stall holders at the market involved
Send out letters to the press to get publicity
Apply for the licence
Fill in any forms needed to get road closures or permissions - bear in mind that even if you want to put a poster up on a highway you need to apply for permission
Do a running order of the event - if it's an event
Decide what the competition is - organise it and then judge it
Find judges
Get prizes - talk to people about donations for prizes
Award prizes - invite the Mayor to come
Look after the Mayor for the evening
Do you need a loud speaker system so that the Mayor can be heard?
Invite people down to the event - print invites - cost involved.


All of these items on the list are off the top of my head and I'm not saying it can't be done. But you need to find quite a few people willing to share out the jobs and do it because it might sound simple but never is.

Find the people and I'll help.