On Wednesday, May 09, 2007 5:22 PM [GMT+1=CET], STRUDWICK.FAMILY <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Whilst I appreciate the efforts put in by the committee, it cant be > easy to organise an event like this in our increasing bureaucratic > society, we have lost so many bits that did make the event unique and > where the participants were the audience. Where are the:- > > * Bar-B-Q on Sunday night with participants of the illuminated > parade rushing to get fed before heading off into the night to > get their boats to the start line. Hopefully there is another > reason than to stop it competing with the new eating places that > have been built along the arm. The voluntary group that used to run it felt they could no longer do so, and notmother voluntary group was prepared to take it on (we did approach several). I think the tightening rules about food safety was a lot to do with this. For a couple of years we tried getting one of the food traders to run something, but that verdict of the boaters & other participant s was that this was far far adequate. The fact was what could be put on by commercial caterers fell far short of what a voluntary group with no staffing costs to put on for the same orice. > * boaters entertainment on Saturday night. We got to the beer tent > latish so may have missed it but there was nothing in the boaters > pack anyway. "Nothing on the boaters pack" was definitely a slip-up on our part. > * wide range of entertainment for adults much with a boating > feel. Chucklefoot were good but you can only watch them once. Oh > I forgot there was some jazz on Saturday afternoon but we were in > the parade so missed it. There was jazz on all three days - a different band each day. We could indeed do with a greater variety of entertainment, but the availability of entertainers who will perform for next-to-nothing seems to be a lot less than it used to be. So if we're having to pay more for each act, then there will be fewer of them, unless we can find a generous sponsor for more cts - and we've tried. Mike Stevens narrowboat Felis Catus III web-site www.mike-stevens.co.uk Defend the waterways. Visit the web site www.saveourwaterways.org.uk
