Dear Anton, I was involved in the festival at the beginning. I am also the
Chairperson of the OCA Arts Committee. I tried to work with Chakan Hislop
and found him dishonest and disingenuous from the start. I voiced these
misgivings and removed myself from the situation as my opinions were not
valued. It was then decided by all of us, that I and my commitee would have
nothing to do with the visual art component of the festival. The last thing
I heard was that Chakan had organized with the National Gallery to bring
Pierneef to Gugulective - a show worth over 100 million rands, to Obz!
Please.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Twigg, Anton" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, December 07, 2010 9:39 PM
Subject: RE: [obsnw] Re: Shopping at Spar etc during the Obs fest
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change
the world.
Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
- Margaret Mead
I don't think that the people involved in the organization of the festival
went out of their way to inconvenience the citizens of Observatory, or in
fact enrich themselves. From what I understand they managed to salvage a
situation that would have scared off the most adventurous event organizer.
I certainly cannot point a finger at the running of the event as I did not
get involved. If you feel you made every contribution to a successful event
that you can then by all means feel free to criticize.
I for one don't want to live in Wisteria Lane, and think Obz needs things
like the festival to make it the interesting, vibrant, cosmopolitan suburb
that it is.
Let's give credit where credit is due, and use the appropriate forums to
build a better community.
Anton Twigg
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of
Biddy Greene
Sent: 07 December 2010 06:39 PM
To: The Observatory Neighbourhood watch
Subject: [obsnw] Re: Shopping at Spar etc during the Obs fest
"The festival got permission from the Business owners to close off the
area."
Is it legal for "the business owners" to stop me walking up the street
unless I pay? Closing off vehicular traffic (who can drive round
another way) is quite different from making people have to pay - or go
far further afield - if they want e.g. a litre of milk. My husband did
in fact manage to talk his way in without paying, but that's not the
point.
There was at least some other stuff to eat, btw - John got some really
nice kebabs from Ganesh.
This was a fiasco; but surely we can get it right next time...?
On Dec 7, 2:28 pm, "Julia Teale" <[email protected]> wrote:
I was given to understand that it was obligatory for Obs residents to pay
R30 per person to have weekend access to the area whether they were
interested in the festival or not. It disgusted me but I coughed up R90
anyway (there are three of us in the household) as I realized it was too
late to complain about this decision and request something more realistic.
I was then issued with pathethic paper armbands with halloween logos that
we had to cut off when we needed to shower and then laboriously reattach
with sticky tape each time we wanted to enter our own shopping district. I
disagree with the notion that the festival was a success. It was cobbled
together last minute and a bunch of generously minded musicians agreed to
perform. The stalls were horribly boring, selling rubbishy tourist tat and
the only food to be had was borewors. And we call this a Festival of
Arts!!!!! My heart went out to those clubs and pubs who had paid musicians
to play and had to charge an entry fee to cover costs. The attendance at
these places was poor because people resented having to pay yet another
entrance fee. What a fiasco. I suggest that next year you call it what it
is "The Obz Beer Fest" or the "Obz (now carefully monitored) Bender", or,
more playfully, "The Obz Jol" but please, not the Observatory Festival of
Arts. If you wish to understand why, please attend Grahamstown Arts
Festival, or Outshoorn Festival.
Further, as a concerned and interested resident, I would like to see,
publically posted, clear accounting for the event. What money came in,
what was paid out and to whom, and who benefited financially from the
event. I think as a resident I have a right to this knowledge as it will
affect my support of any kind of this event in the future.
Julia Teale ----- Original Message -----
From: Ancois Bester
To: [email protected]
Sent: Monday, December 06, 2010 4:56 PM
Subject: Re: [obsnw] Shopping at Spar etc during the Obs fest
Hi Jo,
The festival got permission from the Business owners to close off the
area. Gate staff did however use their discretion where residents were
concerned and the policy was to let folks pass to be able to do their
shopping at Spar or visit the video store.
Best,
Ancois
On Mon, Dec 6, 2010 at 3:03 PM, Jo-Anne Stolk <[email protected]>
wrote:
Hi all
On Saturday my husband and I thought we'd pop into Spar but were
foiled when we saw that the whole precinct was gated off (the gate to
the parking lot was locked as well). I didn't see anything about
access to shops for residents and we sure weren't going to pay the
entrance fee just to buy a bottle of cooldrink at Spar. Were the shop
owners aware that non festival-goers wouldn't be able to shop there?
Was any provision made for residents needing to access these shops?
Jo
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