Hi Rosemary, I frequently eat at the Blue Marlin, Ganesh and other eateries in Obs. I was simply referring to the fact that their were 9 borewors stands around the Village Green. Early during the organization of the festival it was agreed that efforts would be made to offer an eclectic and interesting selection of foods. Further there were many sunglasses on sale. I am glad you found some wire art. And that you enjoyed the festival. I enjoyed some of the music and feel the bands and individual musicians made a huge effort. I also think the pubs made a great effort too. I, however, want to see something much better for Obs. I was willing to work on this from the start. I am still up for it. I will simply not work with the likes of Chakan Hislop and therefore had to step down from any involvement. By the time it was realized by the organizers that he had failed, I was up to my ears in business committments. I am not retired and could not step up. You may admire as much as you like from afar. I got close up and personal. I know we can do much better than this. ----- Original Message ----- From: Rosemary Robins To: [email protected] Sent: Tuesday, December 07, 2010 3:34 PM Subject: Re: [obsnw] Shopping at Spar etc during the Obs fest
I appreciate that each person has their own perception of the weekend - I personally enjoyed it and was most relieved not to find "peak cap and sunglasses" stalls. I bought the most exquisite baobab wire tree - so fantastic was it that when I was sitting in Scrumpy's with it, another wire man came to admire it. Really, to find it a drama to attach the paper band with a small piece of cellotape the next day.......Sjoe! Did you try what Blue Marlin had on offer? - no boerewors rolls there............ I personally appreciate and admire what was done in the very short time period. On Tue, Dec 7, 2010 at 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 -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Observatory Neighbourhood watch" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/obsnw?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Observatory Neighbourhood watch" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/obsnw?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Observatory Neighbourhood watch" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/obsnw?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Observatory Neighbourhood watch" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/obsnw?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Observatory Neighbourhood watch" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/obsnw?hl=en.
