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Save the Belfast festival
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I'll set myself up for a knockdown here and state that I find 95% of what QUB put on as total crap and that the 5% that I do check out would have been put on at the Speakeasy or Mandella Hall anyway and is thrown in to bulk up the acts.
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just an opinion,but does this festival serve a pupose? it dosent appeal to most people i would imagine,well most of the things they put on anyway.
Last edited on Thu 11th Jan 2007, 12:20 pm, 1 times in total. -
ach but sure everybody on fastfude knows that anything anybody in Belfast does in anyway well is crap and deserves to be stopped.
why would anyone want another outlet for the arts in Belfast, like? They are pointless.
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Mostly elitist crap.
It needs a fringe more than the members of Panic at the Disco.
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The Festival last year was mostly badly organised and not very exciting in terms of variety. Just my personal opinion.
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so is the argument here to keep it and make it better or to scrap it and just not have a 'belfast festival'?
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if i painted myself with imulsion and stuck some leaves to my naked self while playing a tin whistle,id prob headline the opening night,the stuff they have on is terrible.
'Darling,me and daddy are off to the belfast festival....be back later,its something about a man painted in imullsion,sounds fabulous darling....we are taking the bmw,bye' -
so? improve or scrap?
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It never even registers on the cultural calendar of more than a very small part of the population here, and there has never been any meaningful effort to expand this remit.
My point is that very few people would even notice it had stopped, never mind miss it.
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rentaghost wrote:
so is the argument here to keep it and make it better or to scrap it and just not have a 'belfast festival'?this festival could be as big as Edinburgh if everyone got behind it. The diversity is what makes it good. I didn't make it to any shows this year(circumstances didn't allow) but I have many times in previous years. There is always something great in the festival and other things that are worth a look, and the prices are never extortionate.
I have sent my email anyway.
Why does everyone in this country think if it something is born here it must be crap? I don't understand why this place is filled with such negativity.
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We could kill two birds with one stone and make it the Belfast Metal and Heavy Rock Festival.
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Nah scrap the festival and let the CQAF, Open Door, Feile and Phobail, Belfast-Nashville the HLAF
and all the other decent festivals which are prospering and delivering top class acts to people fill the gap.The Belfast Festival (just like the Edinburgh Festival - not the FRINGE) is a snobbish anachronism who's time has come. Spend the money elsewhere and you'd get a far better return.
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What a good festival would mean to me:
Beer festival [why only once a year? - makes no sense!]
Music festival [with decent acts - hire them and people will come - not just 'world music' bands - who listens to them anyways??]
Comedy festival [attempt to being it up to similar standards as Edinburgh - why not? - same as above - hire them and people will go]
I guess it's all down to money and the fact that funding should come from goverment as well as QUB itself.
Anyone have other ideas?
In short, if it is going to be kept, 95% needs to go and be replaced with decent acts or it needs to expand so people like me would go and check it out.
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I think we should hold an annual marching festival in July. It could be just like the Mardi Gras.
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Its not that everyone that comes from here thinks that all things belfast are crap,its just that this festival dosent appeal to the wider communty.
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I totally agree with rentaghost, any outlet for arts in NI/Belfast should be promoted and respected by all - even if it isnt that great or doesnt appearl to everyone, it can, and should, be made better.
Last edited on Thu 11th Jan 2007, 12:38 pm, 1 times in total. -
It may carry the grand title of "Belfast Festival" but it fails to engender any palpable sense of a festival in the inhabitants of Belfast - even the CQAF does that.
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someone wrote:
wider communtyThats because the wider community are morons.
Last edited on Thu 11th Jan 2007, 12:40 pm, 1 times in total. -
I don't really agree, I think that other festivals have proven that they can do much better with much less money, so spread the funding around a bit and the Arts would benefit.
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thefatson wrote:
Thats because the wider community are morons.No
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I thought this thread was about a fundraising festival to save *Belfast*...
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From interdimensional anthroheptoid entities seeking to extract our nutrients and life force energy to feed their young?
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I know and love the wider community, they are my friends and family.
I call them morons because they swallow the tripe that they are given, generally like what they are told to and don't get art.
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Don't be a spoon.
Sometimes a overblown cockchin throwing paint at a side of beef is just that.
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they dont get art?
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someone wrote:
Don't be a spoon.
Sometimes a overblown cockchin throwing paint at a side of beef is just that.The overblown cockchin represents wider society, the paint is the tripe, the beef is my dying mind.
I call it "Whitewash of the dead mind"
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and that was on at the last Belfast Festival just after a movement piece by the 70 strong "Ouank Dance Troupe" from Switzerland entitled "misery as a result of a delay in the delivery of this month's Virgin Wine Club case" and before the Exhibition "Brick on a Stick" by Michael Stone.
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The Festival has some merit but not in it's current guise. They need to get away from the idea that you can only make the festival credible by having a selection of random obscure jazz and world music acts. That's not to say these don't have a place, they do, but popular acts (comedy nights, well known bands etc) should be in the majority to bring in the readies and ensure the ongoing survival of the Festival. This money means that various "snabs" and weird beards can go the jazz and world music nights which should also make up the Festival experience.
As a commercial venture it needs to bring in the dough otherwise it will get canned so it should be 2/3 "popular" 1/3 "art
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tinpot anto wrote:
Nah scrap the festival and let the CQAF, Open Door, Feile and Phobail, Belfast-Nashville the HLAF and all the other decent festivals which are prospering and delivering top class acts to people fill the gap.
The Belfast Festival (just like the Edinburgh Festival - not the FRINGE) is a snobbish anachronism who's time has come. Spend the money elsewhere and you'd get a far better return.Just for info - the Holylands Festival would never have happened if it hadn't been for the support of QUB and in particular, Graham at the festival Office.
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I dont quite understand it. I went to three shows out of this years festival and they were each packed to capacity. Was I lucky in just seeing the good ones and were the rest empty or wha? Because it was standing room only...?
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And that's exactly what they *should* be spending the money on, and getting a much better cultural return for it. Rather than paying 1st class tickets for a load of dancers to do some obscure Romanian ballet that no-one is really interested in.
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My biggest gripe with the last Festival was the poor organisation, not only of buying tickets from the website but of the comperes at some of the shows in compiling information about the acts they had on; the most horrendous being the girl in the Spiegeltent who introduced Will Hodgson as "Will Hodgkinson" after berating a half-empty tent for not sitting closer to the front. It leaves a sour taste.
Each year I look forward to the launch of the CQAF programme but I can't say the same for the Belfast Festival which seems to be in terminal decline, sadly.
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Is there not something to be said for having obscure foreign muck at the festival though? Surely the point is to inject a bit of novelty & culture into the place by presenting content that has no parallel here?
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fastfude wrote:
Is there not something to be said for having obscure foreign muck at the festival though? Surely the point is to inject a bit of novelty & culture into the place by presenting content that has no parallel here?i think that's precisely how they see it.
If they go populist what does that mean? Westlife and Snow Patrol at the Odyssey?
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Aye but it appeared they were spending huge amounts to bring grandeoise productions with very limited appeal in the name of art.
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grandeoise productions with very limited appeal; name of art, yesterday
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It's creepy the way his hair follows you around the room...
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In a discussion I heard about this soon after the festival it came out that a disproportionate amount of the budget had been spent to bring large dance companies over from Europe and the US and put them up in the Hilton etc. These events were further subsidised to reduce the ticket prices. In reality the very small group of people who would pay to experience these shows are not of the sort to require subsidised tickets.
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"In reality the very small group of people who would pay to experience these shows are not of the sort to require subsidised tickets."
Tish and nonsense: if public money is going to be thrown at festivals, why shouldn't every strata of society benefit? If it is indeed the case that only 'snabs' (or mostly snabs) enjoy contemporary dance - which is patronising to your beloved working class in itself, surely?
Are they really only up for Bagatelle gigs and Doublejoint Productions?
Are you advocating means-testing funding based on what you assume to be the income of those interested in 'dance' or other arts?Personally, I'd pull the plug on all public funding for festivals...but as things stand Belfast Festival seems no less deserving than any of the rest.
Last edited on Thu 11th Jan 2007, 2:22 pm, 1 times in total. -
Och Anto, did you get thrown out of the ballet troupe when you were wee?
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Yes but clearly T-ent is still there
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fastfude wrote:
It's creepy the way his hair follows you around the room... -
tinpot anto wrote:
CQAF, Open Door, Feile and Phobail, Belfast-Nashville the HLAFAll those festivals are far superior to the Queen's one, but simply because they're smaller. Queen's has the problem that they are the 'big' festival in belfast and they must maintain it by putting on a fair share of all the arts. Unofortunately they seem to be out of touch with what people think is 'good'. Each festival, they seem to be licking up some big name tosspot, just for the sake of their famously badly attended opening and closing nights.
The Open House festival is possibly the best music festival i've ever been to.
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I think a more focussed event might be better. It seems that when these things go on for an age, people don't respond well. I think Belfest suffered a bit from that phenomenon this year too.
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A lot of people here seem to have some very tightly-held but ill-informed opinions about the line-up of the Belfast Festival. It showcases more than just foreign dance troupes, you know.
Complaints that the programme holds no mainstream appeal are well wide of the mark. For instance, last year's comedy line-up included Mitchell and Webb and Harry Hill (hardly obscure stuff there). There were talks and readings by major literary figures like Paul Muldoon and Jeanette Winterson. It brought 'The History Boys' to town for a week's run - surely the most popular play in the world in the last 5 years or so. The QFT ran a series of Hitchcock films. On top of this, it showcased an absoloute ton of more obscure acts and performances - dance troupes, yes, but also small theatre groups, world music, rap, jazz, visual art, street theatre, children's events, etc., etc., etc.
I reckon that the problem most people here have with the Festival is that the line-up didn't include many or any of their favourite bands. For many years the Belfast Festival was one of the only times of the year when people here could see major international acts, but this is no longer the case. Over the years the festival has brought over acts like Jimi Hendrix, Nick Cave, Grandmaster Flash, etc. Now that acts of this calibre play in Northern Ireland regularly, the Festival can, and should, concentrate its resources on bringing over other artistic acts that people from N.I. would not normally get the chance to experiance.
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The Belfast Festival had Jimi Hendrix at it one year?
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Oui. I also once saw a photo of him presenting an award to 'Miss Harp Larger 1968' or somesuch.
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That is fúcking class
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I support The The Belfast Festival 100%
as long as theres no mime.
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I wouldn't miss the Belfast Festival if it went away, although I'd be sorry to see it go in the same way that I'm sorry to see a restaurant closed when I often talked about eating there but never bothered my backside, and then my chance was gone.
However, I really really enjoyed the Sunday afternoon free entertainment in Custom House Square last summer. More of that sort of thing would be fantastic.
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I've never even heard of it...what is it?
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The point I was making was that the budget was spread disproportionately into large scale dance and performance troupes for one or two shows with limited audience appeal, and to be fair little artistic merit, when the same money could have been spread around any number of individual artists, acts and theatre which would have been much more useful to the profile of the festival.
I heard a spokesperson for the festival virtually admit as much on Radio Ulster in November.
If you get Tom Waits over next year, I will completely change my mind
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How would my dance troop "Oestrogen and wine" go about submitting ourselves for consideration for next year?
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someone wrote:
just an opinion,but does this festival serve a pupose? it dosent appeal to most people i would imagine,well most of the things they put on anyway.The thing with Belfast,and most of the U.K and Ireland, is that people don't go to something unless they are (a) forced to or (b) have a good knowledge of the act they are going to see. Art festivals ain't about having Bon Joni headline and morons throw plastic glass of beer everywhere (I know that sounds like fun but let's move on for a moment). Their about (a) promoting Belfast and Northern Ireland as a top place to perform, (b) attempting to offer something unusual and fasinating that you won't get during your weekly visit to Laverys or the Empire , (c) show casing local talent (if there happens to be any) and (d) generating interest in the arts. If a festival is crap (like Buncrana music festival) then it needs to be revamped, not trashed. God knows there's little here as it is, and just because people mighten 'dig it' they should still support something that is bringing people and money to this crappy, god forsaken city. Plus they may even learn something in the process. So enough of this negative, "my girlfriends making me go", or " that's just for poofs and west Belfast students". Get of your fat arse, punch your girlfriend/boyfriend in the face and say "go Belfast, go Belfast festival".
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nonlogic liam wrote:
someone wrote:
just an opinion,but does this festival serve a pupose? it dosent appeal to most people i would imagine,well most of the things they put on anyway.
The thing with Belfast,and most of the U.K and Ireland, is that people don't go to something unless they are (a) forced to or (b) have a good knowledge of the act they are going to see. Art festivals ain't about having Bon Joni headline and morons throw plastic glass of beer everywhere (I know that sounds like fun but let's move on for a moment). Their about (a) promoting Belfast and Northern Ireland as a top place to perform, (b) attempting to offer something unusual and fasinating that you won't get during your weekly visit to Laverys or the Empire , (c) show casing local talent (if there happens to be any) and (d) generating interest in the arts. If a festival is crap (like Buncrana music festival) then it needs to be revamped, not trashed. God knows there's little here as it is, and just because people mighten 'dig it' they should still support something that is bringing people and money to this crappy, god forsaken city. Plus they may even learn something in the process. So enough of this negative, "my girlfriends making me go", or " that's just for poofs and west Belfast students". Get of your fat arse, punch your girlfriend/boyfriend in the face and say "go Belfast, go Belfast festival".
well said nonlogic liam, -
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Last edited on Sat 9th Jan 2010, 10:57 pm, 1 times in total. -
I for one wouldn't miss a moments sleep if the festival were scrapped… I'd rather support something that I've been getting some enjoyment out of like CQAF and Open Door. Having said that if their programme were to become as as poor as the Queens festival I'd vote with my feet on that front as well.
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People keep mentioning how poor the programme is, but in what way? What do feel the programme is lacking?
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nonlogic liam wrote:
If a festival is crap (like Buncrana music festival) then it needs to be revamped, not trashed.
Well said, SAVE THE BUNCRANA MUSIC FESTIVAL -
Having worked for the festival for the last 3 years i had to photograph loads of events in just about every category of the featival programme. Some of the most memorable events were people/things i'd never even heard of - and probably would never have thought about going to see. Sometimes it's maybe worth looking through the programme and finding something different and take a chance on it.
As others have said, there's no point in the festival just booking the same bands as the rest of the gig promoters in Belfast who book all year round. -
Questions Have Been Asked:
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2007-01-16a.115849.h&m=1402#g115849.q0
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my big issue with the festival this year was pricing (which i didn't notice mentioned up to this point, but i did skim, so apologies if this has already been said!). i went to three events this year, and certainly two of them i felt were priced over the odds. one was tunng in the spiegeltent, which was a phenomenal show and i really felt like i'd seen something special by being there, but £10 seemed a bit much. if it had been a fortune cookie gig, frexample, or in the cqaf, it'd only have been priced at between £5 - £7. the prices seem to have gotten noticeably higher each year, and particularly in comparison with cqaf.
sure, there's a balance to be struck between generating revenue and covering costs in ticket price, and keeping a festival affordable, but certainly this year i didn't feel like they managed it.
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As I pointed out in there somewhere the tickets for the big dance troupe thing (cast of thousands, daaahling...) were around the £17 mark, so were obviously subsidised heavily, other events seemed to be marked-up to compensate.
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i just knew i'd have missed someone making that sort of point!
yes, i think punters expect that in a festival of the size of the belfast festival, there is going to be a degree of subsidy going on with ticket prices - there just has to be a balance struck that you don't start feeling that the subsidy has gone so far that you're paying over the odds for other events. and i think they didn't hit that balance this year at all.
tunng were utterly majestic, tho.
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Meerium wrote:
... one was tunng in the spiegeltent, which was a phenomenal show and i really felt like i'd seen something special by being there, but £10 seemed a bit much. if it had been a fortune cookie gig, frexample, or in the cqaf, it'd only have been priced at between £5 - £7 ...
Tunng played in Norwich in October as part of the same tour - it also cost £10 so it may perhaps be more to do with Tunng than festival. Just a thought. -
To those who dismiss the Belfast Festival as being 'crap', 'elitist' etc:
this is a misguided opinion based on ignorance and a fundamental misunderstanding of the arts and the purpose it serves. Since living here for the past two years, it is my belief that Belfast is a wonderful city that can flourish as as result of its artistic output/input. Are you seriously suggesting that Belfast would be better off without such a vast musical hot-bed of activity? Come on leek... -
someone wrote:
To those who dismiss the Belfast Festival as being 'crap', 'elitist' etc:
this is a misguided opinion based on ignorance and a fundamental misunderstanding of the arts and the purpose it serves.Oh you didn't.
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tinpot anto wrote:
GIVE ME TWO KRONOS ON THE NEWCOMER! -
someone wrote:
Thank you for your e-mail to Maria Eagle, MP, Minister for Culture, Arts and Leisure regarding the future of Belfast Festival at Queen’s. The Minister has asked me to respond on her behalf.
The Minister recognises the important role that the Festival plays in the cultural life of Northern Ireland.
I can confirm that the Minister met with representatives of Queen’s University Belfast on 23 January 2007, to discuss the sustainability of the Festival. As a result of this meeting, further discussions are on-going.
nice to get a reply about these things, although I'm not sure if this was because i sent it by werk email (oops!)
why was this moved to industry and commerce? -
from the BBC:
someone wrote:
City festival gets cash lifeline
The festival is staged by Queen's University
The Belfast Festival at Queen's has been thrown a funding lifeline from the government.
The university had threatened to cancel the international event if it did not get an extra £300,000 of public money.
The Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure has now agreed to give the festival half that amount as a one-off payment.
Queen's revealed last November that it was thinking of stopping funding for the festival.
A month-long media campaign to save the festival prompted 4,700 responses to the culture minister, Maria Eagle.
Queen's had complained that it was having to cover an annual deficit, which is expected to top £200,000.
The deficit is in spite of growing ticket sales which doubled last year and is due to falling contribution from public bodies and commercial sponsors.
Queen's University said it was still short of the money it needs to keep the festival going, but it has hopes of other sources of funding.
Ms Eagle said the festival made "a significant contribution to the artistic, cultural and economic life of Northern Ireland, and Belfast in particular".
"I am pleased to announce a one-off grant of £150,000 towards the costs of maintaining the 2007 festival," she said.
"During this year I expect to see the festival make good progress towards a business model that more proactively seeks to secure private sector sponsors and maximises income from ticket sales for all events across the programme."
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to those who doubt: The Queens festivals is full of nonsensical balls that appeals only to people with wrecked childhoods and bmw's in the front lawn,i am a dirty dirty man from the glens of the dirtlodge and i only subscribe to the music of father gilly preg,the landscape of gransha shops is in front of me and behind me but yet no where near me,i now say.The joe Vals are comin back,but i didnt tell ye right?
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i know that class dosent matter when it comes to tastes and choice but fvck me .i cant see my uncle peggy comin down to watch 20 russian ballet dancers doin the hokey cokey to jarvis cocker for 200 quid a night while decent bands from belfasT cany even get a sniff.KNOW WHAT I MEAN GEORGE?????????????????????????
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someone wrote:
this is a misguided opinion based on ignorance and a fundamental misunderstanding of the arts and the purpose it servesHilarious.
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Give that money to the Rape Crisis Centre now, you fukcing stupid monkeys.
rentaghost
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