Maidstone River Festival - the show must go on!
Yesterday's YourMaidstone suggested the 2008 Maidstone River Festival is "in the balance" and may be cancelled if funding can't be found to pay for extra policing (6 Feb, 2008).
The festival is our town's biggest Summer event, and attracts tourists from all over the UK (and, if you look at the flags on some of the boats, from over Western Europe too). It is a celebration of our heritage and river, and provides diverse entertainments that cater for every member of the family.
I've been attending the River Festival for almost as long as I have been alive, and it would be a crying shame for Maidstone if the show is cancelled.
We should be looking at ways of expanding and enhancing the Festival by combinging it with the County Town Farmers' Market, inviting high-wire stunt teams to perform again, and getting schools involved in fun competitions. A supplementary Mela festival could also be put on.
Unsympathetic building plans (i.e. that ghastly budget hotel, and the appalling river-front of Fremlin Walk) have already damaged how we interact with the Medway. Losing the River Festival would, I think, be a final alienation of the river-using community.
There is much more potential for our river - let's start tapping this by making this year's river festival the most engaging, fun one yet!
The festival is our town's biggest Summer event, and attracts tourists from all over the UK (and, if you look at the flags on some of the boats, from over Western Europe too). It is a celebration of our heritage and river, and provides diverse entertainments that cater for every member of the family.
I've been attending the River Festival for almost as long as I have been alive, and it would be a crying shame for Maidstone if the show is cancelled.
We should be looking at ways of expanding and enhancing the Festival by combinging it with the County Town Farmers' Market, inviting high-wire stunt teams to perform again, and getting schools involved in fun competitions. A supplementary Mela festival could also be put on.
Unsympathetic building plans (i.e. that ghastly budget hotel, and the appalling river-front of Fremlin Walk) have already damaged how we interact with the Medway. Losing the River Festival would, I think, be a final alienation of the river-using community.
There is much more potential for our river - let's start tapping this by making this year's river festival the most engaging, fun one yet!
Labels: River Festival, River Medway, YourMaidstone
posted by Stephen Paine at
22:56
1 Comments:
It would be a great shame to lose such a fantastic event from our river. It brings people from all over our county and surrounding county's to maidstone which must help the local business and economy.
I guess a lot of the local boaters will still go to town at the end of july, if they do, lets hope the enviroment agency on their own can cope with keeping them all in order. This may put a strain on a small hard working crew.
I hope there will be a change in the way the country works at some point to stop the closing of public events due to lack of money.
john, east farleigh
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