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An occasional series which allows N16 readers to express a personal point of
view.
From your last cover and inside spread it is not at all clear as to what exactly the 'N16
Fringe' was fringing! The irony is that your absence of coverage of the Stoke Newington
Festival is now matched by an absence of the Festival itself as news slowly filters out
that those who ran the 2002 event have decided that the Show should not go on. So what's
happened to our Festival and what should the punter on the Stokey 73 omnibus do about it?
Risking the charge of xenophobia towards Australians and residents of West London, I have
to wonder at the wisdom of appointing as lead organiser someone with no previous in either
the Stoke Newington Midsummer Festival or north London. After all you would need to be
exceptionally disconnected from the neighbourhood to decide to axe in its entirety the
very centrepiece of the Festival, the day-long Street Festival itself.
But that is exactly what the new paid leader and the volunteer Trustees
decided to doon the grounds of the £160k or so budget not being enough to fund the 2002
Street Festival without cuts to the rest of the programme. I am sure I would not have been
alone in pointing out to them that the 'horse' is the Street Festival, the 'cart' the rest
of the programme, and not the other way round. But it appears that consultation was
another casualty of the new regime. In fact, the organisers kept the news of their
decision so low key that I suspect many of your readers are still wondering whether they
got stoned and missed the Street Festival or think they must have been on holiday at the
time!
Having shredded their own best advert for sponsorship and funding, the organisers then
find that a Festival-less Festival wins no brownie points with cash-strapped Hackney and
are told that the Council element of core funding is to cease. How do our champions of a
community festival respond? Well, they wimpishly throw in the towel.
Not so, says the Chair of the Festival in a belated attempt to explain their decision to
close down 'Councillors and high profile figures have been strenuously but unsuccessfully
lobbied'. Well, perhaps I have been the unknowing victim of alien abduction these last
couple of months but I don't recall anyone inviting me to have a pop at Hackney Council
over Festival funding, I have seen no petition, no swamp the Council with emails or faxes
campaign, no 'get the bastards' posters on Church Street, no 'Save our Festival' Gazette
headlines, no mass demo for God's sake this is supposed to be a bunch of people that
specialise in events, stunts, promotion and art installations. Where was the man hanging
from the Town Hall in protest, the occupation of the Leader's office by human statues, or
the threat of an ear-blasting improvisation stage in front of Max Caller's office if he
doesn't authorise the readies?
Sadly, what seems to have happened is that the Festival leadership has lost touch with the
diverse Stoke Newington publics from parents, performers, punters, and providers. Without
effective local relationships, the grandly titled Festival 'Director' is just that, a
grand title, and the Trustees will have no more 'trust' in the support of the community
than the community will have trust in them.
So what is to be done? If the Festival has had its day, a thanks for the memory but no
thanks, then let's leave it on the rocks to which is has been recently and resolutely
heading. But beyond the cabal of the Director and her Trustees no one would seem to have
been invited to set or participate in a new course. I and a number of others are saying
let's hear from people in Stoke Newington. Is there still a demand for a Festival, what do
people want from it, and most critically from the organisational standpoint who out
there is willing and able to put in the time and commitment that it needs? The vehicle of
the Registered Charity and the Trading Company Limited by Guarantee are still there and
those who steered the Festival on to the rocks cannot scupper it without a public meeting.
We are enabling a debate, raising awareness, and providing the opportunity for you to have
your say. For a Festival to be reborn there needs to be a mandate and there need to be
people to put the show back on the road. What the N16 fringe did with inspiring and
co-ordinating several days of pub gigs was great, but it's not a Festival, or at least not
what I think of as a Festival. It doesn't have to be the same format as before, it will be
whatever those driving, inspiring, and paying for it, make of it. But it does need a new
generation of activists and volunteers and it must be an expression of the spirit of Stoke
Newington. So N16 reader over to you.
Al Hanagan was Street Festival Chief Steward from 1994 to 1999 inclusive.
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