I’m still
buzzing from two fantastic weekends for the centre of Rotherham. We talk of “Regeneration” and “positive
images” of Rotherham and here were two events providing fine examples involving
the artists of Rotherham engaging with shoppers, arts enthusiasts, music enthusiasts and many
people who would not normally give a second thought to the arts.
Better
still, both events brought people into the Town Centre which has to be good for
the economy of the Town.
The Poppedart Festival, 28th
June gave the Town a truly chilled out atmosphere. Opened by Marilyn Munroe (was it Sylwia in
disguise?) it boasted Magic Story Trails courtesy of the Grimm & Co.,
Buskers from across South Yorkshire, Stone Balancing (one for the fishermen
amongst you), those Hobby Dragons being stuffed under the leadership of the
Minx, Philip Padfield pulling big crowds while producing another piece of fine
art from his spray cans, Jill’s super sketch workshop and Jemma’s super installation
of yarn bombing at the Imperial Building which also hosted writer in residence
Ray Hearne.
Grimm &
Co also installed artistic Mannequins created in two workshops into various shops
across Rotherham, particularly Rotherham High Street.
And not
forgetting the sensational new vinyl’s installed at The Old Market Gallery
created by local artist Michael Latimer who gave a marvellous workshop during
the morning. The vinyl’s add a
completely new perspective to the OMG, and really add the seal to the massive
improvements the Gallery has made throughout 2014.
A magic Day
of colour made even more potent by the colour the huge team of orange clad volunteers
brought to the Centre.
The Masher
estimate is that some two thousand towns folk were directly engaged at some
level by the activities, either as short-term observers or participants in all
the various activities.
Congratulations
to all those involved for all their hard work and most of all to Rotherham for
really joining in.
Pictures
from the Day can be found in fast moving slideshow format HERE
Then on 5th / 6th
July Slamfest. Keen followers of
events will appreciate that 2014 was a year made particularly stressful by the
withdrawal of a Sponsor and our failure to find replacements. This resulted in a lot of very late chopping
and changing of line ups, and eventually meant that we had to cancel the
appearance of The Beat and Eddie and The Hotrods. It also meant that we could not get the
publicity out until very late in the day.
Indeed, our budget for publicity was wiped out by the loss of the
Sponsor.
The loss of
the sponsor also meant that the planned Party in Clifton Park on the Sunday had
to be cancelled. There was a lot of
speculation about our pulling from the Park, much of it wrong. Of the Park issue I would add only
this. We were aware some charges would
be made, however, our problem was with the charges they were to make on the
stalls and concessions we attracted to pay for the infrastructure required in
the Park for safety and comfort of the attendees. It made the whole event uneconomic. Perhaps RMBC Parks Management should adopt
the policy of the positive policy of the Town Centre in seeking to attract
people into the heart of Rotherham, especially those events that are NOT FOR
PROFIT!
By default
then the Slamfest3 format was as we first envisaged the event to be, a
celebration of the creativity of Rotherham and South Yorkshire’s
musicians.
The Festival
also proved to be our most successful so far, with an estimated 6,000 people
engaged in the event throughout the two days………… not all at the same time, but in total
across the venues, and audience movement.
The showcase Town Centre stage was
again a major success with every Band and performer producing their very best
sets. From The Torn to The Orphans the
Centre rocked, aided by the fantastic DJing of Fatpiggy between sets.
The ever
popular Punk Stage was this year focussed on The Trades, the 150 or so hard
core punks supplemented by an absolutely staggering audience for Diamond
Velocity, The Lurkers and 999 – no place to stand – no place to sit – and bar
queues not seen for many years in the venue.
The Bridge staged the Indie Stage! This stage is fast becoming the nightmare
of the Festival. The venue was packed
when the music was in action, but oh dear, four bands failed to show, three
without notice. The fact is that these three bands will not be
invited again because, 1). It is not
fair on the Landlord, who had been expecting a bumper day and had it turned
into a very hit and miss sort of day.
2). It’s not fair on the list of
bands we had to turn away and would have loved the opportunity to play as part
of the Festival. 3). It adds pressure to the organising team that is not needed on the day of the
event. 4). It’s not fair on the fans of the Bands who
turned up but then went off to find other music. Tony the Landlord was not pleased, and suggested
that we were choosing to support only our favourite venues, which was not true –
he even went as far as to suggest that the Stage Manager we put in at the
Bridge last year had organised the Bands; NOT TRUE. Third year running that we have had
problems with this Indie Stage, and it will now be in the melting pot to be cut
from next year’s Festival – if there is one.
The Acoustic Stage Our Acoustic
Stage Manager had a nightmare mid-week when the planned venue Bluecoats, suddenly said that they
could not do it! She was lucky to find The County happy to host the Stage
. Noisy?
Yes, but my how the audience appreciated the live music – I popped in
and caught the lovely Penny Cooke, back on the music scene after a three year
break, the audience were standing on their seats and cheering. I also caught the end of Paul Pearson’s set,
and queue to talk to him after the music was brilliant and well deserved. Thank you to Management of The County for
stepping in and helping at short-notice.
The second Acoustic Stage at The Imperial
Building was a fantastic success as well.
Tim & co. put on an amazing
show with his team from Hangman’s Corner.
Top of the
pops though has to go to The Cutlers.
It’s fair to say that without their investment and commitment to
Slamfest, Slamfest3 would not have happened.
10,000 beer mat, advertising for Chantry Brewery in the Brochure,
complete hosting and Sponsorship of the Sunday event, and the building of an
absolutely amazing outside stage that will be of huge value to the arts in
Rotherham in general, not just to Rock Bands.
Worth noting that the art work created by Phil Padfield is worth
checking out as a feature on it’s own. On the Saturday they hosted the “Rock Stage”,while
on the Sunday they hosted a complete mix of music and poetry, culminating in an
appearance by Ed (Tenpole) Tudor.
Chantry
Brewery who along with Mexborough Exhausts showed fantastic faith in Slamfest to
deliver, and were the only local businesses to make such an investment of money
and faith.
Our other
main sponsors, Bristol Street Motors Commercial, were Chesterfield based, and
Key Solutions are Doncaster based. Our
thanks go to them for their invaluable support.
Our thanks to the amazing RMBC Town Centre
Team, who again put in a 15 hour stint and provided invaluable advice and
positive help, some of it well beyond the call of duty. Without them the Festival would be
impossible to put on.
Wouldn’t it
be nice if more businesses in Rotherham showed the same faith in the event and
could get their heads around the concept of NOT FOR PROFIT. None of the RAE Leads are paid, none of the
volunteers are paid, in fact many use their own money to make the event one
that Rotherham can be proud of.
And
finally. Wow – the fantastic musical talent we have in Rotherham. This is what Slamfest is all about – the way
some people often carry on one would think that it is in some way an ego trip
for Mick, Dickie and Dan. We only mount
the event because we believe that once a year all the Bands that take part get
an opportunity to play to new audiences, to showcase their creativity. Without the close on 100 Bands and 400
musicians Slamfest could not happen – it’s the guys on the stage that create
the atmosphere that draw the crowds. We
will be thinking about how Bands can best exploit the commercial opportunities
that Slamfest offers for 2015.
Pictures
from the weekend can be found on the Slamfest Facebook page HERE
or the RAE site HERE in fast
moving slideshow mode
If Bands
would like to contribute to the discussion of what more they would like to see
then please Email us at info@rotherhamartevents.com
What form
Slamfest4 might take will be the subject of considerable debate over the next
few months within RAE. What is certain
is that we cannot mount the event without the help of Rotherham based Business,
or proper funding. We’ll be trying to
tie the Festival into other activities to make it more attractive for Funding.
And if we
throw this out into the wider Arts Funding debate especially the importance of
Art in the regeneration of the Centre of Rotherham on Saturdays then perhaps
the powers that be should think about the real drawing power of professional
artists compared to the printing of big sized pictures which do nothing for the
arts economy of Rotherham and very questionable service to the regeneration
that is claimed to be behind something like Gallery Town.
As to
organisational matters. We have
separated our Art Services RAS away from the live music promotion RAE. This allows The Boards to Focus on their
various activities.
My attention
now turns towards the development of the Arts Hub, the Diversity Festival and a
little secondary project that might add to the arts facilities within
Rotherham.
More detail
on all this as it all develops.
Next Live at
Trades Event - 2nd
August Fund raising Disco. 9th August Foreigners Journey.
Tickets for
all Live at The Trades Events HERE
