Mathew Street Festival cancelled
Today's announcement that the Mathew Street Festival has been cancelled on safety grounds is an unmitigated disaster for Liverpool's credibility.
You can't take chances with public safety, and it would have been madness to fly in the face of the consultants' advice and go ahead with the event at this point. What is unforgivable in my view is that things were allowed to reach the point where this decision had to be taken.
The Mathew Street Festival is a hugely successful element of the city's annual calendar, and should have been bigger and better than ever this year as the lead up to Liverpool's 800th birthday on Tuesday, August 28 - the day after the end of the festival itself.
How could those planning this event not have allowed for the work going on at the Pier Head? We have known since 2003 that next year was to be European Capital of Culture year, and that 2007, as our birthday year, would take on an enhanced significance as a "dress rehearsal" for the main event.
It was vital, we stressed back then, and everyone agreed, that the city must not be a building site in 2008. Now it appears that all the development work which it is now clear will still be going on next year is to blame for a major public event not taking place. What confidence does that give to anyone making their plans to come to Liverpool for major public events in 2008?
The regeneration of the city is hugely welcome, of course, but the lack of co-ordination between those sanctioning major building projects and those involved in running public events has been brutally exposed by this fiasco.
Those responsible should be called to account. Liverpool is still capable of delivering a wonderful Capital of Culture year, but this shambles is in danger of turning us into a laughing stock before it has even started.
I would love to hear your opinions on the subject.
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9 Comments
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Mark Thomas
There should be resignations immediately. First to go should be Jason Harborow and Colin Hilton as the officials jointly responsible and Warren Bradley and Mike Storey as the two politicians with overall responsibility. They all conspired to allow the situation to reach this crisis point. They should have forecast this months ago and had a contingency plan in place. They are utter incompetents - the words booze up and brewery spring instantly to mind. How much are Harborow and Hilton being paid for cocking things up like this? It's set back the city's credibility for years - we are a music hall joke thanks to these cowboys.
So what if the Pier Head is out of commission, what about St George's Plateau or William Brown Street?
The building work at the Pier Head has been going on/planned for years - it's nonsense to suggest alternative plans couldn't be made.
A spectacular own goal, particularly after the Summer Pops fiasco and the during the city's 'invisible' 800th birthday celebrations.
Sorry Mark, forgot to mention. This fiasco and Lee Forde's (Events Director) recent resignation wouldn't be linked would they?
Suppose we'll never know!
To answer your question as to how much the bungling bureaucrats are being paid for their 'CoC ups', Jason Harbrow is on £150k and Colin Hilton is on £200k, plus 10% bonuses, plus expenses.
Gordon Brown gets £186k to run the country, these blokes take twice that between them and can't run a booze up in a street full of boozers....
Of course, we are the real fools for letting them get away with it.
Im gutted,the last 5 years i have brought people by coach load to the festival,luckily only 4 of us this year,i love Liverpools atmosphere,and how proud they are of their city and roots,a nice change than down South, where i live. but im still coming, only regret, wont see people dancing in the streets,and groups like "Rocks off"
maybe the hotels will now look into their charges for 2008, we have always stayed at the marriott, but this year the increase per room per night was £5o, and did not include breakfast, what a rip off. so we found another hotel, at a better prioe, but same quality,it didnt put me off, but if there had been more of us,£185 per night i feel is wrong and not a good advert for liverpool.
Well if Liverpool can't get its act together, I'm sure Wirral would happily host the band stages - with its great track record of outdoor events and festivals (remember the Hot Air Balloons, Guitar Fest, Jazz Festival, Christmas Markets, and more) it'd go down a treat and all Liverpool's guests would get to see the famous skyline from Birkenhead! Come on Wirral Council, let's get a plan in place!!
Sorry this could happen. The problems must have been known a long time ago. We are coming from Sweden and always had a good time.
From Sweden must say sorry about this. Why cancel in this late hour? This must have been known a long time ago.
We have been coming to the Festival for many years and have noticed the change since the Culture Dept took over. I also bring a group of friends from Manchester to the same Hotel. I can remember dancing in the streets when it was going dark, the last stage being 8.30 or 9.00pm. Then it was changed to 6.00pm as the Culture brigade got hold of things. We all used to comment on how quick the streets were cleaned up straight after the stages had been taken down. Well before midnight the streets were clean and you would not have known anything had gone on. This was a credit to the City and the organisation from Cavern Tours, Dave Jones and Bill Heckle. The street stages used to always be "in the streets" apart from the one in Chavasse Park ( imagine building on Chavasse Park!! it was a brilliant setting for family to enjoy entertainment, money no doubt took preference). The Pier Head was never used until the Culture Dept got their hands on in it. Why couldn’t we have reverted to the Streets and further back away from most of the disruption? There has been plenty of time to organize this as the planning of the building work would have been mapped out well in advance??
We had already been on the web and seen who were due to be on which stage and it was looking very good, more back to the streets we remember, and having Stipe (REM) back was really something we were all looking forward to. We remember them about 3-4 years ago " Yeah yeah yeah yeah" Man on the Moon. What a huge disappointment it was to hear the whole event has been cancelled. We are all waiting anxiously for some reprieve to at least some of the stages. Please will someone see that this was a HUGE event and centre piece to the City of Liverpool not as it is looking just something to take second place to the City of Culture 08 events.