Bray Air Display and Summerfest under threat

zoobizoo

Bray Town Council (or MDoBC) have voted to reduce the number of days the funfair can run during Summerfest from 24 to 15.

According to the Wicklow Voice the Air Display and Summerfest is under threat.

Bray Summerfest statement in full (http://www.braysummerfest.com/bray-summerfest-future-uncertain/):

"The Bray Summerfest committee is very disappointed to hear that it was agreed at a Municipal District of Bray Council meeting on Monday evening, March 23rd to reduce the Summerfest Fun Fair from 24 days to 15 days from 2016 onwards.

The Bray Summerfest is a not for profit voluntary organisation which has run annually for the past 33 years and now caters for over 200,000 local, national and international attendees over the month of July and gives an injection of €8 million to the local economy.

Some of our key achievements in 2014 include:

• Organised over 60 Free events
• Record numbers attending Air Show weekend (88,000)
• We saw a four-fold increase in hotel bookings on ebookers.ie
• Over 106,000 visitors to www.braysummerfest.com over a 12 week period
• Our Social media engagement doubled compared to 2013
• Communicating weekly to local & national media outlets with media value of over €500,000

The festivals overall viability

The passing of this vote will really have an impact to the festivals overall viability into the future. We heavily rely on the financial support from the Fun Fair operators and not to mention it being an additional attraction for the people of Bray and visitors to the town to enjoy.

No engagement from the Councillors

We totally agree that the Council members have the right to govern the local government affairs and we respect the decision that has been made but at no stage did any Council members engage with us on this matter. As organisers, we would have appreciated the opportunity to present how the Festival operates to many of new and existing members of the council.

Reduction in Funding = No Festival

A reduction in the number of Fun Fair days will fundamentally impact on what we can deliver in the Festival programme. Any decision to run this years’ Summerfest in light of this decision and comments made about our organisation at the council meeting will be made in the coming weeks."

John Brady,Oliver O Brien, Joe Behan,Steve Matthews and Brendan Thornhill voted to reduce the number of days. John Ryan and Pat Vance voted against. Chris Fox wasn't at the meeting.

Aenaes

Any reason(s) from the council?

zoobizoo

None that I've heard.

According to someone I know who attended the meeting there was very little time taken over the decision or discussion about it.

fortwilliam

Does the final decision lie with this group or can this be challenged?
Can their rationale be questioned as to how they made this decision?

NobodyImportant

I'm very local to this. I have no problem with the summerfest and enjoy it myself. I dont however like the funfair much. The big wheel, waltzers, ghost train, caroussel and stuff for the kids are great. But its the vomitmakers that attract in an element that isnt required/wanted who dont put money into the local economy by staying in hotels, eating in restaurants/cafes etc.

These are people who arrive (locally and beyond) with cans of beer and leave the place in a state afterwards. Also the music from the vomitmakers is intollerable for some residents (I luckily dont hear it).

I'd like to know the rationale behind the decision too.

Alun

I heard the tail end of something on East Coast FM just now where a councillor was saying that although effectively the festival organizers get the use of the seafront, i.e council property, for free, at no time have any accounts been made available showing how much money was made and where it was spent. Maybe this was just a stick to get them to be a bit more open and transparent about their dealings which is probably a good thing.

marty_crane

As a long time Bray resdient in theory I am all for anything that brings a few bob into the locality but I have to be honest the amusements on the seafront at this stage is a joke. To my mind the only beneficiaries locally are O'Brien's on Quinsboro' Road and the licencees of certain premises on Strand Road.

Also, I've never understood why they have allowed those monstrosities of carnival rides to annually churn up the grass on the seafront and to operate till late in the evening with the racket they make directly opposite old people's homes.

I walk the seafront as many evenings as I can and would be a regular purchaser of an ice cream or crepe on the prom but when this crowd is in town I avoid and go to Dun Laoghaire. Perhaps others feel likewise and there's your problem.

I admire your stance OP but perhaps the Summerfest in its current format has had its day.

B0jangles

I'm absolutely delighted!

I live down on the seafront and seriously dread the arrival of the funfair every year.

If you want to know why, have a look at this video I took a couple of years ago, and imagine having to listen to that 10 hours a day, 7 days a week for the best part of a month.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSyHCGsxybs

(jump forward to about 20 seconds to see just how loud it gets )

Cannesmarina

It is a good idea to reduce the Funfair. It destroys the green space, pollutes the air burning 20,000 euro in diesel on our doorsteps, and stops hard pressed families from using the beach because they can't pay 3 euro a ride. Organiser Mick Glynn says volunteers run the festival. Somebody is making a lot of money out of it.

Alun

Cannesmarina wrote: »

Organiser Mick Glynn says volunteers run the festival. Somebody is making a lot of money out of it.

Exactly. This is the point that was being made on the radio I think, i.e. a lack of transparency and accountability, considering the scale of the thing.

Incidentally I'm the same as "marty crane", apart from the Air Show I tend to avoid the sea front while the Summerfest is on.

Towerhead

It's great that this democratic decision was passed. Summerfest can survive despite a 9-day reduction of funfair... if it can generate €8m. The tourists don’t come to Bray for the noisy polluting honky-tonks which cause of the permanent dereliction of the green space, and deprive the public from using it. The future of Bray tourism is in the sustainable development of the Seafront.

B0jangles

Just tried posting on the Summerfest facebook page from the point of view of a resident - nothing insulting or rude, just my own experiences from living next to where the funfair is held, and guess what - they keep deleting everything I say; they are simply not interested in listening to anyone who doesn't tell them they are amazing and perfect and an absolute asset to Bray.

Also why exactly DO the accounts have to be kept secret? I keep hearing about how great it is for Bray and how it is 100% run by volunteers, but Mick Glynn has said in the past that it brings millions into the Bray economy - where is that money going? Who is making these huge profits? They could end all speculation about this by making the accounts public, but they absolutely refuse to do so.

EDIT: WOW - they've actually banned me from their page for posting about the negative effect the funfair has on seaside residents like myself!

(I was not just randomly complaining about the funfair, I was responding to them saying that they council voting to reduce the duration of the fair was totally unjustified - as a resident I feel the council actually respected and responded to the views of the majority of the people who actually live down here .)

Summerfest Team: If you are reading this you should be ashamed of yourselves - you keep talking about how great you are for Bray but you're too cowardly to accept any criticism from an actual long-term Bray resident.


SHAME ON YOU.

zoobizoo

There are a number of negative comments on the page which are still up there.

What exactly did you post?

B0jangles

zoobizoo wrote: »

There are a number of negative comments on the page which are still up there.

What exactly did you post?

I briefly described how genuinely awful it is to have the funfair there playing loud music from 12 until 10pm, that it made it impossible for me to open my kichen windows or sit in my garden for the entire duration it is there and secondarily that it would end a lot of speculation about what money Summerfest generates/spends if they would simply release the accounts as so many others have already said on their page.

I said nothing insulting, defamatory or personal but I was banned anyway.

(If I had known how intolerant of anything resembling dissent they are I'd have taken screengrabs of my two posts but you live and learn, don't you?)

tea and coffee

The volunteers don't get paid but the companies who set up the equipment and hire everything must do- even (or especially) if they do work very hard.