The circus has left town, also known as the Rye Jazz Festival advertising itself as an International Festival of five nights and four days over the recent August Bank Holiday. The organiser of this fandango doesn’t live in Rye.
However, the well-produced brochure announced names of musical renown who would be playing at various points in the town of Rye. In fact most of it was actually played out in the very centre of Rye, virtually at the top “Cross Roads” of the town ie Lion St, Market St and the yard now almost known as Kino Place.
Who were the chief beneficiaries during this extended holiday period? Perhaps many cafes and suppliers of cooling refreshments but not probably any of the genuine retailers who had remained open over the Sunday and Monday, at extra staffing costs to themselves. With burgers and other food available from the pop-up fryers hard by St. Mary’s Centre, with the relevant smells perhaps added to the general holiday mood of those sat in the serried ranks of chairs in the road immediately facing the Butter Market thereby closing access to through traffic, whose drivers then had to go round Church Square to their destinations via West St or Mermaid St. Fine for locals, but rather perplexing to unknowing visitors to the town.
Had permission been obtained for this road closure? Happily Rye Town Council did get rent for use of the Butter Market, but who else took any extra cash through their tills? I doubt that this was the case for the two principal cafes hard by the church, or indeed any other eateries who already had their holiday bookings well in hand. TOILETS. Always a difficult question, – the nearest being by the Gun Garden, so one hopes visitors knew their way there.
Not being any sort of jazz expert, I cannot tell whether this was good jazz or not, but I am told the two concerts in St. Mary’s Church were superb, – but they were specifically ticketed. Nevertheless perhaps four days of thump, thump, thump does not present an attractive proposition to nearby householders, especially when their windows are leaned against by listening passers-by, in order to get a better view over those in the chairs in front .These listeners have the choice to move on to look at the rest of the town, but the home-owner is stuck with ongoing amplification for hours on end.
Perhaps the very centre of a town is not the place for a jazz festival, customarily they are held in more open places, but near enough to go exploring in peace. Not everyone visiting Rye over a bank holiday wants the centre to be dominated by jazz. Perhaps therefore the Salts would be a better spot to use, offering both open space, with nearby toilets.
I won’t remain “Anonymous” but hope there may be some sympathetic readers/listeners to this point of view. I should add I love hearing the bells of St. Marys, as well as the cheerful wedding proclamations from our two Town Criers, but do I really have to leave my home for August bank holiday? “When the tanks are on your lawn” etc, etc?
[Rye Town Council will be discussing an official complaint about the Jazz Festival this coming Monday, September 19, when the Policy Committee meets.Editor]
Photo: Seana Lanigan
Have to agree with the points made here, many other retailers reported takings were down over the bank holiday weekend.
Perhaps 2017 would be the time to consider more people getting behind the Rye Jazz Festival and help Ian Bowden and his team to consider moving elements which traders have issues with to the salts and other open areas ?
Perhaps now the Festival has a following there may even be merit in moving it away from what is already the busiest weekend of the year to September ?
An online survey managed in Google docs and included within Rye News could be a way forward to gather opinions.
PA Mitchell, there are certainly some points you make which we, in Rye, should consider, especially the question if permission was given for closure as many other people have to go through that process.
However, I would like to say that my experience of the week-end was very positive in terms of people’s enjoyment. Yes, it was the cafes, B&B’s, restaurants and pubs who benefited but I also know shop keepers and was told that trade was up, at least Saturday and Sunday. Most people, and I went to quite a few of the open/free Jazz, very often were visitors which may help all of Rye as they might return and some stayed longer than the week-end.
It is very difficult to please everybody and whichever way something is presented, there will be divided opinions. I do hope you enjoyed some of it.
I must just add that I would have loved to see the performance in St Mary’s Church but too expensive for me so a suggestion: Have two performances and a little cheaper.
Heidi Foster
To move it to the Salts would not be the same
Hello
Can I firstly say thank you for the comments posted and that we appreciate and acknowledge all views and constructive observations and opinions.
In order to present the various elements of the festival programme we work incredibly hard to manage all relationships and expectations which include sponsors, performers, attendees, venues, media partners, local businesses and others in order to present what we strongly feel is a wonderful, positive and vibrant event for Rye.
We appreciate that it is very hard to keep everyone happy and that not all will share our vision and passion for music and the festival. Having mentioned this, we receive many overwhelmingly positive comments and feedback from many attendees (including many locally in Rye) sponsors and businesses which endorses the positive contribution that we are making to the town.
We also know that many of those that attended stayed in Rye at various hotels and spent money at restaurants and shops so again this has to be a positive aspect – we cannot see how it couldn’t be!
Importantly, we are immensely appreciative to the people of Rye and the Town Council for allowing the festival to take place and we continue to respect this and always will do.
In order to make all of these aspects come together, we work tirelessly to secure sponsorship and funding which enables these free and ticketed events to actually take place. We know that the festival attracts more visitors to Rye and our goal has always been to encourage new visitors to the festival so that many will return at other times of the year when Rye is often much quieter and needs the extra business. This must without question be a positive things for Rye as a whole.
We acknowledge that the August bank holiday weekend is a busier time generally however, we also know that takings at many business do increase during the main festival weekend.
Many festival events take place over the August bank holiday weekend in the UK so we are most certainly not alone in presenting an event at this time period. In fact, many people now plan to come to Rye and book their accommodation specifically for the festival which again has to be positive.
We do sincerely acknowledge the views of others and we do apologise for any inconvenience that may have been caused to some within Rye during the festival weekend. We learn from everything that we do and we will be implementing various aspects that will improve the overall festival experience for all concerned.
We appreciate that not everybody likes Jazz and the other styles of music genres that we present during the festival but rest assured that we will not be introducing any heavy metal or rock music into our programme any time soon! Music unites, inspires and evokes happiness, fun and provides enjoyment to so many which we believe we are providing within our programme of events.
We believe that the music styles that we present are not extreme to say the least and we most certainly manage the volume levels of these performances very carefully and to the best of our ability. We also ensured that music was not performed beyond 10.00 pm at any of our outside locations.
We also wish families to attend the festival and one of the key aspects of obtaining the road closure this year outside the Butter Market and Lion Street was to ensure that safety was paramount to those that were attending the free music events.
It was important that the general public, families and children could enjoy these events without the fear or threat from continuous traffic. We believe that this was unquestionably the correct decision to make in this respect and we do apologise for any inconvenience that our diversion and closure may have caused to local residents and businesses.
We obtained all of the necessary legal permissions in respect of all of our licences including the road closure and temporary events notices for the festival. We would simply not have just put up a road closed sign and some barriers without all of these aspects being properly endorsed and permissions granted. We acknowledge that we could have had some additional signage and that greater advance notice of the closure could have been given to residents and nearby businesses and we apologise for any inconvenience that this may have caused.
We also made the conscious decision to only have the road closure timing from 12.00 Midday as to ensure that deliveries could be made to nearby businesses prior to this time. We then ensured that we opened the road again as soon as possible to allow traffic to flow back as normal.
The ticket prices for our headline concerts we believe were fairly priced and provided excellent value considering the stunning venue of St Mary’s where these concerts were presented. We do appreciate that some people may feel that they are considered slightly high however, some artists fees are higher than others, especially the more renowned names and this unfortunately has to be reflected in the ticket pricing in order to attract the calibre and quality of artists to perform at the festival. We try hard to balance our programme with ticketed and free events so that we are inclusive and offer choice and variety.
We would be very pleased to consider presenting music events on the Salts in the future or at a suitable location. We also feel that the intimacy of presenting music at certain locations within the heart of the town provides a lovely dimension to the festival and attracts people to explore all of many other aspects of the town.
We strive at every opportunity to improve what we do each year and we openly welcome any suggestions, recommendations and constructive support and opinions that will enhance what we are doing. We always look at the greater whole of the benefits, upside and positive impact that the festival provides to Rye.
We cannot apologise for being passionate about the festival and Rye.
I hope that my response has been helpful, constructive and balanced – My kindest wishes, Ian
First of all I have to admit to being a musician who played at the festival and helped organise another event: and yes, the music was good!!! This year with emphasis on more non-established, unsigned acts with a few headline concerts I think there was probably something for most, although of course not for everyone – no festival can ever do that.
I have a few comments: firstly I agree that P A Mitchell makes some valid points: as a musician I’m not sure that the Buttermarket venue works anyway as the musicians are separated in a kind of gloom from the audience, however the Kino stage is fab and a bit more removed from local residents so maybe should continue? The Salts would also be good.
Timing: we could change the weekend; on the face of it it does seem rather senseless to have a festival on August bank holiday weekend, and a lot of local venues I approached did not want to be used as ‘we are rammed anyway’, although that of course depends on the reasons for the festival: if it is purely to boost local businesses incomes then move it, if however it is more to do with giving our visitors extra choice and creating a rather jolly atmosphere then maybe it should stay in August? At my gig, which was on Thursday at the beginning of the festival, I was really pleased to talk to a mix of locals, curious visitors who had just stumbled in not knowing it was a festival, and people who had travelled from London, specifically for the long weekend.
Road closures? Well, judging from local antipathy towards traffic in the citadel (reported weekly in the Rye News) surely they can only be a good thing on some of the busiest days of the year?
Curious as to an official view I took a look at the ‘Rye Town Plan’, again mentioned many times by the Rye News and found this:
‘2.9 Rye must retain its markets, festivals and events: Maritime, Arts, Jazz, Scallop, Wild Boar and Bonfire events. Others such as the raft race, medieval and sporting events are not currently organised but there is talk of resurrecting them. All these strengthen the town’s community spirit, providing a focus for people from the surrounding area and “reasons to visit” for the numerous visitors, making Rye a destination town for many.’
I think this probably sums up my view, and is pretty well put, although like other events in the town the Jazz Festival needs a bit of tweaking: let’s all spend a bit of time and effort helping out with planning and organising next year: P A Mitchell thanks for your comments and hopefully getting the ball rolling on community input..
Phil Law
http://www.phillawmusician.com