Galtres will boost York

10:04am Wednesday 30th January 2013 in Letters By Reader's letter

IF WE were able to attract Galtres Festival to York, any inconvenience would be outweighed by the benefits.

Somerset County Council found that Glastonbury Festival injected £73 million into the economy. The local parish of Pilton also benefited by gaining funds for improvements and facilities; Rawcliffe would do the same.

The average spend per person attending Glastonbury was £293.24, so based on this a festival at Rawcliffe could net £2 million. Some of the proceeds would be donated to charity.

The proposed site would fill the B&Bs and hotels in York. Families would make the festival part of a longer holiday.

The inconvenience we in Rawcliffe would incur would be increased traffic on the day before and the day after. The sound levels from the site would be low; the practicality of running six stages at one time means the sound has to be kept down.

This was proved during the firework display last November. I live 50 metres from the site, but could not hear the music from within my home.

A petition organised against the festival being held in Rawcliffe seems not to be based on the real festival experience but a perception of one.

York would be lucky to attract such a respected festival. We must not allow this opportunity to slip though our fingers.

Tony Ireson, Ings View, York.

Comments(4)

suzymf says...
10:58am Wed 30 Jan 13

Totally agree with all the above. Three generations of my family have enjoyed festivals for many years, including Glastonbury and many of the smaller ones. These ages range from very young children to my father-in-law who is almost 80. It is a great way of bringing everyone together and enjoying great company in a relaxed and safe environment. Hope Galtres will be a great success.

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f_woods says...
4:46pm Wed 30 Jan 13

I live on Shipton Road, opposite the Park and Ride site and my experience of the fireworks event was completely different to that of Tony's. The live music was extremely loud and I could hear the exact words of the woman presenting the event. My front door and windows were visibly shaking during the actual fireworks event. Cars were parked all the way down the grass verge of Shipton Road and outside the homes of all the residents. For days afterwards our street was covered in mud from the grass verges and the path up to the Park and Ride site was slippy and dangerous. I would urge all residents to sign the petition as the site is completely inappropriate for events such as this. I hope the organisers of Galtres find a more suitable site that is not so close to a residential estate.

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jamesh8827 says...
10:04pm Wed 30 Jan 13

Before signing the petition we suggest residents find out what the organisers of Galtres Festival are proposing to do to address concerns about noise, parking, mud etc. One way of doing this it to come along to the parish council's next meeting on 11 Feb. You'd find out that quite a lot has been learned from the fireworks event, which will make the summer festival much easier and more enjoyable for residents.

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mjr119 says...
12:47pm Thu 31 Jan 13

Glastonbury is arguably the biggest and best music festival in the world. It attracts people from all over the world to visit a very sparsely populated area with very few local large scale hospitality facilities.

I'm not sure that you can compare the average spend figures at Glastonbury when calculating the likely economic benefit of the Galtres festival.

Many more people will be day visitors. The amount of food consumed will be less and the amount alcohol consumed will be less (as it has a higher ratio of under-18s).

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