Illuminating York festival cost York taxpayers £26,000 (From York Press)

Couldnt organise a p*** up in a brewery.
Why not just give bank notes out to passers by.

Usual spin and shenanigans from Red Sonja. the Arts COuncil have contributed every year have they not? Is she trying to claim they contributed more this year? If so then lets see the evidence. And if they did increase their funding this only makes the decision to charge even worse.

The truth seems to be that there was a massive increase in the amount paid to "artists" which was a catastrophic failure.

Its too much to expect an apology I suppose

atorycouncil2014 wrote:
Usual spin and shenanigans from Red Sonja. the Arts COuncil have contributed every year have they not? Is she trying to claim they contributed more this year? If so then lets see the evidence. And if they did increase their funding this only makes the decision to charge even worse.

The truth seems to be that there was a massive increase in the amount paid to "artists" which was a catastrophic failure.

Its too much to expect an apology I suppose

Tory buffons up early!

capt spaulding says...
9:32am Wed 2 Jan 13

Couldnt organise a p*** up in a brewery.
Why not just give bank notes out to passers by.”

who couldnt? seeing as it is clear the council did not organise the event! HENCE apologise for what exactly, or better, still time for your morning nap!

peterstreet wrote:

atorycouncil2014 wrote:
Usual spin and shenanigans from Red Sonja. the Arts COuncil have contributed every year have they not? Is she trying to claim they contributed more this year? If so then lets see the evidence. And if they did increase their funding this only makes the decision to charge even worse.

The truth seems to be that there was a massive increase in the amount paid to "artists" which was a catastrophic failure.

Its too much to expect an apology I suppose

Tory buffons up early!

capt spaulding says...
9:32am Wed 2 Jan 13

Couldnt organise a p*** up in a brewery.
Why not just give bank notes out to passers by.”

who couldnt? seeing as it is clear the council did not organise the event! HENCE apologise for what exactly, or better, still time for your morning nap!

council did not organise?!?!?

Sorry I think you should get up before you start typing

So, just to get this straight, the council subsidized the event to the tune of £9558 (£26000 less the eventual profit of £16442):

the population of the council area is 187,000, meaning a cost to each of us of 5p.

Am I the only one struggling to see a story here?

brahma wrote:
So, just to get this straight, the council subsidized the event to the tune of £9558 (£26000 less the eventual profit of £16442):

the population of the council area is 187,000, meaning a cost to each of us of 5p.

Am I the only one struggling to see a story here?

Yes, the story is how incompetent the council are with public money. While making cuts to essential services, they repeatedly manage to find money to fund items such as this, trips abroad, consultants to state the obvious, the list goes on. All in all typical of a Labour council, usually to be found in the London area, not this far north.

atorycouncil2014 wrote:

peterstreet wrote:

atorycouncil2014 wrote:
Usual spin and shenanigans from Red Sonja. the Arts COuncil have contributed every year have they not? Is she trying to claim they contributed more this year? If so then lets see the evidence. And if they did increase their funding this only makes the decision to charge even worse.

The truth seems to be that there was a massive increase in the amount paid to "artists" which was a catastrophic failure.

Its too much to expect an apology I suppose

Tory buffons up early!

capt spaulding says...
9:32am Wed 2 Jan 13

Couldnt organise a p*** up in a brewery.
Why not just give bank notes out to passers by.”

who couldnt? seeing as it is clear the council did not organise the event! HENCE apologise for what exactly, or better, still time for your morning nap!

council did not organise?!?!?

Sorry I think you should get up before you start typing

The Council part funded the event, they did not organise it, Even the ex coun Galloway recognised this by the wording of his FOI request, go back to sleep and stop wasting space!

bob the builder wrote:

brahma wrote:
So, just to get this straight, the council subsidized the event to the tune of £9558 (£26000 less the eventual profit of £16442):

the population of the council area is 187,000, meaning a cost to each of us of 5p.

Am I the only one struggling to see a story here?

Yes, the story is how incompetent the council are with public money. While making cuts to essential services, they repeatedly manage to find money to fund items such as this, trips abroad, consultants to state the obvious, the list goes on. All in all typical of a Labour council, usually to be found in the London area, not this far north.

That argument would only hold water if we knew what the cost had been in previous years, but it appears that nobody has bothered with that comparison. If the £9558 nett subsidy for 2012 was less than those provided to fund the previous free-to-attend events, then this would indeed be a cut and a very prudent one at that.

peterstreet wrote:

atorycouncil2014 wrote:

peterstreet wrote:

atorycouncil2014 wrote:
Usual spin and shenanigans from Red Sonja. the Arts COuncil have contributed every year have they not? Is she trying to claim they contributed more this year? If so then lets see the evidence. And if they did increase their funding this only makes the decision to charge even worse.

The truth seems to be that there was a massive increase in the amount paid to "artists" which was a catastrophic failure.

Its too much to expect an apology I suppose

Tory buffons up early!

capt spaulding says...
9:32am Wed 2 Jan 13

Couldnt organise a p*** up in a brewery.
Why not just give bank notes out to passers by.”

who couldnt? seeing as it is clear the council did not organise the event! HENCE apologise for what exactly, or better, still time for your morning nap!

council did not organise?!?!?

Sorry I think you should get up before you start typing

The Council part funded the event, they did not organise it, Even the ex coun Galloway recognised this by the wording of his FOI request, go back to sleep and stop wasting space!

"Illuminating York is organised by a steering committee which comprises of representatives from Visit York, City of York Council, York Museums Trust, Science City York, University of York and local York businesses"

Illuminating York website. Its funded by the council with support from the Arts Council.

Why not let Selby Council organise the fireworks for CYC- they put on a good show every year-

atorycouncil2014 wrote:

peterstreet wrote:

atorycouncil2014 wrote:

peterstreet wrote:

atorycouncil2014 wrote:
Usual spin and shenanigans from Red Sonja. the Arts COuncil have contributed every year have they not? Is she trying to claim they contributed more this year? If so then lets see the evidence. And if they did increase their funding this only makes the decision to charge even worse.

The truth seems to be that there was a massive increase in the amount paid to "artists" which was a catastrophic failure.

Its too much to expect an apology I suppose

Tory buffons up early!

capt spaulding says...
9:32am Wed 2 Jan 13

Couldnt organise a p*** up in a brewery.
Why not just give bank notes out to passers by.”

who couldnt? seeing as it is clear the council did not organise the event! HENCE apologise for what exactly, or better, still time for your morning nap!

council did not organise?!?!?

Sorry I think you should get up before you start typing

The Council part funded the event, they did not organise it, Even the ex coun Galloway recognised this by the wording of his FOI request, go back to sleep and stop wasting space!

"Illuminating York is organised by a steering committee which comprises of representatives from Visit York, City of York Council, York Museums Trust, Science City York, University of York and local York businesses"

Illuminating York website. Its funded by the council with support from the Arts Council.

exactly,so why did you and your mate Captain spaulding not say so in the first place, Tory Buffoons! just posting rubbish to cause as much fuss as possible! waste of space!

Sorry you are trying to claim that your statement that the council did not organise is true?

Staggering

Another significant point in this story is that Bright White, the artists paid £91000, are on the committee of the event itself. Surprisingly, they do quite well out of Illuminating every year....

It is impossible to say whether this event was value for money or not. It brought people to York who spent money and that money goes to businesses who pay tax and employ people. I hope more events are organized because people need here need jobs. Whether I like them (or would go to them) is another matter...

peterstreet wrote:

atorycouncil2014 wrote:
Usual spin and shenanigans from Red Sonja. the Arts COuncil have contributed every year have they not? Is she trying to claim they contributed more this year? If so then lets see the evidence. And if they did increase their funding this only makes the decision to charge even worse.

The truth seems to be that there was a massive increase in the amount paid to "artists" which was a catastrophic failure.

Its too much to expect an apology I suppose

Tory buffons up early!

capt spaulding says...
9:32am Wed 2 Jan 13

Couldnt organise a p*** up in a brewery.
Why not just give bank notes out to passers by.”

who couldnt? seeing as it is clear the council did not organise the event! HENCE apologise for what exactly, or better, still time for your morning nap!

Snoooze.

Economics aside, let's just hope that such a debacle is never repeated and they revert to similar displays as the excellent 2011 show.

I go to Chartres west of Paris almost annually and they put on their "Illuminations" every evening from April to September and are excellent. How can they, as a smaller tourist City afford it when we seem unable to do so?

Maybe the powers that be are far too ambitious.

A profit of £16,442 was made. As this was funded by the (York) Council and Arts Council England, should the profit not have passed on to these two organisations??

Here's an idea for next year, to save paying a company a fortune to design/put on the display why not open it up to local people. Organise a competition at local schools/colleges - pick 4-5 landmark buildings and ask students to come up with lighting/sound displays for them, given an equipment list or budget for the designs. No doubt there'd be a local company willing to help put on the displays at a much cheaper price than a big national display company and we'd actually have a Illuminating York festival that celebrated local talent.

"Council officials defended the show as “amazing” "

Sorry it was rubbish! the light show at peasholme park in Scarborough back in the 70' s were better than that tosh!
To actually say it was "amazing" astonishes me! the person or person's who stated that probably get's out once a year? and goes to some crappy council run event,i have been going to concerts and all sorts of light show spectaculars since the mid 70's and have seen better light shows by some covers band in the Roman Bath on a friday night!

Sonja Crisp should resign, because its clear she does'nt have a clue, is it true she consulted Blackpool council about these lights? Blackpool one of the tackiest light shows/places ever!

How much was Vic Reeves paid first before I do some sums.

brahma wrote:
So, just to get this straight, the council subsidized the event to the tune of £9558 (£26000 less the eventual profit of £16442):

the population of the council area is 187,000, meaning a cost to each of us of 5p.

Am I the only one struggling to see a story here?

Exactly. But it won't stop the sheep from bleating.

i didn't like the gunpowder plod either too many policeman spoiling the view

York Illuminated 2011 was fabulous and free.

York Illuminated 2012 was weak and charged an entrance fee.

The Press should request the figures for 2011 through an FOI and see how the figures stack up.

I still maintain that the CoYC got giddy and tried to do too much for York800, and quality suffered as a result...

£91,000 to Bright White???

I wouldn't be surprised if Vic Reeves worked for free, or for a very small amount.

Worrying.

Also - even though the festival only cost the people of York £26,000, consideration needs to be given to the £60,000 grant from the Arts Council. This is paid by taxpayers around the UK and from lottery funding. There isn't a bottomless pit for this money, and won't be available for repeated use.

Personally, I love the idea that York can see beyond the short term cost for putting on a free festival by seeing the long term benefit of tourism and spending with businesses in the city - but in this case we seem to have paid one firm a lot of money and had less than 15,000 visitors over a 3 night period. In previous years, the light night has been over a longer period too...

My wife and I have been frequent visitors to York; this was our second visit specifically for the illumination. We were lured by videos from events of four or more years previous. The one following The Great Guy Fawkes Flap was a disappointment and we said "no more". But this year's seemed to hold promise so we made the effort (for us, several thousand pounds worth of effort) to attend.

Wish we hadn't.

Fortunately events at Fountains Abbey, York Castle Museum and the air museum at Elvington overcame what would have been bitterness.

But Illuminating York in future?

NOT!