Fromians and regular readers of this blog will be well aware of the town's remarkable cultural life. But sometimes you can have too much of a good thing. Last night, for example, there was Savoy Brown at the Cheese & Grain, Frome Choral Society at the Wesleyan Church, comedy with Nick Revell (amongst others) at The Cornerhouse and (I quote) "Suzy Quatro's Sax Player" at The Archangel. And there may have been more going on that I'm unaware of.
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Hats off to events co-ordination!
(Frome Folk Fest 2012 at the Cheese & Grain) |
Are all these events competing for the same audience? Would each have benefitted from being on a different night? There are some Saturdays when very little is on offer, so wouldn't some sort of entertainment co-ordinator be a good idea in order to avoid this kind of overload? There was talk of the C & G taking on the role of central box office for the town's venues - maybe they could keep a "clash diary" too?
PS Thank you for your comment below, "Dream Job". (Blogger is misbehaving and won't let me reply directly). I take your point, but I have incontrovertible evidence, m'lud. May I refer you to OS Explorer Map 142...?
I am sure all acts were fairly well attended to be honest. However not many people have such a diverse range of interests and so speaking like you do appears to suggest that you feel there should only be one thing that 'you' would like to see per night in Frome? This is silly when there are about 25000 individuals living here. Frome gives it a good go to put on something for everybody on a weekend and that list seems to suggest they were doing well that night (although publicity is laking in some quarters - the list always seems to get dates wrong for example) its just unfortunate that some events clash.
ReplyDeleteAlways pleased to read your comments, Anon. But it wasn't my taste I was concerned about, more that competing events might take audiences away from each other. Moving an event to another weekend with less competition could lead to a bigger audience for all. These are hard times, and people's disposable income is shrinking. Out of those 25,000, how many can afford to go out more than once or twice a month these days?
ReplyDeleteThe Festival is already posting warning notices about its future - and that is very well publicised and probably the most high profile event of the year. I do think arts organisations and promoters have to work together to maximise audiences & income (particularly following the Somerset cuts). Hopefully that would go some way to ensuring that they are still around next year and the year after and the year after in order to continue enriching our lives...
Agreed these are hard times and, even though I would like to, its not possible to support everything so you have to choose. I suppose this is the same for businesses in that if they hear of a blues band on somewhere else then there is an opportunity to get in on some of the custom by putting something similar on that night. I suppose they just see it as dog eat dog and don’t think of the larger picture. Or perhaps they do and figure that they can pinch some of the custom away by offering a free gig.
ReplyDeleteI would hate in a few years for Frome to become a one gig per night town because it would probably see a number of venues close. To that end I'd like to see Frome taking up a pre gig gigs template with defined time slots around town for gigs so that people can mix and match. The Archangel, for example, puts on the support at 8 and then everyone moves to the main event at the Cheese for 9.30 and then somewhere like the Griffin can mop up the stragglers at 11 - 1. Each venue gets some custom and all stay open. Although I can see that not all events would fit into this template and personally, even with all the good will in the world, I'd probably not do choral, comedy, blues and sax all on the same night… unless perhaps it was festival time or I’d had too much to drink and then none would be able to stop me.
Incidentally are people from Frome really Fromians? Somehow it doesn’t sound right to me. What about Fromies, Fromites, Fromels, the Fromese, Fromen, Frominos, Fromers, Fromiot or just ‘Frome’ (as in I am Frome, we are Frome etc)?
I'll keep an eye out for you during the festival, whizzing around the town in a cultural frenzy.
ReplyDeleteI like "we are Frome", but, in retrospect, I think it might be Fromeites...
"Fromesters', of course! I think its great that Frome has so much to offer, just like being at a festival when there are clashes with bands you want to see. Looking forward to the Frome Festival, so much better than standing in a field. http://fromester.com
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments, Fromester. Welcome to Weekender World. I am hearing "Fromie" more and more, (including from some born-and-bred, er, Fromies), so I'll go with that until I'm told otherwise!
ReplyDeleteYes, ditto re the Festival. There comes a time in one's life when a soggy field loses its attraction, however good the bill of fare might be.