CREETOWN

Judy · Cowpoke Joined: 21 Apr 2008 Posts: 271 Location: here

POSTED BY ANDREW WARD told him I would stick it on other forums

For the past 13 years I have been one of the leading lights at Creetown Country Weekend, although the last 3 years my involvement has been limited, due to personal reasons. However Im back pretty much full-time now and as such I wanted to let folk know just whats going on and what we hope to achieve in the future.

I will begin by trying to explain what we think has gone wrong and how we hope to put it right.

The last 3/4 years we have been blighted by youngsters who come from out of town, they are attracted by the crowds, the event. They behalf pretty attrociously, and though there has never been any real major incident, they do cause upset. Unfortunately there has been little we could do to stop them coming, be it they dont come to the festival, they just to wander around the town, causing unpleasantness.

Then a couple of years ago there was a cock-up with the trilogy and there was a fallout, between the festival committee and westerners.

Finally we changed last years last day (sunday), to a non-country event, and though it was a major success, busiest day of the four days, it wasnt to the liking of country fans.

None of these things were ever done to upset or allienate our country and western friends. Some we couldnt control, some were done to help support the festivals finances (such events dont come cheap).

However thats in the past and what we want to do is to ask everyone to get behind us and help get Creetown Country Festival back on track.

We are starting by moving to a new venue, just 5 minutes walk out of the village. This will mean we have an enclosed site, with controlled access. Which will stop the numpty youths getting anywhere near. We are also talking to the police to try insure they dont even come to town in the first place. This I believe will put an end to this problem.

The new site is huge and as such we will be able to offer, on site camping with good facilities. It is so big that we will have two marquees this year. One will be solid, wall to wall Country Music, Thursday to Sunday. The other marquee, will havedifferent music, maybe a bit of Irish, a bit of Folk, Blues, a bit of line dancing and yes for those who are not Country Music devotees, maybe a tribute band night. The point is we have a lot of folk who want to come, they love to meet the westerners, they love the atmosphere,friendliness and fun the cowboys bring, but they are not that bothered about country music, thats not a crime, and in fairness, staging such an event needs these people as well. But not, as we realise at the expenseof our western family.

So this year we will have a country music/westerners dedicated marquee and area, and as such I hope we get a positive response. The financial climate will see the demise of some festivals this year, indeed it my understanding that some folded last year. We are determined it wont happen here. But we need your help and support, we want to know what bands you want to see, what events you'd like us to put on, what facilities you want. Its easy to shoot us down, yes weve made mistakes, the key is to show that you care and that by working together we can put on a festival that is second to none. Back where we were, great fun and great music.

So we want to hear from you, we want your ideas, thoughts. If Country music is to survive and prosper there has to be change, whilst at the same time staying true to the ideals we started with. We want to hear from stall-holders, westerners, country music devotees, people who have been, people who might think about visiting this year. So come on guys and gals, lets be positive, lets hear from you. Lets get this wagon rolling again.

Take care

Andrew

LaredoDixie · Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2009 10:33 pm Post subject: creetown

hi do you not think you are doing to little to late after letting these young ones come in and run riot steel from the stalls and the westerners vans dont have any security for us and no respect for what we want in the way off atmosphere and enjoyment and personally i dont think it is very well organised their is always a lack off tables and chairs you have to bring your own if you need to sit like the disabled their is no thought to the ones in wheelchairs and their is no facilitys for the campers maybe once you have sorted out this then you might get the westeners back at the moment i think its to little to late

hondo · Posted: Wed Sep 30, 2009 5:58 pm Post subject:

I was at the Creetown Country Weekend on the 18th and 19th September 2009 and after going for approximately 9 years and supporting the weekend as both a first aider and as an event goer I was seriously disappointed this year. The organisation was so so poor and also no signs or very few. No organisers going around and as for the security fencing you could walk through unchallenged and still the numpty yobs were managing to get in without paying and still under agers were getting drunk even with 4 or 5 security guards on each of the marquee entrances. Creetown when I started to go was a great weekend we never had any casualities or very few. 4 years ago the security thought that they were first aiders, doctors, paramedics all in one and that was one of the things that prompted me to retire from doing first aid at this event and listening to all the grumblings of people saying they are not coming back was overwhelming this year and for the last 2 years in fact. Now to the letter on this forum, you did not stop the numpty youths getting in. There was not enough (secure) security fence anyone could walk in anywhere unchallenged and from 7 pm on Friday night there was no armbands available. That is down to organisation. You say you have a lot of people who want to come and that not all people like country music that is not a problem in that case do not bill it as a Country Weekend which it is turning into not being. I have been to a few Country Events and all they play is country music. Creetown in my opinion should look at what they had at the beginning and build on that. Not what they have got now because they have lost sight of what they wanted to achieve. A few years ago you were billed alongside Edinburgh's Events - how the mighty have fallen. For the last 4 years both as a punter and as a first aider I have heard nothing but grumblings and people not wanting to come back and when I said it the organisers about this I was as well talking to a brick wall.

hondo · Posted: Wed Sep 30, 2009 6:01 pm Post subject:

Creetown continued. As far as I am concerned if Creetown folded it would be a very sad day but, if the Committee do not get off their egotistical pillar and listen to each other and work as one group you might as well not have a Committee. There was a serious lack of friendliness this year.

Yours a very very disappointed Jim Grieve

pamguiness · Posted: Sat Oct 17, 2009 7:54 am Post subject:

Hi Jim, nice to see you on here. Well said, but what is the answer? Robert is with you on what you say, he thinks they need to go back to the beginning. We were watching old home videos of Creetown Festival over the years, right back in the beginning when we all danced in the rain. The atmosphere was great despite the weather. Where did it start going wrong? I for one would be very disappointed if this festival on my doorstep was to fold, but what should be done?
Love to you both.
Take care.
Pam

hondo · Posted: Sat Oct 17, 2009 9:22 pm Post subject:

hi pam i honestly do not know the answer but i think if the riff raff was banned and kept out got some security that new how to do there job and look for les profit the good part of it might come back to what it wasbut it will be harder the next time around as most of the stall holders have taken a lot of people away i know off one table of 20 that are not comming back that is the bigest table a lot of people gone beacause of what? i think it started going wrong about 5 to 6 years ago i as a first aider noticed small nasty wee things comming in and not being stoped i myself stopped a guy beating up on a girl but not a lot was done about that by the police so how can it be stopped hope to hear some thoughts on what i have said catch up with you all some time

to you all jim and margaret

LaredoDixie · Posted: Sat Oct 17, 2009 10:01 pm Post subject:

Hi Jim i agree with what you said we cant afford to loose anymore festivals due to what ever the problems are i mean us westeners are the ones that seem to be loosing out all the time take a look at craig tara now it has had so many changes over the past 13-14 years since we have been going we have noticed a lot off change and we have decided this year is our last one mabe some one will come up with a solution to save the one that we should try and support as was said it is on our doorstep after all dixie

hondo · Posted: Sun Oct 18, 2009 6:58 am Post subject:

once again a true statment i cannot coment on craig tara as i have not been to it but from what i have heard from various people that go to it it seems to be a case of the organisers attitude. whats the differance between god and me answer god does not think he is me the organisers
as i have said once they have got a good thing going keep it do not get over confident, blase, egotistical. in other words come back down to earth get the locals on your side and not one person making more for doing less pull together lets hope that someone somewhere gets there heads together and works on this problem as a team pulling together not one person has the right answer but all together they do so come on lets have you all together and pulling together as one body cut out the dead wood and do not lose what you have all worked so very hard for get british groups 1,2 or 3 piece bands not over a few hundred pounds and build up again jim

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