Brixton’s annual free Splash street party has been called off after a reported spike in violence, drug-taking and arrests marred last year’s tenth anniversary event.
Lambeth Council last night rejected an application for this summer’s party saying south London’s answer to the Notting Hill Carnival had become “a victim of its own success” and grown “potentially dangerous” .Why on earth would anyone else need an ‘answer to the Notting Hill Carnival’..?
Ros Griffiths, who helped found the festival but stepped aside in 2010, said she hoped the postponement would allow a fresh start. She said: “Last year the local reaction was that it has lost direction.
“Traders were complaining, residents were complaining and there was a problem. The event got too big and moved away from what it was meant to be about.”
She said the original event was aimed to showing (sic) Brixton’s independent traders and talented young people, using local businesses and products to keep the money within the neighbourhood.So it started with good intentions, and has lost its way?
The Splash is a non-profit community organisation established in 2005 which also runs an outreach programme for young people to get access to the arts, part-funded by the Arts Council. Organisers also offered a qualified stewarding training programme for young people to get work experience controlling the crowds during the event.
The company currently has three board members but none were available for comment last night.
In a statement the board said the town hall planned to take over the festival and accused the council of “railroading” them. They added: “Lambeth’s dwindling financial support and physical support over the last few years shows its true feelings towards the event.”So it’s soaking up taxpayer moolah courtesy of the Arts Council?
Curiouser and curiouser…
"keep the money within the neighbourhood."
ReplyDeleteWhy on earth does anybody think that is a good idea. If you are going to spend money on something then that has to be sourced from wherever it has the best quality and price. Soppy people have soppy ideas and do not even understand basic economics. Free trade is the key to prosperity and is actually socialism that works regardless of what is said about protecting local jobs. Protectionism excludes those who the proponents of it profess they want to help the poor and the consumer in general. To add insult it protects the producer at further expense to the consumer.
Free market capitalism (not crony capitalism as practised nowadays) is the collective way of redistribution of wealth, taking the poor out of poverty, equalising opportunity and constructing a fair justice system. So it is socialism writ large that works and has done for centuries. It works because people are the driving force not authoritarian government that dictates what you can consume from whom and at what price.
Not many people know that.
"Community", "outreach", "young people", "work experience":- ticks all the SJW boxes, innit?
ReplyDeleteSurely, the " Answer to the Notting Hill Carnival" would be people having reserved, polite conversations, drinking tea and eating cucumber sandwiches while Elgar is played by a small orchestra.
ReplyDeleteI don't know the 'answer to the Notting Hill Carnival', but the question is most certainly:
ReplyDeleteWhy? Why? For pity's sake why?
Must come to the relief (sic) of the residents whose gardens get used asal fresco toilets.
ReplyDelete"Why on earth does anybody think that is a good idea. "
ReplyDeleteMaybe they got their business studies research from that feminist library in the last post?
"...ticks all the SJW boxes, innit?"
Spot on! And all the council grant forms too.
"Surely, the " Answer to the Notting Hill Carnival" would be people having reserved, polite conversations, drinking tea and eating cucumber sandwiches while Elgar is played by a small orchestra."
And not stabbing anyone ior urinating in people's front gardens?
"..but the question is most certainly:
Why? Why? For pity's sake why?"
Undoubtedly!