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History of the festival: 3 (1996)
By 1996, the one-day show had
been expanded as far as the committee we felt they could
take it. It was a continuous nine hours - bounded by
Sunday lunch at one end of the day and the strict 10pm
curfew imposed by the authorities (and their desire to
remain on good terms with the Millfield's neighbours).
Yet they still couldn't fit everything in!
How to accommodate more
music and more performers was the problem - and a second
day, the obvious answer. However, the Sunday
Community Concert was so evidently successful and
popular, they were reluctant to change it. Nor did they
feel that simply providing two days of the same would be
the answer.
Instead, a Saturday night show was added, with a strong
emphasis on rock and pop. In order to make it different
to the Sunday show - a professional "headlining" band
was hired to close the show. Five local bands were also
scheduled on Saturday, freeing up concert time on the
Sunday for other kinds of music. At the same time, the
committee also came under pressure to expand the event
to cover many other events in the town in the preceding
week, including art exhibitions, classical concerts in
St Mary's Church and live music activities in the town's
pubs and other venues. |
