Meadows Festival Minutes

There was a meeting to discuss the future of the Meadows Festival tonight at Cameron Rose's house. This is a very brief set of minutes.

Please, if you are reading this blog and have some ideas for the festival, add a comment to this post.

Next Meeting
Tuesday, 19^th June, 2007 from 19:00 at Cameron's house.

Action Items
The following steps will be taken to further the project:

1. Andy - To further investigate the Meadows Festival Association to get budgets and details of anything that might be lurking there
2. Hugh - To get permission from the MSCC to be the legally responsible entity in the planning stages
3. Cameron - To begin discussions with potential sponsors
• Royal Bank of Scotland
• Bank of Scotland
• Quartermile
• Sick Kids fundraisers
• Fairground
4. Hugh - To invite other councils to the next meeting
   

Attendees

• Cameron Rose (Marchmont and Sciennes Community Council)
• Hugh Leather (Marchmont and Sciennes Community Council)
• Linda Hendry (Southside Community Council)
  
• Susanna Lacey (Marchmont and Sciennes Community Council)

Apologies

• Andy Devenport (Tollcross Community Council)
  
• Justine Stansfield (Southside Community Council)

Evening News
Cameron recounted his interview with the Evening News. The article can be found here. Cameron indicated that some of comments may have been taken out of context on a slow news day.

Meetings with Potential Sponsors
Cameron has arranged a meeting with the Sick Kids tomorrow.

Other Festivals
The group discussed other festivals:

• Linda - Visited Japan Day which was let down by weather and lack of catering
• Susanna - Reported on open air theatre groups.
  
• She has spoken to Grid Iron who do children's interactive theatre. They are funded by the banks and are interested in the festival. She also
  
• She spoke of the National Theatre of Scotland who do adult theatre

Proposals for the Festival Format
Linda:
Proposed that the festival format be identical to previous years'. That entails:
10am-6pm
Football competition
Craigmillar fun fair
Strolling players
Beer tent
Stalls and food

Susanna:
Proposed that the festival include open air theatre, possibly Shakespeare and classical music.
Linda was concerned that the fair and the rock music might interfere.
Cameron suggested that ClassicFM might do a road show.

Cameron:
Felt it was too early to decide the form of the festival

Hugh:
Presented an idea to have a Sick Kids festival. A fun run would raise money for the charity. The kids theme would be central. The festival would be much smaller, only one triangle of the Meadows to make it seem less straggly if there is medium turnout.
Linda was concerned that the fun fair needed more space.
Linda was concerned that adults would be worried about being seen as paedophiles at a child-only theme.
Linda felt that if there was a fun run participants would go home directly afterwards.

Decision:
A format for the festival was decided to be identical to the previous years', possibly with bolt on extras like small theatre.

Miscellaneous
Antonia Dickson may keep a list of volunteers.
Linda will provide a poster to Antonia.