Steve Nolan: Love Luton Festival - is it really Wanted?
SO, the first act for July’s Love Luton Festival has been announced - chart-topping boyband The Wanted are coming to town.
Not really my cup of tea if I’m being honest, but I guess it’s a coup for the town nonetheless – the kids at Lea Manor, where the act was unveiled in a special assembly, seemed excited anyway.
At the press conference that followed said assembly, festival artistic director Rob Lee, Luton Council’s head of regeneration Colin Chick and Councillor Roy Davis waxed lyrical about ‘putting Luton on the map’, celebrating all things Luton and giving the town’s youngsters something to enjoy - artistic director Mr Lee even sailed dangerously close to making a comparison between Glastonbury and the Love Luton Festival(!!).
But what will Luton really gain from the event hyped as ‘the most spectacular event in Luton’s history’?
Not much I fear.
The first thing that struck me at Tuesday’s press conference was the price of the tickets. £30 per person or £110 for a family of four as part of an “earlybird” offer, with prices shooting up to £35 and £130 respectively after April 7.
Then there’s a booking fee on top of that, even if you pick tickets up in person which is a bit of a cheek if you ask me.
The council panel made the grand claim that you won’t see The Wanted cheaper anywhere else in the UK. But a 30 second Google search suggests otherwise – reputable entertainments vendor Ticketmaster (I’m not talking some dodgy backstreet tout here) list tickets for the band’s sold out arena tour from as little as £19.50 plus booking fee, more than a third cheaper than the Love Luton gig.
I would hate to have to stump up the cash to buy tickets if I was a father of four for instance. I wonder how many struggling Luton families will be able to afford entry to this Luton love fest.
And not only might Luton families be priced out of the festival, but they might not be able to pick up tickets anyway.
The Council admitted that they toyed with the idea of offering Luton residents first refusal for tickets but decided against the idea because it would be too complicated.
Reading has managed to allocate 5,000 tickets in the past for its much larger scale annual festival for anyone with an RG postcode – what’s so complicated?
It would be a terrible shame if a party celebrating all things Luton and attempting to boost the town’s image was turned into a money spinner that us townsfolk are unable to enjoy.
Not so much a Love Luton Festival as just another Wanted concert perhaps?
Of course it is hoped that the concert will provide some respite from the terrible news coverage us big, bad media types are always being told we’re giving Luton.
The idea is that the Love Luton Festival might change the UK’s perception of our town. But who really cares about other people’s perceptions really? What about how people actually living in the town feel and what we want?
Care homes are being closed, respite care is being axed and council jobs are being cut left right and centre – but it’s okay we have a giant party to look forward to (sorry, make that two giant parties if you count the great big street party LBC are planning for the Queen’s Jubilee)!
What do we have to celebrate really?
I can’t help but think that if the council were seen to put as much effort into effective cost-cutting and protecting frontline services as they do planning parties and worrying what the rest of the country thinks of us then perhaps we all might start to love Luton again.
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Weather for Luton
Saturday 26 May 2012
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Comments
There are 2 comments to this article
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Robbie G
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 01:20 AMI totally agree with the sentiments expressed here. Where's all the money coming from for all this? Who will foot the bill if the concerts lose money? And I want to know who's getting all the loot for this PR campaign, I bet Mr Chick has hired yet another expensive consultant to do the work of council employees that are probably getting laid off.
ILoveLuton!
Friday, January 27, 2012 at 02:43 PMI certainly agree with the last few paragraphs. Regardless of who the act is (and The Wanted are a big name so fair play to them for that), how on earth can the Council justify spending all this money on a party? They claim it will pay for itself, but that's only if they sell 10,000 tickets to break even which at these prices is unlikey, and that's a huge gamble to take when so much money has gone into it. Yes it might look good to the rest of the country (that's if they are even looking, which I doubt!) but surely keeping our care homes open for the elderly and disabled, keeping jobs and not making cuts elsewhere (for example the pensioners' allotments!) is much more important than this and will make the town look even better. Put some effort into funding those things that will actually make a difference to people's lives. One weekend of fun won't cancel out years of potential misery for the rest of us.
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