THE PENINSULA Festival has closed its venue to the public and its Olympic big screen has been moved to Eltham.
The ambitious festival had originally promised “a summer like no other” with an artificial beach to “rival the Caribbean”, big name music acts, an upmarket camping site and Olympic live site showing sporting action on a big screen.
But as the festival drew closer, the beach failed to materialise, the camp site operator switched to a site in Walthamstow and the live site has closed after just a couple of days, with the big screen – paid for by the council – moved to Well Hall Pleasaunce in Eltham.
Peninsula Festival’s venue, a plot of land in North Greenwich called Area 12, did host the Eastern Electrics event at the weekend – seemingly successfully judging by social media feedback – but organisers have announced the site won’t be reopening, with the exception of two ticketed events on the 11th and 12th of August.
A notice posted on the organiser’s Facebook page says that “a number of circumstances have not allowed us to deliver the experience that we have promised to many.”
Greenwich Council, who had allowed the organisers to operate under its Greenwich Festivals brand, agreed to fund the event to the tune of £50,000 with 80% of this amount handed over late last year according to data published on the council’s website.
A payment of £25,000 was made to Peninsula Festival last November with a further £15,000 paid the following month.
Opposition councillors had questioned the council’s dealings with the operator, with Councillor Matt Clare asking at a full council meeting last March what “due dilligence” the council had carried out before working with them and Councillor Nigel Fletcher calling in the decision to part fund the festival.
Councillor Fletcher said: “We raised serious questions earlier this year about the amount of public money the Council was putting into it, and there will be more questions to ask after the Games.
“The relocation of the Big Screen to Well Hall Pleasaunce in Eltham is a welcome move, and will give people here the chance to enjoy the great atmosphere we’ve seen at the Greenwich and Woolwich screens, though clearly it’s unfortunate there isn’t much time to tell people about it.”
A letter from Greenwich Council Chief Executive Mary Ney to councillors, published on 853, says that the the operators had been “unable to build a programme and sufficient footfall to sustain their business plan for the live site and are unable to continue to offer this.”
It seems strange if the Council handed over money last year because the decision in principle to give £50k to the Peninsula Festival was only made in January.
http://committees.greenwich.gov.uk/mgConvert2PDF.aspx?ID=1552&T=5
It’s strange that Mary Ney hasn’t been so upfront with councillors – who, after all, are supposed to scrutinise her actions (not the other way around) – about the sums involved.
Actually, this is Greenwich, it’s not that strange at all.
Hi Paul – details of the money paid to the Peninsula Festival is contained in the data released by the council for payments made over £500.
November 2011
http://www.royalgreenwich.gov.uk/downloads/file/946/november_2011_payments_over_500
December 2011
http://www.royalgreenwich.gov.uk/downloads/file/1071/december_2011_payments_over_500
What a shame the phrase ‘opposition councillors’ is used.
Were Labour councillors so scared of offending the Dear Leader that they didn’t ask questions about what always looked a very dodgy deal all round?
It is easy enough to tell people in eltham about the screen with a few prominent signs or posters, outside the rail station for starters, or on the high street for instance.
But Greenwich had volunteers outside the O2, and had big-screen ads up too – but both were used to promote the council, not the Peninsula big screen it’d given £40k too.
This isn’t a Greenwich v Eltham argument – they’re different places, and it was an odd omission that Eltham didn’t have a screen. But it seems odd that having invested £40k into the Peninsula project, Greenwich did nothing to promote it.
Also what was very sad, the Stream Arts Charity had invested their time and resources building their ‘City Noises’ Installation. Part of which was a bar. The installation was broken into one night and the bar emptied of supplies. They were persuaded to move their East Greenwich arts project onto Area 12 with the promise of high footfall and international visitors engaging with the exhibition. One wonders how this could have happened with a security company supposedly 24/7 on site.
Im sorry darryl but I never said its eltham v greenwich, I’m referring to the original article comment on how late it is to let people know….