Newapproach... or festival will end

September 1984

A more professional approach will be needed during next year’s Bray Fetsival... or else the event will fold up.

That’s the hard-hitting message this week from members of the Bray Festival committee as they prepare for their annual general meeting next Monday.

The meeting will be a public one at which all local groups, clubs, organisations and individuals will be invited to make their suggestions about how the festival should be run next year.

According to a spokesman for the committee, they were unhappy about certain aspects of this year’s festival last June, the second to be held in Bray.

The committee felt that many of the groups participating in the fortnight-long festival programme did not plan or organise themselves well enough.

The result was that many events did not betin on time or could have been better run, to the disappointment of spectators.

The spokesman said that because the festival committee was so small, they had to rely heavily on the cooperation and help of other groups taking part.

He also called for greater involvement and interest in the Bray Festival by local traders, the Bray Rotary Club, the Bray Chamber of Commerce and Bray Urban Council.

In addition he attacked the Eastern Regional Tourism Organisation ffor not giving stronger support to this year’s festival.

He concluded by stating that the committee would like to see a development of the idea of using the festival as a tourist attraction, particularly aimed at Irish people living in Britain.