Q in Victoria Park

ben0239

Well-Known Forumite
My thoughts on the Q in the Park event are broadly aligned with those of MarkPA. I acknowldge that the organisers had a difficult brief in trying to cater for the V festival goers aswell as offering something for the Stafford Residents. I also appreciate that they may be young and inexperienced at organising such events.

In my opionion they failed to meet either brief. If they are going to bill the event as Q in the Park they need to do more to create a party atmosphere a "Mini V". To do this they need to do a number of things:

1. Make the music louder so it can actually be heard at the station to draw people in.
2. Introduce some food and drink tents/stalls. These travellers may have travelled some distance and have had to endure some overpriced train food, therefore I am sure they would welcome some nice food when they arrived in Stafford. Stafford boasts allegedly the best burger in the world, and Stafford has a number of brilliant local brewerys so why not have a burger stall and some beer tents. Beer can then be sold in small cardboard cartons for the revellers to take away. This would certainly be better for them than paying the inflated prices at V.
3. Have some stalls that will appeal to the V festival goers. I have been to V on numerous occasions and you will be surprised by the number of people that forget the essentials such as tents, waterproofs, wellies etc, so why not have a stall selling that stuff rather than money boxes which is what I saw on Saturday.
4. More activities. I appreciate that the event was supposed to be set up to entertain the quese of people (which now seem long gone unless the V organisers can get there act together) while they waited for the bus.....but surely we can do better than that. Rather than trying to entertain them for a short period lets try and encourage them to stay for at least an hour by giving them some better entertainment. I went to the inflatable world in Cannock and that was excellent, and it appealed to young and old. This activity would therefore meet both briefs.
5. Up until these visitors booked there V tickets I am sure that not many of them knew anything about Stafford or where it even was, so lets try and showcase Stafford to these visitors as well as educating the local residents.

Events such as party in the Park, and the excellent Cheese and Ale festival etc show that Stafford can put on a show and create excellent atmospheres......but we certainly did not show that (in my opinion) at Q in the Park.
 

markpa12003

Well-Known Forumite
As I think was previously pointed out you only needed to register for tickets to book your place on a workshop - to learn Brazilian drumming or circus skills or whatever....

I'm afraid that's not the case. The tickets were for the event itself not for any particular workshop. Had it been for a particular workshop I would have expected it to have asked you / me when completing the registering process what workshop you wanted to book onto. It did not. It merely stated you were registered to attend the event. Hence my first post on here.
 

markpa12003

Well-Known Forumite
I think you have misunderstood the raison d'être of the whatsit -
- which was for what ^he said.

If it is to continue (which ^he reckons doubtful) it probably needs to be 'remastered' as a local event for local people * we'll have no trouble here * what the Q-ees can gawp at a bit on the way through.
Generally, i would have to agree with ^him.

I am well aware that the event was now being marketed for the general public, as well as those waiting to go to V. However, it still doesn't alter the fact that if you want to attract people to the event you need to do (1) provide a reason for visiting and (2) provide them with a reason to stay whether that be for a few minutes or all day.

The organisers managed to fulfil the first objective. They booked some 'live bands'. Brilliant. However, they failed on point (2). if you want to try and encourage people to stay then provide them with good live music (check) and decent food and refreshments. If I had wanted to stay all day, my only choice of food and refreshments was a burger van. Had the organisers organised an outside bar or a booked a number of food outlets selling a selection of drinks and food people may have considered staying longer. A complete missed opportunity.

As for the V crowd, they were in Weatherspoons doing what I expect them to do. Having a (decent - ish) meal and drinking alcohol. Had the organisers provided either of those things the organisers may have encouraged those people to stay in the park.

The event needs a vast amount of improvement. Surely we can do better than a couple of bouncy castles, a burger van and 1 fair ground for a party in the park!
 
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