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Exactly one month to go until Palmers Green Festival 2016. Expect the same mix as before of fun and games, food and drink, music and dancing, things to buy, people to talk to...
However, behind the scenes there will be some changes in the way the PG Festival is run this year. The chief organiser behind all the Festivals to date, and this year's too, is Phillip Chard, who explains how the Festival's phenomenal success makes it necessary to do things a bit differently this time:
"The aim for the Festival has always been simply to celebrate our diverse community with a free festival in the local park.
"Palmers Green Festival is proud to have gained 'annual status' in Palmers Green’s cultural diary. However, it’s possibly on the verge of become a victim of its own success! It seems the more successful our festival becomes, the more expensive it becomes!
"Since it began, the festival has always been run by volunteers but as the festival has grown in popularity each year we gradually realised that we could no longer expect our volunteers to do the heavy logistical 'cars in & cars out' set-up schedule at 6.30 in the morning.
"Neither can they be called upon any more to look after the 6000 people who attended last year, consequently this year we will need to hire in professional stewards to make sure everything runs smoothly and safely.
"When we factored all the extra costs into this year’s budget. We discovered that we were paying practically everyone except the musicians!....This was no longer fair to us. so, we are trying to raise the funds so that we can pay the musicians at least the Musicians Union’s minimum rate.
"The festival will always be free and open to everyone, however costs are such that we would accept and appreciate any donation offered.
"If you know someone who might like to sponsor the event. please ask them to get in touch."
Some facts about the festival
In 2016 the Festival donated £1000.00 to the Ruth Winston Centre for their Ending Loneliness Project
Festival doesn’t look to make a huge profit and any surplus is invested back into the event.
It’s going to cost us a shocking £1050.00 just to clear the litter away from the day's event!
Security & traffic stewards will cost us nearly £2100.00
First Aid for the day supplied by St. John’s will cost nearly £500.00
It costs £920.00 just to use the park
All the licences we will need for one day, PRS, PPL, OSL, TEN will cost £600.00
Toilets are a flushing £500.00
Insurance is coming in at nearly £500.00
We’d like to pay the Musicians in the two performance areas, this is coming in at £2500.00 if we pay MU minimum. We are actively looking for Sponsorship for the performance areas of the festival
If you haven't been to a previous PG Festival, the video below from 2013 will give you a good idea of what it's like (just multiply the number of people by 3 or 4!)
