‘I will really miss dancing in Queen Square’

I really love the Harbour Festival and a Friday night party in Queen Square has been one of the highlights of my year for many, many years.

I have noticed, however, that every year the end time of the music creeps earlier and earlier. I can remember dancing happily away (with a can of Thatchers, of course) to DJ Derek in the dark with the disco lights from the stage lighting up the ultimate free night-park-disco-party. It really gave you a great feeling of what is great about Bristol, that such an event is run, it is open to everyone and was a really, really positive night to enjoy with your friends!

The music now stops when the sun is still up, however, normally being a source of great bemusement to a crowd who also remembers dancing under the starts to DJ Derek.

The choice of music headliners in recent years on the Friday evening have also not tended to support the well established vibe of a Friday night dance under the stars (smooth jazz one year?!?) – again, much to the bemusement of regular festival goers.

I can’t help but conclude that organisers do not in fact like one of the best things about the festival – the Friday night party in Queen Square.

This is really, really disappointing. It would be great if organisers embraced the spirit and positivity of the Friday night in Queen Square, rather than seeming to try to undermine it at every turn. If something is working well and is loved by so many, why on earth would you muck with a formula that works?

And please do not tell me it is about music licences, etc – if Arcadia can have a late night party in Queen Square, so can the Harbour Festival!

For these reasons, I cannot say that I reacted with delight to the announcement that there will be no Friday night music in Queen Square this year.

A ticketed event at which (I reasonably presume) you will not be able to BYO cider, is completely against the ethos and long established traditions of the festival. It puts a price bar on what should be a free event and moves it away from its spiritual home of Queen Square.

I have nothing against Echo and the Bunnymen, but we already have the Summer Series gigs in the amphitheatre, so there is nothing special about yet another paid for gig – you might as well add it into that Summer Series of gigs as the proposed event bears no relation to the history or ethos of the Harbour Festival.

I really hope that this is not a beginning of the end.

My friends and I did not react positively to this announcement and I would hope that there is a little more critical thought placed into whether this announcement is actually a good thing for Bristol and the Harbour Festival.

I have a sinking feeling though that after this year we will be told what a “success” the changes to the Friday night were (no doubt it will have been “popular” too) and so never again will we experience the true joy of a Harbour Festival Friday night. I really, really hope this is not the case and I am overreacting.

Hopefully this “treat” will only be done once for the 45th anniversary and we will be dancing under the stars in Queen Square again in 2017.

This opinion piece was originally published as a comment underneath the article, Echo & the Bunnymen to open Harbour Festival

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