³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ

In October 2007, the Trustees of the festival took the decision that the event could no longer be held in its old format in the town centre as it was increasingly difficult to manage it spread across many venues. In addition, the sheer number of people attending puts a lot of pressure on the Town and it was also felt that there wasn't enough room for what was wanted in the future. A number of local venues were investigated before the decision to hold ROTW 2008 at Hitchin Priory was taken.

As a result, for the first time there will be an admittance charge of £5.00 per day as organisers say that this is now the only way that ROTW can cover the ever increasing costs of running the festival. And their Website says that this will also help to raise funds to support more community projects – something that has been an unfulfilled aim of the ROTW Charity for many years. Steve Smither, ROTW Treasurer, explained more about the charge.

Hammerfluff

"When we did the budget for putting on Rhythms at the Priory, it was going to cost us £150,000" he said, "so we had to look at all the ways that we could raise that money.

"We looked at all our different forms of income - we'd got sponsorship, grants and programme advertising but we still had a big gap and it was a case of looking at that gap and saying how can we fill that. We felt it wasn't unreasonable to ask people to pay a small fee to actually attend the festival and I think £5.00 for an adult and £4.00 for a child is fantastic value for the quality and for the amount of entertainment that you're going to get at the festival."

So what do you get for your money?

Well, ROTW 2008 will run from midday until 11.00pm on the Saturday and from midday until 9.00pm on the Sunday. There will be performances of a worldwide range of music and dance across six stages, a children’s area, art displays and, for the very first time, a grass ‘Arena’ which local sporting and other community groups can use to both compete in and exhibit.

Six Point Five

So, it is hoped that a new site will be an opportunity to do things better than before, and include new things and involve more of the community. Steve also revealed that this year is really about survival.

"It's a very difficult time that the festival's going through, it's a transitional period" he said.

"We're putting on a fantastic event and we're really hoping that the local community buys into that and sees that what we're trying to do is put something into the community."