MORE than 2,000 people have joined a group attacking organisers of the Godiva Festival.
Creators of Facebook group CV One Stole our Festival have accused the company which manages the city centre, of killing the local element of the popular city festival.
They are angry because acts from outside Coventry and Warwickshire will be competing for this year’s Godiva Unsigned title.
The group has excelled in attracting more members than a general fan group of the Coventry festival.
Group organiser Martin Eaton wrote: “Our main aim is to get the Godiva Festival back to how it was when everyone loved it and to recognise and respect local talent.”
Thousands of posts have been left on the social networking site.
One reads: “The really annoying thing is Martin Reeves, chief executive of Coventry City Council, was in the paper a few weeks ago calling the people of Coventry unambitious.
“But, excuse me, Godiva started as a local community festival if I am not mistaken? It is now supporting the arts of another city which he wants us to get out from under the shadow of.
“CV One is partially funded by the city council. Anyone see the hilarity and yet total annoyance of this fact?”
Another said: “There are loads of bands in Coventry which would benefit from going on a stage and this chance is being taken away by random bands from Birmingham who no one knows. I’m very outraged.”
But CV One has said they were only reacting to suggestions the competition should encompass the rest of the region.
Mick McLaughlin, marketing and communications manager, said: “We are very disappointed by the Facebook campaign, as we responded to the public’s request to encourage a wider range of live acts to apply to the Godiva Unsigned competition.
“We are also saddened that a proportion of these Facebook entries have resorted to personal criticism of CV One’s services, products and individual staff members.
“We appreciate that people can and should have the opportunity to voice their opinions but to single out individual staff members is, we believe, completely unnecessary and potentially libellous.
“This year, of the bands that entered the competition, only 19 per cent of the original entrants lived in Coventry.
“The remaining 81 per cent came from across the West Midlands region.
“It is wholly erroneous therefore to suggest that there is no Coventry representation in this year’s competition as some of the Facebook contributors seem to believe.”
What do you think? Write to us or email timesletters@mrn.co.uk.
Mick McLaughlin, marketing and communications manager, said: “We are very disappointed by the Facebook campaign, as we responded to the public’s request to encourage a wider range of live acts to apply to the Godiva Unsigned competition.
ReplyDelete______________________
Which members of the general public exactly CV One? There is a very wide range of extremely talented musicians in Coventry and Warwickshire. Godiva festival is funded by Coventry City Council tax payers, NOT Birmingham, Leicester and Staffordshire!
Loosing our local Friday Spotlight tent was bad enough but to almost completely obliterate Coventry bands from the Godiva Unsigned competition is outrageous.
As far as I am aware, there are no personal criticisms against individual CVOne staff members.
ReplyDeleteWould CVOne please comment on the Facebook page citing these examples of "potentially libellous" comments. If not, that in itself could be seen as a "potentially libellous" comment against the organisers of the Facebook page.
If there are criticisms of CVOne's services etc - that is the right of the people paying CVOne's wages I believe.
Also there IS already a wide enough range of acts in Cov & Warks. The fact that these acts are increasingly turning away from entering the competition is because of the perception of less than fair dealings that is inherent each year.
Last year's scandal involving the above poster is a prime example.
Stop moaning, I don't want to see the same old tired local bands at my festival.
ReplyDeleteIt appears that CVOne are adopting a rather intransigent position in order to defend their decision which was taken as a result of "responding to the public's request". Quoted by CVOne's Marketing & Communications Manager, Mick McLaughlin.
ReplyDeleteThere is no further information regarding how this information was gathered - either qualitative or quantitative - however, he now has around 3,000 requests that are transparent to the general public and measurable in both dimensions.
I think it is a reasonable expectation that he should either respond in a similar manner - or provide the results of his previous survey in order to demonstrate that this current campaign has insufficient numbers to be statistically significant.