The future of Berrow’s long-running outdoor music event, the Gig On The Green, will be considered at a public meeting tonight (Monday, August 13th).
The meeting has been called by Berrow Community Association, which organises the once-popular fundraising event, following criticism about how it has been run.
The event is overseen by Berrow Community Association’s Entertainments Team and raises cash towards the upkeep and improvement of Berrow Village Hall.
However, its future is in doubt after this year’s event made a loss of over £500, following a loss in 2011 of over £800.
The organisers switched the location of this year’s event from the village green to the village playing fields in a bid to cut costs.
Co-organiser Lynn Smith told Burnham-On-Sea.com: “This year the event was held on the Millennium Field for a couple of reasons. One was to try to reduce costs associated with putting on the event, as the move nearer to the Village Hall meant that portable toilets were not needed, saving us in the region of £400.”
“The second reason was that we rely on a small number of volunteers to organise and set up the event. There are only nine regular volunteer members on the Team, three are over 60 years of age, and four are over 70 years of age.”
“By holding the event on the playing fields adjacent to the Hall and changing rooms complex, we could make use of the facilities there and therefore gazebos were not needed. We also did not need to transport the fridges, freezers, tables, chairs and other equipment needed.”
“This greatly reduced the amount of time that the volunteers had to give up to set up the event. Even so, most of the volunteers gave up between 10-14 hours of their time on the Saturday.”
“Unfortunately, the numbers attending the event were down, possibly due to the bad weather, holidays, the Olympics and, regrettably, people ‘boycotting’ the event due to the move from the Village Green.”
“As the event is put on to try to raise funds for the Village Hall, it is not possible that it continues to make a loss, the event must at least break even.”
A public meeting is therefore being held tonight (Monday) in Berrow Village Hall at 7pm to discuss what the event of the event holds. All are welcome.
Pictured: Berrow’s Gig On The Green over the past three years
