WHITBY WEEKENDER 2006

As co-promoter of this wonderful event, I, together with my partner Bill Snow were looking forward to another special weekend.

The tickets were Sold Out apart from a handful left at the local Tourist office.

Imagine our horror when at 11pm Friday night, we observed a well known character selling counterfeit tickets.

Apparently he had been retailing them for quite some time with no one coming forward to report his behaviour.

The upshot being a security issue resulting in more than 100 being locked out for 90 minutes from 10.30pm. The police arrested him and took him into custody.

The event was superb on Friday, Saturday afternoon and Saturday evening too until the 'roadblock'.

To summarise exactly what happened, though we are still waiting for a full Police and Security summary;

10.30pm Security reported that in their opinion, 1,500 were in the building. As promoters we must adhere to their expertise, although it did look slightly lower than Friday.

11.30 Tensions rose dramatically outside the building as genuine fans could not be admitted at this time. Police were called.

11.35 Bill Snow went outside to talk to fans, while I convinced Police to allow me to make an announcement asking if 60 volunteers would be kind enough to leave early allowing the disgruntled fans back into the venue.

The Police agreed and nearly 80 polite and courteous Soul fans vacated the building allowing others in. They were admitted between 12 midnight and 12.30am.

The tension calmed, the bars which temporarily closed, re-opened and the evening got back on track.

Sunday was a roaring success. I personally spent all Sunday morning and afternoon speaking with non-agressive customers, answering their concerns.

WHITBY 2007

If we decide we want to promote the 5th Soul Weekender at this delightful location, both promoters have agreed to LOWER the capacity even though we are not obliged to.

Tickets will not be on sale. We are implementing a new Security device to allow Soul fans entrance without fear of 'counterfeiters' and other criminal acts.

Unfortunately at least 15% of this year's crowd will be unable to purchase tickets for July 6-8, 07 due to the new lower limit of availability.

Any questions regarding the event can contact us at sales@goldsoul.co.uk