Nothing to do with non-forward planning - planning started summer term last year. For some reason, the Artsfest committee were not told about the Malaysian booking until December 18th.

To answer your question: No affordable venue has a large enough performance area for orchestras, dancers etc. suitable performance facilities, capacity for 200+ performers and their equipment at such short notice, hence why its not taking place in the UCH etc. We have looked into it, even as far afield as Fulham Town Hall.

As of late last night, I was informed that there is actually a slim possibility it still may take place on either Monday or Tuesday. I'm not going to elaborate further.

Anyways, there's lots of other fantastic free events, concerts and activities to get involved in throughout the week regardless. The full line-up will be released at the beginning of February.

Hi, Gavin.

Thanks for your comment. I hope that the ArtsFest committee are able to find a suitable solution soon. Everyone on the committee does a sterling job.

As for "forward planning": I gathered from the paper submitted to Council that as the date wasn't fixed the committee hadn't put the booking in as soon as bookings were open. If this isn't the case then my sincerest apologies to the committee (whom I don't believe I have "blamed" in this article anyway). However if it wasn't the case that the booking was made after that of Malaysian Society then I'm not sure why that paper was brought to Council.

Lawrence

I am fully aware you didn't criticise anyone in this article, was just mearly pointing out a few things.

Its more of the case that the Artsfest committee aren't elected until May/June (after the Artsfest Chair has been elected in March). The dates of Artsfest are then decided upon, where one of the considerations is the availability of the Great Hall on Friday.

Great Hall bookings don't work like Union bookings. They are done through Conferences and have no opening or closing period, you just need at least 3 weeks notice. They were led to believe from this summer that the Great Hall was free on the 26th, when in fact it had been booked in April.

Jenny & I presented the paper to Council to try and avoid a situation like this again. The paper allows the early booking of the Great Hall and therefore the early avoidance of a situation like this, and also it means easier and earlier planning and better organisation for all who are involved in Artsfest.

So essentially this is a conferences screw-up?

No, this was not a conferences screw up. I believe it was just unfortunate that the Malaysian society booked the Great Hall in April 2009 (as Gavin said, the committee weren't elected at the time so not their fault), so that when they got around to booking it, it was taken.

The seventh week of term, chosen by the committee, is widely seen as an optimal choice. As the paper passed in council says, is an ideal medium for the clubs that participate in ArtsFest as it gives them time to prepare without impeding on many of their end of term concerts. Like the series of books, its just been a series of unfortunate events which we have now taken steps to prevent from happening in the future.

...the hall doesn't happen to be available at any time the following week? If it is then why not have ArtsFest fortnight?

What's the point in failing to criticize complete failure? Because someone in the process has failed completely!

Either:

The Artsfest committee failed to check whether the Great Hall was free before choosing a date.

The Artsfest committee chose a date before Malaysian soc, checked the Hall was free but didn't bother to book it.

Internal bookings allowed a double booking and have only just realised their mistake.

Or the Artsfest committee failed to realise that this is probably the most important thing to consider when choosing which week to hold Artsfest!

It would be interesting to know which of these is the case.

Wow. That's freaky. I was making EXACTLY the above point to somebody ten minutes before this was posted...

Post #7 more perfectly puts my question from Post #4. Someone messed up in one of the above four ways... and I am also mystified as to who it was and how. I was hoping that this article would bring that answer out of the woodwork.

I was also hoping that this article might provoke somebody to try and suggest a solution. Maybe Gavin could update us if there is any news?

Actually, ArtsFest booked the Great Hall provisionally over the summer, having been informed by internal bookings that the date was free (despite the Malaysian society's prior booking). ArtsFest only found out about the mistake right at the end of last term.

Does that answer your question?

Well yes of course! Though having had experience with internal bookings I was unaware they did "provisional" bookings - care to elaborate?

Why would they not find an alternative venue? I mean it's not that difficult?! Of the top of my head I can think of 3 other places where it could have been held...

@11

Why don't you suggest them then?

Maybe Malaysian Society should give up the Great Hall for Artsfest, for a modest fee of course, after all we are not communists.

What's the story with AF this year then? We've heard nothing about it aside from this story and it's in under a month. It would be a pity not to have a finale after the success of last year's.

On Thursday 25th February, ArtsFest will be presenting the ArtsFest Showcase in the Great Hall (a la the Finale Concert).

The entire schedule is essentially confirmed and all the publicity will be starting in the next two weeks.

I hope that Live! will help support the publicity of the festival.

Sigh. Another rehearsal in MechEng. Surprised choir gave up their slot when Mr Capps wouldn't.

Hi, Gavin.

If you could email live@imperial.ac.uk with some more details of the showcase then we could run an article saying it's back on.

If you keep us posted with ArtsFest info and updates then we'll continue to publicise ArtsFest with articles as we have done in previous years.

Thanks,

Lawrence

So let's go over what happened:

• Lawrence calls the committee incompetent.
• Live! places posters all over campus informing students that there is no grand concert.
• Gavin informs Lawrence that a concert is indeed taking place.
• Lawrence starts chasing up societies begging for more information on their participation in ArtsFest. Should I mention that e-mails were sent to societies that are not taking part in the first place? Desperate, aren't we?

Sorry mate, but this article screams "stupid move" to me. You don't steal your friend's partner and then expect him to be the best man at your wedding...

Oh, as for the ArtsFest committee picking the wrong week. I would agree with that had it not been the union that scheduled all "week" themed events centrally. Having been involved in Malaysian night in the past I can tell you how many times we had "no other events are taking place" was said to us...

As for Mr. Uninformed 10. A booking through conference is provisional until the booking gets approved by the fire officers and security. Now before you jump on the wagon of "they should have cleared everything with them" I'd ask you to remember that they wouldn't have had floor plans or performers list by then. If you are still struggling to understand "provisional" I suggest consulting a dictionary.

I think the committee has done a superb job making a come back from such nonsense and I look forward to the week.

Good luck, Nicky!

@18: The emails sent to the Clubs & Socs taking part in ArtsFest were so that I could today write a "Look How Amazing ArtsFest is!" article.

This one was correct at the time of going online, in that there wasn't a concert planned. The concert that Gavin informed me was taking place was arranged quite a while after this and the posters.

Thanks :) We appreciate your support, and it looks like the week is going to be absolutely amazing!

To clarify one thing - it was never ever decided at an ArtsFest committee meeting to cancel the big ArtsFest concert. While we were trying to find alternative venues/dates, we briefly considered it but soon rejected the idea. Nobody should ever have been told it wasn't happening, and we all feel that this article and the posters that went up were competely unfair.

Hope everyone enjoys the week!

P.S. If Lawrence wants to find out about the clubs and societies taking part in ArtsFest, he could just contact us directly. After all, we are the ones organising it ;)

You are quite welcome, Nicky. I loved the things that took place today (apart from carrying a lone balloon).

Lawrence,

As Nicky has said, I don't believe there was a point in time when the ArtsFest committee told you that no concert was taking place. With all due respect to Gavin as the AEB chair he is not the ArtsFest chair, you could have easily obtained the information from the horse's mouth.

As for saying "there wasn't a concert planned"...there is a massive difference between saying "No concert is confirmed yet" and "OMG BBQ there is no concert at all". Sorry, but it seems like you simply wanted a story when there wasn't one.

So in essence this article was never true and simply came from an uninformed decision to publish it. Which also came from the very same uninformed person that wondered why the concert hall/another venue was used. That person also happens to be the uninformed person who e-mailed wrong societies. I don't know about you, but I would have asked the committee to answer my question after the first mistake.

Oh, I don't want to hold you back. You know the "Look How Amazing ArtsFest is!" article you wanted to write today? You have 11 minutes left for that. Tick, tock.