Comments on: Dragon Festival organizers respond to criticism

By: Morrigan

Morrigan — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 17:33:12 +0000

Coming from a place where there is an abundance of security cameras I can inform h.morgan that they make no difference to the well being and safety of the general public. Crime and anti social behaviour still abound. Cameras are no deterrent. The criminals know that if they do get caught they’ll only get a minimal sentence or a slap on the wrist.

Events like the Newcastle Emlyn Dragon Festival are sorely needed to bring communities together. People of all ages get involved in these events, they get a feeling of achievement and togetherness. This can only be a good thing in this day and age when many communities are being split up.

All those involved in the Dragon Festival, keep up the marvellous work.

By: tim duckitt

tim duckitt — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 16:40:52 +0000

I thought last year’s dragonfest was excellent, and gave benefit to the community worth more than the £47k – which would have only been spent elsewhere had it not been applied for here. here’s a hypothetical question: “If nobody had applied for funding (and no festival took place) would h.morgan have thought to apply for funding for the lousy cameras???”

By: Elizabeth Hurford

Elizabeth Hurford — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 23:35:21 +0000

I am so very disappointed by the continuing negative tone of the comments by H. Morgan. The fact that Pamela Gaunt has felt it necessary to respond to the petty commentry from H.Morgan saddens me. Where are we in society when something is attained for the good of a community only to have it broken down and discredited by an individual?

Why are you so concerned about the details of the distribution of the grant monies, H. Morgan? Where you equally concerned about the monies provided to the Town Council for various schemes? What about the monies spent on the development of the Castle meadow? How much money was spent on that development project? Where did it come from?

What have we been left with as a community? All I can see are some very over grown shapeless bushes, erractic concrete paving and some slightly above ground level metal plaques bent completely out of shape. It seems an unfortunate commentary on our town when something creative is conceived and created successfully can be so willingly damned and discredited by an individual with little or no purpose.

By: Pamela Gaunt

Pamela Gaunt — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 23:02:13 +0000

I am quite shocked at the level of hostility in H.Morgans comments….however I will choose to respond with the information required.

The gestation period of a creative vision, and the time and energy and work involved in manifesting that is a very long one…and I guess I know myself when that was conceived, which was actually about eight years ago..(rather than in conversations to inform, and involve people near the event).

Two hundred schools were contacted by Carmarthenshire Arts/Education Officer to tell the story and history of Newcastle Emlyn and inform about the festival. I have the name of who that officer was and of what and where this was sent if H Morgan wishes to see it.

The film premier is about to be advertised for a free showing on at Wed. Nov 28th at Emlyn Arms.

There have been press releases and radio news to invite people to collate and edit the book, which is scheduled to be ready next May, If H.Morgan (or anyone else) wishes to be involved in being creatively and constructively involved in this, contact Annette on 01559 370969. The story and music CD is similarly scheduled for May. Obviously, we are responsible to Heritage Lottery to monitor and evidence all of the things which we are being funded to achieve. If we dont deliver any part of the programme, we don’t receive the funding for them.

Regarding the accounts, if H Morgan wishes to see our accounts s/he could phone or email us and we could happily arrange for that to happen. As we did to inform the town council.

The website is currently being designed, and will be an ongoing development over years. http://www.heartofthedragonwales.org

The funding was based on an estimate of 1,000 people attending the festival and in fact around 3,000 did. Counted and written down by objective gatekeepers I still have the paperwork. Neither Heritage Lottery nor any of us thought of this number as ‘a few’ but rather were delighted at tripling our estimate and I thought I had explained very clearly that the festival was only part of the funded programme. I hope H Morgan comes to the film showing and enjoys it and introduces him/her self, as I don’t remember all of the hundreds of people I spoke to over the past two years.

I am also glad that s/he thinks the idea was a wonderful one. It will depend on there being enough goodwill, energy and interest from the town as to whether there might be any more festivals.

We’ll see where the Dragons fire wishes to next blaze! After we have professionally and competently fulfilled the Heritage Lottery programme that is.

By: H. Morgan

H. Morgan — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 18:09:59 +0000

In reply to E Hurford, we are not undermining anything, in fact the idea of a Dragon Festival is wonderful, it’s the amount of money compared to the very few that turned up is what is of concern. M/s Gaunt told me at one point that she was in communication with two hundred local schools? Where were they on the weekend, four or five seemed to have participated. I just feel that there is a great deal of exageration surrounding the whole event and having attended the festival I am at a loss to as to were £47,000 went to.