“First of all, congratulations to "Rambling Sid" for his brilliant re-write of "Spanish Ladies".

Nice to hear so much support for "Sea Fever"

Regarding the alleged drunkenness - I've obviously been at Sea Fever all day every day since it started. I have not seen any significant drunkenness at this event. Maybe "Frank, Pier" was there at a different time to me? or at a different event? Or just being deliberately provocative? He seems to have spent some time at the marina on bank holidays (BTW Sea Fever was not on a bank holiday). In my experience, if the occasional drunk made an appearance at Sea Fever they would pretty soon go away because they were vastly outnumbered by people who were enjoying themselves and behaving in a proper manner.

BTW Frank any late-night drunks at the marina would not be associated with the festival - the performances at Marina finish at 5.00 pm.

The only time I remember having drunks trouble was Artistes getting threatened by drunks at night in the A. Gelder Street / Victoria Square / Queens Gardens area.

On matters of finance I am not permitted to disclose financial details, but suffice to say that "Sea Fever" has always been a modestly budgeted event. Shanty singers and the like do not get rock star fees and the event infrastructure is likewise not particularly elaborate or expensive. None of the event's suppliers make makes big profits out of it. Nevertheless these modest costs have to be met and safety requirements complied with, so the event is not one that could be properly funded on the existing scale by means of the pubs chucking in a few quid. It would need a good sized company or a consortium to be able to do the job properly on the existing scale. It might prove possible to do something on a smaller scale, but we have to remember that for an event to have any credibility or sustainability there are significant basic costs that have to be met. Lottery funding is almost certainly not an option, even if it were, the lead time is excessive.

As regards cash generation . . . . I know that Sea Fever, Freedom and other events generate huge spin-off revenues but these mostly do not go into the City Council's coffers and are thus not available to support other events. The thousands or millions represent money spent by attendees at the events and will be beer in the pubs, meals at restaurants, bus and taxi fares, car parking, hotel and guest house accommodation spending in shops etc. etc. etc. the point being that all this spending helps to keep the City alive and in some cases may make the difference between a business closing down or surviving.

So, there is some food for thought!

Best to all.

Shanty Jack.”

“If only Cllr Welton and cronies hadn't spent so much cash celebrating that lewd seedy racist nazi loving immigrant poet/writer!”

“Here he goes again, Pete Allen the ex Liebour Councillor who keeps getting thrashed by the lib dems, posting under the name of 'Fib Dems- Light Blue Tories',
come on Pete you silly old sausage, we all know it's you!”

“The question to be asked with the Freedom Festival is who gains financially? If as they claim, the Freedom Festival brings in £5m to the local economy then why doesn¿t private enterprise put it on and pay for it rather than Hull City Council?

Perhaps the questions overall should be who gains from any of the Festivals. It¿s a question of priorities.

There can be NO justification for Hull City Council paying £200,000 for private enterprise to make money and at the same time cutting funding for children with disabilities.

But now we know which mast the Fib Dems have nailed their colours too?”

“Frank the freedom festival relevant as it continues at the loss of the Sea Shanty Festival and who are you who is to say what is OT or not!”

“This event, as much as I personally find it boring, links with our culture and heritage. The pop concert doesn't. The pop concert should be left to the private sector to deliver, perhaps leave it to the SMC to host it at the KC. The KC is back in business re concerts so we don't need Hull City Council to be running one. The problem for the Sea Shanty, along with the Jazz Festival and probably the more recent Comedy Festival is that they aren't considered 'Major' events and if I recall wouldn't therefore attract additional funding through VHEY. I'm fed up with the overexposure of Hull's 'freedom' tag and I welcomed the Larkin stuff including the Toads. In fairness, Rick Welton did very, very well to get it up and running.”

“Well Richard - as you live in Keyingham (if indeed you do), you won't have to worry about any of the festivals will you. You can stay in the sticks and pull turnips.

I for one will be sorry to see the Sea Shanty Festival go, as I was when the jazz festival was pulled out of Queens Gardens, We have this lovely green area in the centre of the city and rarely used. The Sat/Sun of the jazz festival there were wonderful days out and incidently it would have been the ideal place for the now defunct big screen.

I despair of this council”

“The people organising this don't need the city council, have they tried Lottery funding?
Unity Day in Leeds gets by without any help from Leeds City Council, see how they do it at http://www.unityday.org.uk/”

“When will the population of Britain wake up realise that these cuts are just a big con and
a the tories are using them as an excuse to get back at the country for not voting for them for 10+years
and b , councils are using them to get rid of events they dont like.
I for one will miss the festival , not to everyones taste and thats probably why its going.”

“The city of Hull has a fishing and shipping heritage. However, as usual the brains in the Guildhall - rather than celebrating a rich history and injecting some characterful culture into Hull - would rather fill the city with drunken chavs and talentless noise merchants.

As for the Freedom Festival bringing £5million to the city - whatever!”