Anyone else hate the Bray Summerfest funfair?

sallymomo

Hi Bojangles
I highly doubt that some of the posters here talking about other events besides the funfair are doing so "with the intent of deflecting valid criticism of the Funfair.."
I think its just digs in general. And this is the reason why I posted in defence, it was not due to your valid concerns.
I felt obliged as a Bray head (no, not the hotel type) to defend, thats all.

Maybe you should suggest a funfair for the senses for next year (excluding hearing!)

Hopefully the weather lasts past the funfair and you can enjoy once again.

B0jangles wrote: »

Of course, everyone is entitled to their opinion, the more the merrier but this is a thread specifically about the Funfair and the problems it causes for the Seafront. I started it in the first place because I was dreading the arrival of the fair and what would happen for the next month. I wanted to find out if my experiences were shared by other seafront residents and visitors and I think we have largely established that they are.

I don't see why it is necessary for some posters to try to redirect the thread by talking about completely different Summerfest events (ones which no-one has complained about), unless it is with the intent of deflecting valid criticism of the Funfair.

2 weeks is enough

Not sure what boneheads are. You say you live near enough to the seafront, but not near enough to know family homes are made inhabitable by the noise. Not near enough to care. The noise drives tourists who want to stay in the hotels away. That is a sorry fact. The bars make the money through the upselling of alcohol through loud music that is another fact and the legacy of the Summerfest will be A Drunken Mile.

NobodyImportant

I dont know how somebody can defend the Funfair (excluding the likes of the caroussell). It attracts scrotes. Simples. Its funderland on our beach. Families with kids dont come down to put them on vomit makers. It adds nothing to the summerfest and takes away from the beach.

Tourists dont come for vomit makers.
Families dont come for vomit makers.
Vomit makers do not bring anything to the local economy.

Yes, you wont ever have a scrote free beach, but you dont need to attract them either.

Summerfest is brilliant, i love it and it brings a good light on Bray and increases tourism and helps drive the local economy.

Calibos

Jackie O'Driscoll had some horror stories to tell me about the scrotes attracted down that end of the seafront by the funfair.

MyPerfectCousin

NobodyImportant wrote: »

Families dont come for vomit makers.

You never went on funfair rides and had fun on them as a kid? BTW kids can usually handle them just fine, it's usually adults that feel queasy after riding them.

I think the funfair should be limited to three or four days. That's more than enough time for the kids of north Wicklow to get a go and it makes it a special occasion. Four weeks is ridiculous (as is the excessive noise).

B0jangles

Juat wanted to say that I thought the Airshow yesterday was fantastic, and a perfect example of the kind of Summerfest event that I think is 100% positive for everyone; residents and visitors alike.

Congratulations to everyone involved!

foxy06

Must say it was the best airshow so far. Very little time between the planes. Great day out. Shame the beach was so packed with all the markets/funfair/stalls as there was very little room to sit and the grass looks destroyed. The council were out in force this morning though clearing up.

XxMCRxBabyxX

Is it true that some of the parachuters had issues at the airshow this year? Wasn't there myself but heard about it.

foxy06

XxMCRxBabyxX wrote: »

Is it true that some of the parachuters had issues at the airshow this year? Wasn't there myself but heard about it.

One of them had to open the reserve shoot

XxMCRxBabyxX

foxy06 wrote: »

One of them had to open the reserve shoot

I take it that he was alright?

B0jangles

foxy06 wrote: »

Must say it was the best airshow so far. Very little time between the planes. Great day out. Shame the beach was so packed with all the markets/funfair/stalls as there was very little room to sit and the grass looks destroyed. The council were out in force this morning though clearing up.

Yeah, I did notice that the grass is is absolutely woeful condition around the funfair - huge areas are worn right down to the dust .

MyPerfectCousin

I'd say the drought hasn't helped the grass any.

B0jangles

MyPerfectCousin wrote: »

I'd say the drought hasn't helped the grass any.

I thought the same at first, but it is a LOT better in the southern half of the prom - it's fairly brown, but ready to regrow once the rain comes. There's nothing at all left to regrow at the north end.

Car2318

I brought my 2 kids for walk along Bray front this morning. Basically it was disgusting. This was 10am and workers had been collecting rubbish for at least an hour. Those who left their crap behind are a disgrace. I dont care if bins are full, its yours so bring it home. Beautiful area left in a mess. Shameful people.

foxy06

Car2318 wrote: »

I brought my 2 kids for walk along Bray front this morning. Basically it was disgusting. This was 10am and workers had been collecting rubbish for at least an hour. Those who left their crap behind are a disgrace. I dont care if bins are full, its yours so bring it home. Beautiful area left in a mess. Shameful people.

I agree. I saw so many people adding to the piles by the overflowing bins as if ot makes it ok because its NEAR the bin!

B0jangles

XxMCRxBabyxX wrote: »

I take it that he was alright?

I couldn't see the actual landing from where I was but he had switched to the back-up chute very early and looked to be descending at the same rate/angle as the others so I'm pretty sure he was fine.

foxy06

XxMCRxBabyxX wrote: »

I take it that he was alright?

Yes his reserve opened and all was grand. I think the commentators got flustered they didn't know what was going on and whether it was part of the act. Amazing how they landed one after the other on that relatively small space on the beach.

Alun

I noticed one of them descending with a white chute instead of the coloured ones. I assume that was him. The first one seemed to land very close to, if not amongst, the people on the north side of the landing zone, although I was watching through binoculars from Bray Head, so it may not have been as bad as all that.

murpho999

Enjoyed the air show and I don't like dissing a free event but I have 2 gripes.

1) Sound.
The sound quality is terrible, surely in this day and age there must be a better way than crappy tannoys.
Would it not be possible to broadcast it and listen on your smartphone as one option.

2) Variety

A lot of the plane types were similar and doing the same tricks.

Really, do we need a love heart smoke trail from every plane?

Coastguard doing the same rescue every year.

It was good to see they have the timings improved though with no long gaps between planes and I really enjoyed the "Blades" display.

hdowney

sallymomo wrote: »

There seems to be a good deal of negativity on this thread towards the Summerfest, considering the title was about the funfair..
It also seems that people have registered to just have a pop...
I will admit that I am a Bray native and not involved in the Summerfest, but enjoy what it brings every year.
I'd like to address a couple of issues raised in this thread

1) The idea that the "scrotes" etc appear out of the blue due to funfair/summerfest. This is completely untrue. Apart from the fact that Bray has its own unfair collection, take a stroll down the beach any dry evening during the summer - groups of young people drinking can be seen on the beach towards the harbour wall, Bojangles, you have a great view of this from your house..Whether its St Patricks Day or the summer, groups arrive into Bray on the Dart and can cause trouble. (As well as the locals)
2) Tourists not wanting to go out at night. Thankfully, this is not true. Even with Bray's "decorated" history when it comes to Spanish students, I am glad to say that I have noticed quite a lot of tourists in the evenings and at nights on Bray seafront.
3) Only 2 businesses on the seafront benefit from the Summerfest... Whilst I agree that 2 of those businesses benefit greatly from the summerfest, I notice that quite a lot of the units around bray seafront are very busy which is great. It must also be acknowledged that the 2 businesses in question sponsor the Summerfest, a festival that is mostly self funded (through sponsorship etc)
4) The negative impact the summerfest has on Bray's image. Yes, the summerfest do not get everyhing right, but, take this Sunday as an example - the air show. Approx 80k people will attend this event, I'd say that's fairly positive, considering the national coverage it gets.
5) The committee and volunteers of the Bray summerfest give up their time and efforts for free and should be applauded for doing so. If any of the people on this thread believe they have better ideas or alternative ones, why not suggest them or even join? Anything that can improve the perception of Bray and anything that will bring investment in to the town would be welcome.

God knows, Bray needs all the help it can get, especially from those that live in the town.
I agree that constant music outside your house and any other anti social issues that arise from a festival do not have to be tolerated. A lot of towns in Ireland now have their own festivals, I hope we are not the first to ridicule ours into oblivion...

Your point on ridiculing your festival into oblivion - you certainly won't be the first. The Wicklow Regatta Festival is on for a lot less time this year. Every year you get the same people saying that it is crap, nothing on etc, but they don't step up with ideas or suggestions (I was on the committee for four years) and they'd be the first to moan if it did vanish!!


B0jangles. I can completely understand where you are coming from. I live right next to the location of Wicklow Town's funfair. Having your windows open is impossible. We used to have two funfairs a year and the waltzers on the earlier one used to drive me particularly batty. Her going 'Scream For Speed' every five minutes. I wanted to scream but not for speed!!!. I don't think any consideration is made for folks who live next to these green spaces. It is money making simple as. The funfair pay the councils money to be on the spot, and then take money from the rides. So tuff to the local folks and their problems.

NobodyImportant

Did any locals get a letter with free passes and being entered into a draw to win a helicopter trip?

Residents on Meath Rd got this according to my neighbour (we are closer than Meath Rd) and yet we didnt.

B0jangles

hdowney wrote: »

B0jangles. I can completely understand where you are coming from. I live right next to the location of Wicklow Town's funfair. Having your windows open is impossible. We used to have two funfairs a year and the waltzers on the earlier one used to drive me particularly batty. Her going 'Scream For Speed' every five minutes. I wanted to scream but not for speed!!!. I don't think any consideration is made for folks who live next to these green spaces. It is money making simple as. The funfair pay the councils money to be on the spot, and then take money from the rides. So tuff to the local folks and their problems.

Not being able to leave the windows open in this heatwave really has been unbearable.

Also on the bolded part, I do think it is shameful for a local councils, who are presumably supposed to repesent the best interests of the people of Bray, (or in your case, Wicklow Town) to instead choose to sacrifice our ability to live in our own homes, all for a few quid.

(Also I really really feel your "Scream for Speed" pain; we have one line: "Evr'ybody DAAAANCE NOW!" played on repeat every five minutes.

B0jangles

I have a new video:

http://youtu.be/AGXUFPLnihQ

This is what the fair is like when it is pretty much completely empty - none of the rides you can see have anyone on them, but they are still make a whole ton of noise and incidentally are still burning a lot of diesel.

It's like this for hours every day during the week; in a way it's more annoying than when they are busy - at least then there are people having fun.

This is just endless, pointless noise and pollution.

Week after week after week.

Imagine having 5 or 6 articulated lorries parked outside your house with the engines running continuously 12 hours a day for a month - this is pretty much what we are living with, for example, I normally have my t.v volume set to 20, I have to bump it up to 50 to be able to hear over this continuous background noise.

fleury

And imagine the harm being done to your health by all that noise and pollution. In this instance the local council are provinig that they could not care less about the people of Bray Seafront.

hdowney

Since when did they care?!?!

I do understand the positives of it, but it seems the negatives outweigh them, certainly where the people of the locality are concerned. But those in authority are only concerned about the money aspect of it. Sweep the negativity under the carpet there will ya?!?

brayblue24

Any festival organisers reading this:


Please remove or at least disinfect the Portaloos beside the bandstand. Not at all pleasant when walking the prom downwind from these units

Killian allen

Was at the fair last weekend was great no load music great for the kids

hdowney

Our funfair started last night

B0jangles

hdowney wrote: »

Our funfair started last night

You have my sympathy - how long does it stay for?

hdowney

B0jangles wrote: »

You have my sympathy - how long does it stay for?

'officially' it's last day is bank holiday Monday. But we shall see

It is the least time it has been on for in years strangely