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A great idea gone astray as far as I can see.
A year long festival was never going to work, as Howard has stated, most of the year has been padded out in the quieter months with a list of church services.
What should have happened is this.
1. A proper launch starting say the beggining of May, with the festival running until say end of August
2. A vast array of events could have been put into those few months. The biggies such as 1940's weekend,Carnival, regatta, kite festival, horticultural festival, priory forum, Community safety day,connaught park.
On the weekends in between all of these could have been padded the slightly smaller events, paper boat race etc.
3. End the festival with a proper closing ceremony.
What has happened is, as I guessed it would, people lost interest.
Dover festival has a huge potential, but not in it's current format. There is no reason it cannot happen every year, but not for a whole year. It simply was never going to work, and anyone who thought a year long festival would, were very much looking at it through rose tinted specks.
Mand x