AV News 183 - February 2011
GNF 2010: - The Show must go On!
Suzanne Walker ARPS
Everything seemed to be going well. Entries started arriving early, with a good
balance of those from experienced workers and those for Restricted category.
Bookings were up on last year, with several people coming for the first time.
The first hint of possible problems came with the snowfall in Scotland in
November. Not to worry: it won't last long and we don't usually have much in
our part of Cheshire. How wrong can you be! Not only did the snow spread
over much of the country, temperatures plummeted and the snow was still
around at the start of the Festival. Personally, we had very little, but what
about all those due to come : Judges, helpers and audience from far & near?
Cancellations started to come in. Our kitchen helpers couldn't get out of
Buxton and Rotherham. Right. Who can I ask to help instead? Who was most
likely to be there? Carole Bagshaw and Marion Waine said they'd help. Would
Ian & Elaine manage to get through the Midlands? What if we had no Chair
of the Jury? Ron Davies agreed to be on stand-by. Then Keith Fisher's car
collapsed, apparently terminally. No projectionist (or backup projector)! Jeff
Mansell agreed to project, despite not having seen the sequences at proofing.
But now we needed someone else to do the lights.
Next, Howard's car was reluctant to start. During the very cold spell last
winter, he'd had the same problem but thought it was the extreme
temperatures (-19º C). It seems to be something else. We'd have to use my
car. But it's too small for all the equipment, to say nothing of sleeping bags,
snow shovel and emergency food - just in case. Fortunately, Bill Greenhalgh
passes our house on his journey, so he could transport the equipment.
Thursday 2nd. We took it in turns to
answer the phone: there were more
cancellations. We'd expected David
and Barbara Pickford to phone from
Aberdeen …. but we'd not expected
to hear they were intending to come!
Other long distance travellers
were Henk Tulp and Willem van der
Berg who had made the journey from
the Netherlands to be with us.
Friday 3rd: Morning. We were just
preparing to go out and take photos of the
hoar frost when the North West Film
Archive rang. They weren't sure if they
could come. It was a question of getting
home afterwards.
What should we do? About 80 people,
even allowing for cancellations, would
expect a show.
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