Monday, August 26, 2002

THAT'LL BE THE LAST OF LEEDS, THEN: We can't help wondering if the Mean Fiddler's rep as organisers of secure and safe festivals will survive the latest Leeds Festival mini-riot; certainly the Leeds leg of the Carling Weekend won't. Maybe if they'd really had an alternative site in mind while they were challenging the ban on the Temple Newsham venue, by going there they could have broken the Leeds-Toilet burning link that seems to have formed in segments of the Leeds audience's mind.
We raise our hats to BBC News online, though, for its even-handed reporting of the incidents:
Several hundred festival-goers went on the rampage after the event at Temple Newsam finished, burning two toilet blocks to the ground and attacking police with missiles.
Skips were set alight and electric cables were pulled down, and 200 officers - many in riot gear - were deployed to stop the trouble.
Over 50,000 people attended the three-day event, which otherwise passed off peacefully.

If only they'd been able to report the Jo'burg conference in the same way - "apart from the trouble, it passed off peacefully." Bless.
Maybe next year they should look at getting sponsorship for the toilet-block fires...


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