please empty your brain below
The one clear culture that was experienced seems to be the one we hear a lot about nowadays: "increased/heightened security".

V | 12.01.19 - 11:02 a.m. | #

Lovely I'm sure, but how much did this cost and how could the money have been better spent in these 'intersting times'?

Blue Witch | Homepage | 12.01.19 - 11:08 a.m. | #

Did anyone explain why the security checking was required for the park, but not elsewhere? Knives, perhaps? And the absence of lighting inside?

I wonder if anyone has considered the security implications of making hundreds (thousands?) of people spend the best part of an hour queueing to get in.

Sounds like they need a fast-track queue - possibly a separate entrance - for people without bags. And more stewards. And a less paranoid attitude to security.

Andrw | 12.01.19 - 11:13 a.m. | #

As the winning Borough of Culture for 2019, Waltham Forest receives a £1.35m grant from the Mayor of London and the Heritage Lottery Fund. City Hall's contribution is approximately 12p per Londoner.

All the non-security stewards were volunteers.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 12.01.19 - 1:25 p.m. | #

Thanks for the photos. Means I don't have to bother going to look even though I live mere minutes away. I certainly wouldn't queue for the better part of an hour. I fear we are going to have a year peppered with regular events clogging up the area.

PC | 12.01.19 - 2:23 p.m. | #

No I can't work out what the point of the security was either. Because let's face it, if you had bad intentions, you could do enough in the queue!

Andrew Bowden | Homepage | 12.01.19 - 2:43 p.m. | #

No doubt the reason for security in the park was 'insurance'. In an enclosed area the Council would have had to have insurance and the insurance company (playing safe because they don't have to deal with all the queues) would have insisted on that level of security.

Often events are made uneconomical and cancelled because of insurance demands.

RayL | 12.01.19 - 4:44 p.m. | #

Thanks DG

Bruce Wayne | 12.01.19 - 4:47 p.m. | #

I grew up in Walthamstow and was always amazed that such a nondescript part of London had such a stunning Town Hall. Those lights certainly show it off well.

James Webber | 12.01.19 - 7:11 p.m. | #

£1.35m grant - presumably with funding from the winning Borough - matched funding - or more? Sorry, but, that public money could have been so much better spent.

Blue Witch | 12.01.19 - 7:16 p.m. | #

I visited on Saturday early evening and the stewards were a shambles...very disorganised and kept changing what they said...also not all of them had been told the same thing so it was a mess. That was my problem with the whole thing, but everything else (the art and installation and entertainment) was ok.

Both Lloyd Park and Town Hall had the security and stewards with bag searches, metal detectors, etc. I believe they were looking for weapons and they did a very thorough search.

http://jenikya.com/blog/2019/01/walthamstow-london-borough-of-culture.html

jenikya | Homepage | 13.01.19 - 1:05 a.m. | #

Could see the nest lightshow driving down the M11 at Loughton on Friday evening.Probably more spectacular close up but I didn't bother attending. The main reason was I had no idea it was going on, there wasn't much publicity from WFBC in my area (Higham Hill so quite close to the action). I drove\walked\bussed up Forest Road quite a lot over the Christmas period and there were signs saying the road would be closed this weekend for "an event". No mention of what that event was.

E17Ian | 13.01.19 - 9:34 a.m. | #

Unfortunately as has been pointed out to me, if you read the news reports Waltham Forest is indeed the Borough of Culture, sadly mostly Drug Culture, Gang Culture, and Knife Culture lets hope that this new impetus allows the Borough to start on the path to cleansing these issues.

firescouter | 13.01.19 - 12:30 p.m. | #

I went on Saturday at about 9. Wasn't going to go into Lloyd Park due to the queue, but after noticing it was actually moving quickly I joined the queue and was in the park within 10 minutes.
Nest was very good both in and out of the circle, but in was better as you got a tunnel effect at times. There was lots of oooo'ing and cooooo'ing from the assembled visitors, followed by argh'ing the following morning due the stained necks.
They had closed the green by the town hall for the last showing, so I watched from behind the fence but was still impressed, especially by the user of the clock tower.

Was it part of the best way to spend £x? A lot of people would probably say not, but you could say the same about Trident, Wind Power, railways, roads, art galleries.

The event was published in the council's free paper, but suspect most people put that straight in the bin.

James | 14.01.19 - 2:03 p.m. | #

The third picture in some way reminds me of the "Commodore Christmas Demo" for the C64 from the early 80's. :)

MiaM | 25.01.19 - 9:30 a.m. | #











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