We’ve been awfully quiet the last few weeks, haven’t we? You probably assumed we were enjoying the summer, relaxing, and celebrating the festival selling out.
And for a good five minutes, we were. But things never go as planned, and we’d barely finished our celebratory cocktails when we received an urgent message to come to Waterfront.
Officially, we won’t get the key to Waterfront until the beginning of October. However, over the past few weeks we’ve been there on various occasions for production stuff, and every time the venue was more or less in the same state: dirty, dark, but full of potential.
Until last week.
We were summoned to the venue and, when we walked in, the place was filled with 4 centimetres of the worst-smelling water. Much to our surprise, because the weather hadn’t been that bad. Yes, it had rained, but it’s not as if it had been pouring constantly, so where on earth had the water come from?
Nobody knew.
We suggested that maybe it wasn’t the rain causing problems. By no means are we experts on the subject, but we’ve lived below sea level our whole lives, and we know that water sometimes has a tendency to find its way up when somewhere a drainage system isn’t working properly.
Shoulders were shrugged, heads were shaken, and for a few days it was unsure if we could use Waterfront in October. We were slightly panicking and mentally preparing for the embarrassing moment when we’d have to let you know that, despite our best intentions, Waterfront was not going to be part of Left of the Dial.
But then, completely by chance, we ran into someone who had actually worked at Waterfront years ago. They told us this had always been a recurring problem and that, in fact, it had something to do with the drainage system. In oversimplified words: it’s fixable!
We’ll spare you the details, but let’s just say we’re back on track, we’ll get everything cleaned, and you won’t be needing your wellies. If nothing else goes wrong, that is. The venue gods have played tricks on us before, so we’ve learned not to guarantee anything, but we’re now much more confident again we’ll be welcoming you to Waterfront in October.
In the meantime, we’ve been busy completing the lineup. Next Friday, 22 August, we’ll be adding a lot of new artists to the festival. Like, really a lot. And we’re already trying to fit them all into an overwhelmingly huge timetable, which we’ll hopefully be able to release a few days after the lineup announcement.
We’ve also just tested a Wheelchair Pub Crawl, we’re working on the boat and bus shows, and we’re trying to keep track of all the souvenirs we’ve ordered. With another thousand things going on, it’s fair to say our summer break will probably start sometime in November. But who cares? We’re loving every minute of it.
OK, except maybe not the minute we were ankle-deep in smelly water, but other than that it’s been nothing but a great pleasure organising this festival for you all.
Big love,
The sewer rats of Left of the Dial
