I WOULD like to respond to the letter from Jack Fell regarding the Musicals of the Millennium concert which concluded the much acclaimed Bolt Festival over the weekend of July 29/30, 2000.

1. Originally, the Bolt Festival was to be a one-day event in Queens Park on July 30, 2000.

The Council were approached by BBC Radio One, who were looking for venues for their new venture 'One Big Sunday', for which 40,000 people were expected to attend.

It was quickly realised that Queens Park was too small and, for safety reasons, it was agreed to move the venue for this to Moss Bank Park, a wise decision, as over 120,000 people actually attended.

This was easily the largest attendance the BBC have attracted for this event.

The BBC were also kind enough to comment that the Bolton event had been by far the best organised.

2. The opportunity then arose to put on the Musicals of the Millennium, a specially commissioned event involving the Halle and the notable singers from the West End.

The logistics of trying to organise an event of this nature, an all-day event over two venues, was very difficult and it was agreed that we would have to extend the event over two days, culminating with the Musicals of the Millennium.

The venue in Queens Park was selected in consultation with the producer, Robert Macintosh, bearing in mind the topography of the Park and the expectation of a significant attendance.

The decision to promote this event was taken after March 10 and it was not considered unreasonable to try to recover some of the costs by charging for the event.

Once again, the promoters expressed themselves delighted with the organisation, etc, of the event. Their major disappointment was "that, despite the most extensive marketing campaign, the attendance was not as large as we would have hoped".

3. The Musicals of the Millennium was marketed via advertising in regional editions of the national press and via the local media.

I am told that it takes time to build an audience for this type of event and that, when the Halle first played Tatton Park, they attracted an audience considerably below the 1,000 or so that witnessed the event in Queens Park, but now attract more than 10,000.

Nonetheless, the actual attendance was a disappointment, offset of course by the superb quality of the concert.

This was the first time the Council had tried to promote a festival as big as this and many lessons have been learned (not least the need to prevent people from seeing for free an event others have paid for!).

Given that a significant amount of money for the Bolt was derived from sponsors of the Millennium celebrations, the Council will need to give careful consideration to the financial implications of staging a Bolt 2001.

The Bolt Festival was a tremendous success and I would like to take this opportunity to thank all involved -- the Emergency Services (Police, Ambulance Service, Fire) the St John's Ambulance Brigade, our sponsors, the Bolton Evening News for its excellent coverage -- but, principally, the members and officers of the Council who had the vision and expertise to put together a brilliant weekend for the people of Bolton and beyond.

Lastly, could I express appreciation to the people of Bolton. More than 150,000 attended the festival in a trouble-free, happy atmosphere. What better advertisement for our Borough?

Councillor Cliff Morris

Chair of the Civic and Millennium Policy Development Group