Sheffield Eid Festival 2014, Millhouses Park Photos
Local / Sheffield Aug 05, 2014 - 08:30 AM GMTBy: N_Walayat
The Sheffield Eid Festival of 2014 expanded from 1 day to a 2 day event turned out to be a tale of 2 days, with only approx 4,000 people attending on Saturday (2nd August) compared to twice the number of at least 8,000 attending on Sunday (3rd August). Though this mismatch between numbers attending had less to do with the organisers and more to do with the Met Office / BBC's inaccurate weather forecast of rain literally for the whole of the Saturday time-table that failed to materialise.
Day 1
In fact observed rainfall for day 1 was limited to light rain of between 1pm and 2pm with the rest of the day usually bright and sunny that would have disappointed many who had wished to attend but did not. Though good news for those that did attend on Day 1 as they were not subject to lengthy queues at the stalls and various rides that would materialise on Day 2.
Day one probably saw 4,000 people attend which was down from last years estimate of 7,000. Which means short queues for the Ice cream vans!
Day 2
Day 2 saw at approx 9,000 people attend up about 1/3rd on last year.
Traffic
Unlike last years traffic chaos as a consequence of no traffic management which resulted in a literal traffic jam and several hours delay for many visitors to get to the event. This year there was a concerted effort to avoid both traffic jams and blocked roads especially the side roads used by public transport.
This meant that people were able to arrive and leave the event without being stuck in a jam or having to reverse back through side roads as a consequence of stuck busses.
BBC
Whilst the BBC was invisible last year however this year BBC Radio Sheffield at least did make an appearance, though noting that nothing has subsequently on the local TV Look North bulletins despite the event having in total attracted over 13,000 attendees.
Main Stage
The main stage mostly featured people encouraged to step forward from the crowd and was geared towards a younger audience alternating between religious songs and pop songs so as to appear to a broader audience.
Day1
Day2
Security
The event was well organised with ample yellow jacketed security with walkie talkies keeping an eye out for potential flash points. South Yorkshire police was invisible, with the only flashing blue lights belonging to the NYPD and the California High Way Patrol cars.
Bazaar
The event followed the near exact layout as last year with bottom of the field containing the Bazaar with many disparate stalls of food, drinks, clothing etc.. that was always busy and more so on the second day.
Day 1 - Easy browsing, no queues.
Day 2 - Double the people means long queues for especially food and drink stalls.
Israel Gaza Bloodbath
Protests were muted with Gaza related activities mainly concentrated on fund raising efforts for the devastated Gaza population, as the vast majority of Eid Festival goers wanted to concentrate on the events main objective for being a family day out rather than turn into a protest against the genocide of the Palestinian people.
Israel's war on Gaza 2014 death toll has now passed 1,900 of mostly women and children, here Jon Snow of Channel 4 News recounts the scene in Gaza's al-Shifa hospital, where doctors struggle to treat adults and children wounded by Israeli attacks.
Fun Fair For the Kids and Youth
Lessons were learned from last years boredom inducing lack of activities, with this year many more fair ground rides making an appearance to keep the kids and youth occupied.
Conclusion
All in all the second year proved to be a great success as lessons learned on traffic management and activities for the kids helped fill many of last years gaps. Where the event could improve for next year would be to have a professional programme for the stage which this year resembled a karaoke stage that was unable to hold the audience for more than a couple of minutes before people tended to have enough of the screeching voices and wandered off elsewhere.
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By Nadeem Walayat
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Nadeem Walayat has over 25 years experience of trading derivatives, portfolio management and analysing the financial markets, including one of few who both anticipated and Beat the 1987 Crash. Nadeem's forward looking analysis focuses on UK inflation, economy, interest rates and housing market. He is the author of five ebook's in the The Inflation Mega-Trend and Stocks Stealth Bull Market series that can be downloaded for Free.
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