21 February 2011

Tropfest - Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down!

| deejay
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My family and four friends attended Tropfest at Stage 88 last night and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, despite the best efforts of presenters and sponsors.

Thumbs up to organisers for:

  • Separating chairs and non-chairs so everyone could see the screen
  • A well-run VIP area
  • Keeping things generally safe and clean
  • Efficient and clean food and drink vendors
  • The water refilling station staffed by the SES

Thumbs down for:

  • Only one garbage facility where you had to sort your rubbish. I’m sorry, I’m not picking through my food scraps that have been in a plastic bag all night! Maybe if you’d had a dozen smaller stations we might have sorted and dumped incrementally over the course of the night.
  • Presenters carrying on, and on, about each other’s real or imagined alcohol use. Repeated references to Virginia Hausinger’s hip flask and drinking backstage (made by some radio idiot named Ross from some breakfast show I don’t listen to) – whether true or not – were ugly and gratuitous, inappropriate in an environment with lots of young people, and not very enjoyable for anyone.
  • Other, more generally inappropriate behaviour by presenters. There was persistent misreading of paying sponsors names (in what universe does Coloco parse as Chocoloco, Virginia?). That Ross guy asked multiple people on stage whether they were enjoying the day, then said to each one, “Why? Nothing’s happened yet,” disregarding the fact that the junior films had already aired. Way to support the kids, Ross.
  • What was with fading to sponsor’s ad smack bang in the middle of the announcement of the awards? It didn’t make me feel the TransACT love, I can tell you that.
  • Speaking of TransACT, what was with the kids pass-the-parcel with such appropriate little kid prizes as…pens? What is this, My First Public Service Job? That might have been forgivable if the poor afternoon presenter hadn’t been required to beat up the exercise on mike and the little kids hadn’t been shown big-screen opening the parcel in bewilderment.

Did we love it? Of course we did. But for the love of film, please, please get some decent presenters next year. And some garbage bins.

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Ryoma said :

As for the footbridge over Parkes Way, can the ACT Government widen its capacity, or maybe build a second bridge next door, to separate cyclists and pedestrians, and to allow for crowds at events like this to clear out quickly.

Where to start?

I have been driving under that bridge twice a day going to and from work, morning and evening for 11 years now. I swear in front of the assembled multitudes that I will eat an uncooked Liberal politician in Garema Place at high noon if there has ever been more than 3 people on that bridge at any one time as I’ve passed by.

If the ACT government decided to spend a single brass razoo on widening or duplicating that bridge for the 3 events per year where people might be delayed for a few seconds, then I would be out in the streets causing civil unrest that would make the current Libyan brouhaha look like nothing more than a meeting of the ANU debating society.

Or, to put it another way, things like nurses, hospitals, teachers, schools etc are probably (hopefully) a little further up the list of priorities.

Ryoma said :

As for the footbridge over Parkes Way, can the ACT Government widen its capacity, or maybe build a second bridge next door, to separate cyclists and pedestrians, and to allow for crowds at events like this to clear out quickly.

It only happens a few times a year – Maybe you can build a bridge to get over it…………. wait a minute !

Ryoma said :

maybe build a second bridge next door, to separate cyclists and pedestrians

Or you could just get off your freakin’ bike for the time it takes to cross a bridge.

Even though Ross and Virginia were annoying at times, they were still 100 times better than the idiots from 104 who did it the last couple of years.

Ryoma said :

It’s not rocket science. With a crowd of several thousand, food,drink and alcohol on sale, it stands to reason that toilets will be needed, and needed by most during the interval between the films. So why did we not have more portaloos available? Pathetic.

Were they serving Indonesian foods or curries? You need more toilets it they’re serving curries.

Waiting For Godot5:45 pm 21 Feb 11

clp said :

harley said :

until Ross Solly is off air, 666 ABC is on my permanent s***-list. Never told a funny that was actually funny.

Gosh you’ve never had the misfortune of being a Sydneysider recently and having to put up with the wet comments of Richard Glover then.

666 is a great local ABC – (comparing it to 702 Sydney and 891 Adelaide).

You can really tell who the event was aimed at – arty farty ABC listening pubes hankering for their next literary grant. I just wish the ABC would close down and those who are in the bubble isolated from the real world would then have to listen to real talkback radio reflecting the opinions of the majority and watch unbiased, factual news on TV for a change.

Generally I thought that the event was well organised, but I agree with much of the commentary about Ross Solly. He’s good on ABC666, but I think his brand of sarcasm did not show him in the best light at Tropfest.

My only gripes were: the toilets and the footbridge. Toilets first. As the capital city, how many events does Canberra host year in, year out? How many times has it hosted Tropfest? But we still had the ludicrous spectacle of dozens of men and women lining up for up to 15-20 minutes for the chance to relieve themselves.

It’s not rocket science. With a crowd of several thousand, food,drink and alcohol on sale, it stands to reason that toilets will be needed, and needed by most during the interval between the films. So why did we not have more portaloos available? Pathetic.

As for the footbridge over Parkes Way, can the ACT Government widen its capacity, or maybe build a second bridge next door, to separate cyclists and pedestrians, and to allow for crowds at events like this to clear out quickly.

It’s not a major thing, and I don’t mind being patient, but I did think that there is potential for people to get hurt one day – if, for example – we had a emergency situation in Commonwealth Park for whatever reason, and that bridge was one of the only exits. Canberrans are usually pretty mellow and considerate, but would we react the same way in the face of danger?
I wonder….

jsm2090, we walked past that car in the carpark, back to our car on which one windscreen wiper had been turned into a pretzel. Grrr! Since we were parked nose-in to the hedge, this artistic feat must have required some intrepidy (if that’s not a word, it should be).

What was with fading to sponsor’s ad smack bang in the middle of the announcement of the awards?

They faded to the TransACT ad during the award sponsored by Telstra. They didn’t manage to do it before the name of the award was announced, though. Muppets.

la mente torbida said :

and how much did this event cost?

We were in the VIP area, so it cost me around $220. Not bad for seven people, but not chickenfeed either.

And sure, you could choose to attend for free with fewer perks, but that doesn’t mean the event came free. Sponsors paid good money, I presume the government kicked some cash in too. Are they less entitled to good service for their money?

I had a great night, though the constant comments about how ‘Tinman’ should of made it got annoying. It went from supporting the filmmaker to just sounding like sulking children. That and when Ross halfway through started making comments about how some of the films weren’t good enough to be in it…

Nicely summarised deejay. I can only add that after attending Tropfest in Sydney last year, I was amazed at how quiet the Canberra crowd was when the films were screening.

For us, a big thumbs down for the mindless crims who smashed the window of the car which was parked in the swimming pool carpark. Luckily nothing was stolen. Did this happen to anyone else?

la mente torbida2:19 pm 21 Feb 11

and how much did this event cost?

harley said :

until Ross Solly is off air, 666 ABC is on my permanent s***-list. Never told a funny that was actually funny.

Gosh you’ve never had the misfortune of being a Sydneysider recently and having to put up with the wet comments of Richard Glover then.

666 is a great local ABC – (comparing it to 702 Sydney and 891 Adelaide).

until Ross Solly is off air, 666 ABC is on my permanent s***-list. Never told a funny that was actually funny.

Prompted by your comments about there being too many alcohol comments, I wonder how many kiddies were arrested for underage drinking

I knew I forgot something under Thumbs Up. The tree lighting! It was such a little thing, but it really added to the ambience.

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