About the Globe

There was a discussion about the Globe and licensing issues at the Council meeting last week. The rules have changed, and now the environmental health people can get involved in decisions about granting temporary licenses to venues.
There have been stories in both the B&R and the Hereford Times about the result of this - The Crunch festival has been cancelled, and HowTheLightGetsIn may be cancelled. Nigel Evans, in his Blue Bit of the B&R, is annoyed that there were only five complaints that led to the environmental health people getting involved - but those were only the official, written complaints. When Gareth Ratcliffe gets a phone call late at night and he can hear the noise from the Globe down the phone, that's not counted. The temporary licenses cover the outside areas of the Globe, which is the events that take place in the tents. The interior of the Globe is covered by the permanent license.
When the Globe first opened, a lot of the concern by opponents to the venue related to noise late at night. At first, the Globe was careful about this to the point of paranoia - staff would come round the outside tables at about 9pm to ask people to come indoors so there was no noise outside. As time has passed, so they have relaxed, and events outside now go on far later than 9pm, although they have rewired the outside areas so that they don't have to rely on noisy generators.
When the environmental health people first met with the Globe, they were in extremely uncompromising mood, insisting on no outdoor noise even during the day. After a lot of negotiation on Gareth's part, at least the two sides started speaking to each other and started to make some compromises.

Meanwhile, the autumn programme for the Globe is out. They're holding two more Hay Fayres, on September 15/16th and October 13/14th. They're screening children's films and providing a space for Have-a-Go Shakespeare and a Theatre Club. There's a Book Club and a Philosophy Cafe, the Globe Open Mic Night and The Soapbox. There are talks and bands and the Community Choir. The Globe Makers and the local Amnesty Group meet there and they have art exhibitions.

On Saturday, I went round to the Clothes Swap event, in aid of The Gateway Retreat. This is a spiritual retreat in Belize, which respects all religions, preserves and protects local Mayan ruins, and encourages self-sufficiency and sustainable land use, and renewable energy. And they have a gift shop.
The clothes swap was a good idea. I took along three items of clothing that didn't fit me, paid £5 to take part, got three vouchers, and came away with three items of clothing that did fit and looked rather good.
It was also, of course, a quiet event!