Tonight I attended the meeting to decide on the future of the Friday night sessions at The Sweatbox in Wantage. It was a very confrontational-style meeting which was a pity because many of the questions asked by the very concerned audience were not fully answered. We still never found out what wasn't 'safe' about the venue and why the music sessions which have been happening over the last 5 years were suddenly stopped without a proper explanation.
The 'Sweaty' relaunch event was supposed to have added security measures to make it safer for our local young people to go along to it. They had won a grant of £5000 of taxpayers' money through the County Council's 'Chill Out Fund' to buy the new sound and lighting equipment to give the atmosphere a 'night club' feel but they are now unable to use it! The event had the backing of the school, the police, the street pastors and the whole community and the sudden closure has caused much upset . Sadly the website says it all.
This Friday will still open hopefully, but without the music, so I hope there will not be lots of disappointed youngsters on our streets. Somehow I can't help feeling there has been a complete breakdown in communication. The 'sensational-style' press story on the use of breathalysers didn't help either - one can't help thinking that without that newspaper headline, the event would have just gone ahead as planned. However, there is now a 'review' and we can only hope that this will not take too long, and the 'Sweaty' will be business as usual on Friday nights.
Thanks for reporting on the meeting; I couldn't go to it though would very much liked to have had a chance to support Garry Kingett and the others involved with Sweatbox. I think I would have become very confrontational myself, as they didn't answer those basic questions. I am so angry with the County Council for forcing this decision when the whole town seems to be supportive of Sweatbox as it is. The kids are not going to be happy that the music has stopped - I envisage lots of miserable kids hanging around town getting drunk because Sweatbox is now too boring for them....the CC have such a lot to answer to :(
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