“Financially, physically, and emotionally unsustainable”

It looks like there will be no official Christmas lights in Rye this year. As we report in the News section of this week’s paper, both the lights and Christmas Festival, which has also been cancelled, have become too big an undertaking for an increasingly small group of volunteers. A lack of both funding and unified support in the town are also to blame.

Jen Sinclair was heavily involved in setting up and running the Christmas Festival from 2015 to 2019, which included arranging for the set of lights that have been hung in Rye for almost a decade. She says it became unsustainable financially, physically, and emotionally. Plus, she argues, much needs to change if it is ever to happen again.

In 2014, it was announced that Christmas would no longer be coming to Rye. A group of us came together and created the Rye Christmas Festival, with its first year being 2015. The group consisted of a handful of locals, miraculously with a selection of skills and
contacts that enabled us to create something professional and magical for the people of the town.

That is why we did it. For the people of the town. All of us local families, many who had grown up in Rye and as children ourselves enjoyed the extra spirit Rye has at Christmas. We wanted the same for our children and all who lived in and near the town. We wanted to create an event that mostly consisted of free of charge activities, but that those that were payable were affordable, so ALL could enjoy. This was not a profit making event by any means. Any economic boost that it gave the town and shop-keepers was of course an added bonus for them, but it wasn’t what drove us.

You had to be there to see the scale of it. It was the epitome of community. There was not a group or organisation that we didn’t get involved. From the scouts to schools, am dram groups to local music talent, football clubs to dance groups, the Salvation Army to RNLI, everyone played a part in this special day for their town.

Whilst the festival was a one day event, the committee also took on the Christmas lighting, or lack of. There were no useable lights left belonging to the town back then. The committee entered competitions, we travelled across the country to pitch our plea, winning initially £16,000 worth of lights for the town. Though having them was only the first hurdle, the installation and insurance of them is another matter entirely and one that continues to be misunderstood by many in the town. It is no-one’s responsibility to put up the Christmas lighting. We do not have council budget for this like Oxford Street or even Brighton. So, us, our friends, our families, would climb the ladders from the start of November until it was done, braving the winds and chill until the town was lit… and then having to take them back down in dreary January. Every year.

There is a misconception and I often hear “they” being referred to as in “Why don’t they do it anymore?” or “They have done a rubbish job this year” or “They should have used soft white lighting instead of the bright white they used” even “Why have they not zig zagged them across the road like in the old days?” We were not a group of staff employed by some higher body to do this. We were all volunteers. Not one of us made a penny and in fact, many of us made a loss as we had to jeopardise our own businesses and income in order to put on this event each year, not to mention the time we had to spend away from our young families.

The event itself was curated meticulously. We set themes in the late winter, commissioned local artists to create our campaign artwork, we hired street performers fitting the theme, we did choreography, casting, live music timetables, craft workshops, grottos, street processions. We visited all local schools and did lantern making workshops with the children who then brought them along to the most magical procession on the day. There were carousels and giant snow globes, ice rinks and reindeers. We brought back the good old Christmas pudding race in the High Street and we ended the day with the carol concert at St Mary’s.

All of this cost £25,000 a year.

In its hay-day, the festival would see thousands and thousands coming to the town. We worked hard on press and marketing and sought any opportunity to collaborate and spread the word that this was a day and a town worth visiting. People came to Rye from all over the world for the festival. We even had regular benefactors from America who would contribute to the festival each year as it reminded them of the Rye they had loved for many years. Hotels and B&Bs were booked up months in advance and we know of several shopkeepers who had their best day of the year on the day of the festival and one even making more money on the day that they did throughout the whole summer.

We ran the festival like this for five years, from 2015-2019. But it was unsustainable financially, physically, and emotionally. New initiative funding pots could no longer be accessed, the endless begging for traders to contribute towards the lighting and festival was soul destroying. Year after year, we traipsed the town for days on end asking people if they would help out. Some did, without question, many didn’t. What’s in it for me, they would say? I don’t benefit from the festival directly, others would say.

You can imagine, as a group of volunteers (none of whom, bar one, actually had a commercial premises in town and therefore they did not benefit financially one iota from the event) how this went down. Resentment builds and the weight is too much, so it collapses.

Had we had a sustainable model, the regular support of ALL traders and some unity as a town and community, then it might not have come to this. Had less people approached it with a “What’s in it for me?” attitude and recognised that if they were to speculate they would accumulate then it might have helped. Alas.

As one of the founding members, I am as passionate about it today as I was back in 2015 and I would return to the festival if the load was lighter and the funding had a rolling annual allocation, but it really does need to be the work of many, not a few.

Rye News welcomes all opinion pieces on issues that affect life in Rye and the surrounding villages. If you would like to add yours to our Opinions section email info@ryenews.org.uk.

Image Credits: Kt bruce , Carolyn Gould .