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BITS AND BOBS<br />
...............................<br />
SPREAD THE WORD<br />
ON THE BUSES #13<br />
RONALD BATES (5, 5B, 27)<br />
Niall Moriarty sent this picture, of him reading<br />
our April issue, leaning up against the famous I<br />
Amsterdam sign outside the Rijksmuseum. The<br />
three-dimensional sign, now one of Amsterdam’s<br />
prime photo-op attractions, had recently been redesigned<br />
in rainbow colours to celebrate 15 years<br />
of marriage equality in the Netherlands. Niall<br />
was on a city break, Airbnbing in the city centre.<br />
We love getting pictures of you ‘reading’ <strong>Viva</strong> on<br />
your travels, so if you would like to appear in this<br />
space, don’t forget to take the latest issue with<br />
you and send pics to photos@vivamagazines.com.<br />
LOVE SUPREME: WIN TICKETS<br />
You and a friend could<br />
be joining the jazz, funk,<br />
soul and sun* at Love<br />
Supreme Jazz Festival<br />
in Glynde from 1st-3rd<br />
July. Just tweet us the<br />
name of the act you’re<br />
most looking forward to seeing - using the<br />
hashtag #<strong>Viva</strong>LoveSupreme - to be entered<br />
into the draw to win. Alternatively, email the<br />
same - with ‘<strong>Viva</strong> Love Supreme’ in the subject<br />
line - to hello@vivamagazines.com. We’ll draw<br />
the lucky winner from a (suitably jazzy) trumpet<br />
on 1st June <strong>2016</strong>. *sunshine not guaranteed.<br />
lovesupremefestival.com, @lovesupremefest<br />
See the competitions page on our website for<br />
terms & conditions.<br />
Should <strong>Brighton</strong><br />
have a festival?<br />
Before 1967, the<br />
idea had been put<br />
forward ‘from<br />
time to time’, local<br />
historian Clifford<br />
Musgrave notes.<br />
But arguments<br />
against included<br />
the town’s closeness<br />
to London,<br />
and the ‘heavy losses’ made by other regional festivals.<br />
Local opinion had been ‘strongly divided’.<br />
However, the long-serving Tory councillor Ronald<br />
Bates, an arts-loving solicitor and former Army Major,<br />
backed the idea. An acquaintance, Ronald Power,<br />
recalls him as a knowledgeable guy, who “always<br />
smiled when he was giving advice. He was highly<br />
intelligent. He had great personal charm, there’s no<br />
doubt about that.” And, perhaps most importantly,<br />
he was “a wonderful negotiator. When it came to,<br />
you know, half of a committee wanted one thing<br />
and the other half wanted something else…”<br />
It’s difficult to figure out the exact details of Bates’<br />
role in the festival-or-no-festival debate. But his<br />
Argus obituary noted that his ‘vision and drive<br />
helped launch the <strong>Brighton</strong> Festival’. He was head<br />
of the council’s tourism committee in January 1966,<br />
when £10,000 was voted through to fund the first<br />
event. And he was the original vice-chairman of the<br />
<strong>Brighton</strong> Festival Society. Later, as chairman, he either<br />
“created the <strong>Brighton</strong> Fringe, or [at least] made<br />
it possible,” Power says.<br />
While the Festival’s original artistic director gave a<br />
worthy-sounding explanation of its purpose, about<br />
people ‘taking a new look at the arts,’ etc, Bates<br />
took a much simpler view. ‘The sole purpose of the<br />
<strong>Brighton</strong> Festival is to bring pleasure and delight to<br />
everyone.’ Steve Ramsey<br />
....11....
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