The Chairman's Report

NAAFC Festival 2010

Saturday 13th March saw the Macdonald Inchyra Grange Hotel host the 36th NAAFC Festival. Despite the change of date to a week later than normal, we had a fantastic entry level in the competitions. This, allied with the large number of enthusiasts and traders in attendance created a great atmosphere and buzz throughout the day.

The adjudicator's panel were extremely impressed with the standard of playing across the competitions, and it was especially pleasing to see so many new faces in the classical accordion classes.

The huge entry, the biggest for 25 years, made for hectic scheduling, but we managed to get all the solo and duet competitions finished to allow everyone to descend on the Inchyra Suite for the Bands section. As always, this was one of the highlights of the day and it was great to see so many youngsters teaming up with some of the band scene's experienced stalwarts. The Bands section and prize winners concert were recorded by BBC Radio Scotland, who were delighted at the quantity and quality of music displayed. Once again, I'd like to thank Jennifer Cruickshank and her team for the excellent coverage given to the Festival. After the concert, which was expertly compered by Dave Millward and John Caskie, Alan Gardiner's Scottish Dance Band gave a great performance at the dance, which was enjoyed and appreciated by a large crowd.

The 2011 Festival returns to its normal Saturday, which is the 5th of March. We hope to see everyone, and even a few more there again. The location of Inchyra Grange, allied with the facilities and excellent management and staff, has been a big factor in our decision to keep the Festival there for the foreseeable future.

Of course, the Festival doesn't just happen and I would like to express my sincere thanks to all those who contributed to making the day a success. In no particular order, thanks to all the competitors, adjudicators, parents, stewards, helpers, enthusiasts, raffle donors, traders, advertisers and BBC Radio Scotland. The biggest thank you, however, goes to Lorna Mair, Richard Ross and the rest of the Festival Committee. The time, effort and expense they give to the Festival is remarkable and it is both a privilege and pleasure to work with them all throughout the year.

NAAFC Festival 2009

The 2009 Festival was, in many respects, one of the most difficult we have had to organise, in terms of having to change venue at fairly short notice, and the wider economic climate.

Financially, we suffered a deficit of £544.30 as expenditure rose by almost £440, while income fell by over £360. We were aware that the hire of the venue was to increase, so we tried, and succeeded, in curtailing other costs. However, despite increasing entry fees and dance tickets modestly, we weren't expecting income to reduce. This can no doubt be attributed to the enforced change of venue and communication failures with the website and the January Box and Fiddle advert.

However, musically and socially the day was a great success with entries eventually exceeding the 200 mark and overwhelmingly favourable comments about Inchyra Grange. The venue is comfortably able to cope with the audience in the various halls and was ideal in respect of car parking, access and trade stand space. The catering provided was far superior to the previous year and was much better value for money.

The standard of music throughout the day was of an extremely high standard and it was encouraging to see a marked increase in junior accordion entries.

The take up of advertising and, more especially, trade stands, was excellent, given the recession. All traders were delighted with their location and this continues to provide a valuable source of income to the Festival.

BBC coverage, pre and post Festival was, as always, excellent and they also commented favourably on the venue. Highlights from the bands competition and from the prizewinners' concert were broadcast on Take The Floor.

Attendance at the concert was, once again very disappointing. It seems that many people use the time between the end of the competitions and the start of the dance to go for tea etc. In order to try and boost the concert attendance, the committee have decided to increase the daytime admission ticket from £4 to £5, but this will include admission to the concert. People coming to the concert only will be charged £3 admission with competitors admitted to the concert free.

Other main topics of discussion at our committee meeting on Sunday 7th June were – the need for a second cash desk to ensure all attendees pay to get in, and a proposal by the RSCDS to donate a trophy for a section for strict tempo country dance music. The principle of having this section was accepted by the committee, but some of the RSCDS's initial proposals regarding rules and format were fiercely rejected. We await further communication from them.

Overall, it may be that we are forced with a choice in the short to medium term of

a) severely streamlining the Festival in order to break even financially or,

b) accept that to keep it as a major event, we may incur a financial deficit for some years.

Plans for the 2010 Festival are well underway. Inchyra Grange has been booked, but unfortunately it was unavailable for 6th March, so it will be a week later than normal, on the 13th. The hotel have reserved us a block of rooms for the Friday and/or Saturday at a rate of £40 pppn for Bed and Breakfast.

Finally, I would like to express my sincere thanks to the following for all their help and support:

The Festival Committee
The Adjudicators
BBC Radio Scotland
Helpers and raffle donors
The NAAFC Executive Committee
Advertisers and Trade Stand Exhibitors
Competitors, parents, teachers and enthusiasts
Mr Billy Hutton
The management and staff of Inchyra Grange

James Coutts
FESTIVAL CHAIRMAN
JUNE 2009

NAAFC Festival 2008

By teatime on Friday 29 th February, a large contingent of competitors and enthusiasts had gathered at Dunblane Hydro Hotel for the next day’s Festival. After a lovely meal and some fine wine we returned to the lounge area for a few drinks and some crack before trying, and failing miserably, to get to bed at a respectable hour given our early starts the next day. We were also treated to some great music on the Friday night with some relaxing piano music in the Balmoral restaurant, some great easy listening and light jazz from a quartet in the Stuart lounge which included the excellent John Sinton on bass, while in the Strathallan Suite where our own dance would take place the next evening, we were treated to the sounds of the legendary Billy Thom, whose jazz quartet provided the music for a dinner dance.

By the time I surfaced at 6.30am on the Saturday the excellent hotel staff had all the halls laid out for the Festival and after quickly rigging up the PA system in the Strathallan, and an even quicker breakfast, we were open for business at 8am.

A competition entry of 260, the highest since 1985, ensured a busy and hectic admissions and registration desk. Inevitably with the change of venue, some Festival stalwarts were missing this year, but it was great to welcome many new faces to the Festival as well as welcoming back some people we hadn’t seen for quite a few years.

The tremendous entry levels, particularly in the fiddle sections gave us a bit of a scheduling problem, albeit a nice problem to have, but by and large we managed to fit in most sections comfortably, thanks in no small way to the efforts of the announcers, clerks and stewards in the various halls. Because the fiddle classes had to be held in the halls with pianos in them, it meant the accordion classes had to be held in some of the smaller conference rooms, most of which were well filled creating a great atmosphere. However, the hall, which held the Senior Trad Accordion, was filled to bursting point and this is something we will seek to address next year.

The compactness of the venue, with the registration desk and trade stands being right in the heart of the foyer gave the whole day a great buzz. The only couple of problems were in relation to queues for food and teas/coffees and car parking. The Hydro quickly acted to provide an extra catering outlet which seemed to do roaring trade and while most people who had difficulty in parking were considerate in where they did eventually park, a couple of people from the Festival were unfortunately less so. A Renault Scenic parked on a yellow box junction close to the corner of the hotel meaning a coach taking hotel guests to Stirling were unable to get out, despite us making various pleas and announcements to move the vehicle. This meant the hotel having to transport the coach passengers to Stirling by their own transport, which incurred enormous expense and inconvenience. I would therefore ask the guilty party to show more consideration if attending next year’s Festival as incidents like this can adversely affect out relationship with the Hotel; to everyone’s detriment.

However, back to the music and there was great feedback from both audience and adjudicators about the quality of music performed. It was nice to see some new names making the breakthrough into the prize lists alongside some of the familiar names. However, on the day two names really stood out. 15 year old Maggie Adamson, who attends faithfully year in year out, all the way from Shetland won both junior fiddle classes and consequently the Judith Linton Trophy for the Best Overall junior fiddle, as well as winning the Own Composition class. She is a tremendous young musician and will no doubt make an impact in the Senior classes in the coming years. The other player worthy of a special mention is Tom Orr. Despite having won almost all the big competitions several times over by the ripe old age of 21, he still continues to compete at our Festival, which gives the Festival added prestige. However, it’s his willingness to play in bands and trios with even younger musicians on second accordion, piano and bass guitar, that makes him such a credit to the Festival and the accordion and fiddle music scene in general. It’s therefore worth mentioning that both Maggie and Tom played in the winning trio and band led by Andrew Gibb, another fine young musician.

After the Bands brought the competitions to a great climax as usual, it was ‘all go’ to get set for the concert, expertly compered by Dave Millward and John Caskie. It was nice to see a marked increase in the concert attendance this year, and although it was slightly shorter than normal, mainly due to many multiple prizewinners, the standard was excellent.

The Hotel staff, allied with a few volunteers within our own ranks, worked like Trojans to clear the rows of seats and set the tables out for the dance, and thanks to their sterling efforts the dance was underway at the scheduled start time of 9pm. Neil McEachern and his band provided some great swinging music, which ensued a packed dance floor from start to finish, and their efforts were thoroughly appreciated by the large crowd, which created a great atmosphere throughout the dance.

At the back of 1, the crowds started to disperse to various late night parties within the lounge area and several bedrooms within the hotel, ensuring a few fragile individuals on the Sunday (including myself before someone else mentions it first!).

Overall, the feeling was that the Festival had been a success in its new surroundings, but we are always interested in hearing opinions on how to improve it and would particularly like to hear from people who chose not to attend this year.

As mentioned previously, because of the uncertainty surrounding the Brunton Halls refurbishment, Dunblane Hydro has been booked to host the 35 th Festival on Saturday 7 th March 2009. Plans are underway already and we look forward to welcoming you once again.

Finally, my sincere thanks go to all competitors, parents, adjudicators, stewards, helpers, enthusiasts, raffle donors, traders, advertisers, BBC Radio Scotland and, most of all the Festival Committee, especially secretary Lorna Mair, who, as always, makes an immense contribution to the Festival, ensuring my job is remarkably easy.

James Coutts
FESTIVAL CHAIRMAN
MARCH 2008