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Classical concerts were acoustic gems
• OPEN letter to Rebecca Cane, Visitor Operations Director at English Heritage:
I read your quoted comments in last weeks Camden New Journal with some annoyance (The Kenwood stage rides again, March 22). I very much regret being unable to attend that meeting because there are many things needed saying that you have so far ignored.
You dismiss out of hand any possibility of resuming classical concerts allegedly because they lost money and because the ugly awful floating stage you installed without planning permission is very expensive.
Of course it is, so too are all the bouncers, PA equipment, barriers and technical and back up staff you need to employ to facilitate it to say nothing of the regular fireworks nuisance and the ridiculous sums demanded by the so-called ‘stars’ you use as entertainment.
What you fail to accept or even acknowledge despite all the correspondence in the local press is that classical concerts at Kenwood do not need, and never had, the amplified sound.
The beauty of those concerts was the magic of the sound drifting across the lake, interspersed with bird song and the occasional interruption of planes.
Because you do not need PA equipment, there would not be, and never were, complaints from neighbours about excessive noise, and you would not have to provide the special floating stage to try to restrict the sound travel, saving you all those costs.
Additionally, English Heritage’s greed to maximise their revenue (which was never the intention of the original concerts) attracted far too many people, which must have caused damage to the ground conditions, to say nothing of the cost and labour involved in picking up their litter afterwards and the parking problems associated with large events. No wonder they cost so much.
If the concerts have to be suspended permanently, it will be regrettable, but will be English Heritage’s own fault for refusing to behave in a socially considerate and reasonable manner.
As one who attended concerts in their original classical format I would love to go again, but certainly not with the Wembley Stadium ethos you have recently adopted.
JOHN STRATTON
Thurlow Road, NW3
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