growing pressure on organisers becoming just a bit too much
Portsoy harbour festival to return to two-day format
Published:
A major maritime festival in the north-east which attracted record visitor numbers after it expanded to four days this year will revert to the traditional two days next summer.
The Scottish Traditional Boat Festival at Portsoy last week was extended to celebrate the Year of Homecoming.
Although final attendance figures have still to be calculated, the organisers reckon more than 20,000 people were drawn to the event.
Chairman Roger Goodyear confirmed yesterday that the 2010 festival will return to a Saturday and Sunday event.
He said: “Everybody was happy to do the expanded festival this time but, as a voluntary group, running for four days put on a lot of extra pressure.
“By the end of last Friday, most of us thought we had already finished the festival, and there was still the weekend.”
Mr Goodyear said the 20,000-plus visitor numbers represented a record for the event.
He said: “Our previous best was about 18,000, and that was in 2006.
“We had no charge to get in on the Thursday and Friday, but we had significant numbers, especially on the Friday.
“There were a lot of people along to see Princess Anne on Friday, and our maritime skills demonstrators were very busy that day too.
“On Friday, one or two of our committee wondered if we had reached the limit of visitors and the weekend would be down, but that wasn’t the case.”
Mr Goodyear highlighted the attraction of the recently-opened and restored former salmon bothy near the harbour.
It contains a small museum and a performance and meeting area, and proved particularly popular with visitors.
He also paid tribute to the local voluntary service team who organised the unglamorous necessities such as portable toilets and parking arrangements.
He said: “The whole facilities team just went about their work quietly and efficiently and made sure everything went smoothly.”
In addition to the Princess Royal, other high-profile visitors to the festival included First Minister Alex Salmond and Aberdeenshire Council provost Bill Howatson.
