Big thumbs up for festival idea

A strong consensus for initiating an annual festival in Kilcullen emerged from a poll conducted on the Diary over the last week.

The question was 'Should Kilcullen have an annual festival?'. Of 68 people who responded, 62 clicked the 'Yes' button, five indicated a 'No' preference and just one 'didn't care'.

Kilcullen has had festival events in the past, including the famous 'Capers' annual variety show series which lasted for a decade in the 70s and 80s, and the 'Autumn Village Festival' which ran for a couple of years and included a number of different cultural components.

These days, the only regular events are the autumn and spring productions from the Kilcullen Drama Group and the 'Duck Race' Community Day organised by Kilcullen Lions. And, of course, the various fundraising Field Days for the schools. (No doubt I've forgotten something, but I expect I'll be reminded.)

During the week of the poll, almost a thousand visits were made to the Diary site -- this month is traditionally the quietest because so many people are on holiday -- and the response in statistical terms represents a decent strand of opinion.

More to the point, there are over 60 people out there, counting only the readers of this weblog, who felt strongly enough to vote for the principle of such a festival. Even on their own they would make up a very strong committee to develop and implement a festival initiative.

This is the time of the year to start planning for 2008. If any of those respondents would like to bring the idea further, the Diary is happy to be a focus point for any thoughts.

Brian Byrne.

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Planning in Kilcullen is 'badly managed'

Two thirds of the respondents to a Kilcullen Diary poll on planning in Kilcullen believed the process is 'being managed badly', while most of the balance believe it is 'being left to drift'. Just one respondent clicked the 'being managed well' button.

Perhaps the most intriguing thing is that most people don't seem to care. The site had more than 500 unique visitors in the week the poll was open, visiting a total of 1,257 times and viewing more than 1,791 pages. Yet just 30 people took the trouble to register their views on the state of planning in Kilcullen.

Brian Byrne.