Speak of the devil and a goth (event) shall appear, or not.

Now there I was a little earlier making a pop at the expense of the Whitby Goth Weekend attendees and just a few hours later Iget news through the ether that WGW is making the headlines, in the borough of Scarborough at least.

Vampire. Kind of like a goth. But scary.  And fictional.

Linked is an article from Whitby Gazette which, from its reading, seems to have been several edits to keep up with the fast pace of goth-news.

It appears that the future of the Goth weekend this coming October/November has been in doubt due to unpaid bills from April's event.  These unpaid bills being in turn due to a shortfall in revenue due to low attendance.

Now this is no place for me to go into my various opinions on the way the festival has changed over the 17 years it has been running and I went as a paying punter for about 14 of them...  jesus that makes me feel old.  But heck, I am... But undoubtably the nature of the event (and the goth scene) has changed in that time.  One of the things which has changed a lot is that back in the day we were all young, virile, single (mostly) and up for all manner of drunken dancin', bitching the bands who were on, making various attempts to pull and end up at the Abbey for frolicks, etc. Back then, through my rose tinted glasses, the event was full of goths.  And we joked about "Old" people, being like 35...

Goth. Goth cheerleader in fact.

Now the town seems to be full of folks in their 50s and 60s dressed up like victorians, a fair selection of aging transvestites and (by far the most inexplicable) guys dressed up as pirates.  The Whitby Goth Weekend has become the Whitby Gothic Themed Fancy Dress Weekend,and these folks have little interest in seeing the bands etc. so aren't buying tickets.  The fancy dress contingent is not encouraging the real goths to attend and in turn is not helping ticket sales and is at the same time making it harder for people wanting to go to the actual event to get accomodation etc.

A sweet transvestite.

Now, unlike fixing Microsoft, I don't have a glib fix for this.  I'd love to say (like many I know do) that the event needs to get back to its roots and this will attract back the hard core of real goths who always used to buy tickets, turn up, buy lots of drinks, spend loads in the Bizarre Bazaar, etc. but sadly, most of those old hard core are busy doing other things with their lives.  Like Steve Ballmer "we seem to have lost a generation".  Goths have been quick to distance themselves from EMO and "the spooky kids" (because we seem to think we are cooler than them and because the general public can't tell the difference anyway) and sadly these kids who should have been the next generation of goths are off doing their own thing elsewhere now.  Hmmm maybe we should have been more accepting a bit earlier...

Apparently not our sort dear.

Oh well.  At least Scarborough Borough Council seem to have come to an agreement with Jo about the payment of outstanding monies from April and I hope the event does carry on.  But I think I'd like to see it learn and grow and get back to being a young, vibrant, exciting music based event rather than a promenade round town for the grandparent's generation of todays young alternatives...