Reflections on Harrogate Crime Writers' Festival

WHAT DO I THINK OF THIS EVENT?
This has been our third visit to Harrogate Crime Writers' Festival since 2012 and it is a few days that we enjoy immensely. We do work at it and initially we hardly missed an event although I did miss one or two. Our last visit was just a little bit more leisurely.

For this year the sun shone and we enjoyed being in that setting in front of the Swan Hotel, amongst the mature trees, writers, authors and of course readers. Everyone is friendly. You can approach anyone and converse with them. Authors can be asked for their signatures and their time is willingly given. After all they should please their consumers!

THE COST
We booked the package that covered three nights, including breakfast, and a 'Weekend Rover' ticket at a price of just over £900. This included every event except the The Kill Me Quick: Author Dinner. This cost £30 per head and that is a very expensive fish and chip dinner with Ice-cream as an after thought! It was fun and having won before, in 2014, we thought that we would give it another go and we won again. We came away with a novel by Alyson Joseph, our allocated author, which is 'A Sister Agnes Mystery' titled 'A Violent Act'. As we were the winners the whole table were presented with 'Love You Dead' by Peter James. Mine is now signed.

I don't think that we would do this again although it was enjoyable and we met different people.

CONSTRUCTIVE COMMENTS FOR COMFORT
Alright, I have praised this event and entered my comments on each day. Now I turn my attention to about what could be better for the comfort of customers: The area where the events are held is spacious enough and will hold a large number of people although there were empty chairs at all the events that I attended. The front portion is crammed with too may chairs per line and with too many lines of them. These are uncomfortable and do not suit the prestige of this event. The rear portion contains some very comfortable chairs and this is where I sat. There are two screens that allow the rear portion of customers an almost clear view, with sound, of what is happening on the stage.
As the floor is not inclined as in a theatre then why not raise the participants position on the stage. That cannot be difficult to do.

Every year that we have been we are uncomfortably hot during the events and so are the people on stage. If customer satisfaction and participation is to be maintained then this matter should be solved.
There is now an outside tented area with a small bar and some seats and the book shop has it's own area and both of these are a vast improvement on where they were accommodated before. Now the rub; this bar and the small bar inside the hotel are inadequate and queues are there all the time. It is not good enough. The bar staff are inexperienced and sometimes do not have the goods to sell. When we arrived on Wednesday the Pinot Grigio was not chilled and I had un-chilled can of Guinness. What nothing on draught! It is criminal in my view and always, always Theakston's best bitter runs out.

This is a prestige event and the customers do deserve better so come on Harrogate International Festivals do what you should be doing and provide the amenities to suit your customers.

FINALLY
Would we go again? Yes, of course we will, as it is a wonderful and stimulating experience. So, a huge thank you to the crime writers that are involved in it.