While the atmosphere on the last day of Loeries 2008 turned out to be rather mellow, it seems most people agreed that something was missing this year as the energetic vibe just wasn't here, with most of the daily activities either cancelled or not quite as entertaining as they ought to have been.
Today's lineup of fun things to do featured inter-agency beach volleyball and the SABC Inter-agency Battle of the Bands. The former didn't happen because the nets were stolen, and there was a short stint of touch rugby instead. The latter turned out to be a one-band performance.
Apart from starting late because the judges were missing in action, the only other band to participate, according to the MC, decided to drop out of the competition when they heard AAA School of Advertising band playing as they felt completely inadequate. Apparently, they drove down towards the beach, heard Mad Love playing and just kept on driving! So not much of a battle after all, making the judges' presence in the end completely unnecessary.
Anyway, Mad Love won a broken TV to throw out a hotel somewhere other than in Margate, free drinks and a meal courtesy of Johnny Rocket. The band had no choice but to do an encore performance to give the small crowd that gathered something to talk about.
So why does there appear to be a loss of interest from festival goers? Has Margate become boring and blasé and only for the young creatives interested in drinking and partying? Do the older, more senior, creatives and execs no longer come because the environment is not suitable for the presumably more dignified kind of networking they prefer?
Rumor has it that we could see a change of venue for Loeries 2009 or the year after. Keep an ear to the ground as it may be goodbye Margate and hello to a more southern venue in the future... There are whispers that Cape Town is in the running! For more:
Sindy Peters is content manager on Bizcommunity.com's Africa Marketing and Medical portals and is one of the contributors on the BizE Blog, Bizcommunity's entertainment blog. She can be reached at sindy@bizcommunity.com.
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Sindy Peters is content manager on Bizcommunity.com's 
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