I went on the Festival website prior to departing as I assumed I would be able to print off a town centre map from there, highlighting where the participating venues/ businesses were located. I was wrong. I cobbled something together using Google maps and the venue addresses that are on the Festival website, but this was less than ideal (more on that later). There was also no advice about where to park, so again, I turned to Google.
Luckily, Brighouse town centre has plenty of small, side- street car parks so parking up wasn't an issue, and as an added bonus it was free on a Sunday- woo. This is certainly something that could have been promoted on the website to encourage visitors.
I started my afternoon at Milry's, where I enjoyed a lovely lunch, but was disappointed with the lack of art on display. The venue was meant to be hosting the Hipperholme and Lightcliffe Art Society, but there was literally so little art on display I felt confused- was Milry's actually participating in the Festival? It didn't appear so.
I then walked up to the Rydings Park and Brighouse Library and Smith Art Gallery. The Smith Art Gallery was small but pleasant and I enjoyed looking at the two exhibits there.
There was also meant to be, within the library section of the building, an exhibit of the photographer Jasmin Chadwick's work- but I could not see any evidence of this within the library, nor were there signs directing you to this exhibit in another part/ room of the building. There were library staff present but they were all busy helping people who were using the library, so I didn't linger to ask regarding the whereabouts of the photography exhibit- I believe this should have been clearly advertised/ signposted within the building anyway.
In the park there wasn't much going on- a little steam train, a group of kids doing trapeze walking between a few trees, and there were a couple of gazebos set up for demos, but none were going on. In fact, the only one that was manned was the graffiti artist's gazebo and the graffiti artist was sat nearby, not demonstrating. I felt this was poor- it was around 2pm when I was there- peak time, and there were people milling around. Had the demos been going on I'm sure those of us that were there would have gathered to watch- I certainly would have. But it feels rude to approach an artist and ask them to 'perform' on the spot, so I left.
I then went in search of the Harrison Lord Gallery. My quick look on Google maps earlier had indicated to me that this venue was on Bradford Road, on the way out of Brighouse. I got as far as the old Ritz Ballroom and the rain became so bad, I found refuge in a bus stop and decided to check the whereabouts of the venue again on my phone, to save me wandering aimlessly in the rain. It transpired that this venue was actually back down in the town centre, so off I went in further pursuit. When I got there, the venue was shut!!! I found this appalling- it should have been open on every day of the Festival if it was participating in it, but especially on the weekend dates of the Festival when the most visitors were likely to come. I was more than a little annoyed! I had assumed that every participating venue would be open all day throughout the Festival, because the Festival website did not indicate otherwise, or direct potential visitors to check with individual businesses regarding their opening times and provide links to any websites etc. Again, disappointing.
I then headed off to the final place I intended to visit, Blakeley's Coffee Shop. This was, again, hard to find. I think I found the right Blakeley's, but if I did then I was unimpressed with the art exhibited- there was so little it couldn't possibly be an exhibition?
All in all very poor. I think the website needs to have much more information on it for visitors, none of the venues had posters displayed in the windows to indicate they were involved in the Festival (and so that you had found the right place!), there were no Festival posters around the town centre helpfully directing you to venues, the fact a Gallery wasn't even open during the Festival was very poor, and the exhibits themselves seemed half arsed! I could go on but I think I'll stop there!
If I haven't put you off then, as mentioned earlier, the Festival is going on till 31.08.12 and the website is at http://www.brighousefestival.co.uk, but I can't say I'd recommend it to anyone as worth visiting.
