Sun shines on Rox and makes it ‘Best for years!’
"It’s been a long time since I’ve been in this neck of the woods" said Neville Staple as his band slipped effortlessly into The Specials Classic hit single "Ghost Town". Whilst the massive crowd which was entrenched on the lawns of The Royal Norfolk Hotel might well have agreed with him they certainly didn’t seem to be letting it get them down as a sea of people danced along to his highly infectious Ska music.
The band had literally just arrived from a 15 hour flight from Australia following a four-week tour, but there were absolutely no signs of jet lag as all the favourites from The Specials and Fun Boy Three were played with barely enough space in between to give Rox fans a breather!
Neville Staple and his band proved to be the climax of a superb weekend of music, arts and a dramatically enlarged and popular Fringe area. The two day event was attended by almost 30,000 people – more than twice the figure for Rox 2008 and the Organisers are delighted with the result following months of preparation.
The Royal Norfolk Hotel provided the perfect backdrop to the event and the Hotel facia was lit up with psychedelic, ambient lighting. Managing Director John McCardle said, "This was my first experience of a Rox Festival and I found the management team highly professional – in fact ‘superb’! I found the levels of police and security to be just about right to ensure a good time was had by all. The staff of the Hotel showed fantastic team spirit and we’re all absolutely delighted with the event overall and we’re already looking forward to 2010".
Rox co-founder Steve Goodheart is equally upbeat and supportive of this year’s policing. "John Merrick and his team of officers dovetailed perfectly with our own guys in SB Security. It’s always hard to predict just how many people will attend the event and the figures show that we had over 4 times the amount of people compared to 2008 and hopefully all of them will take their hats off for a job very well done!"
With nearly 50 acts on three stages over the two days; the stage crew must be complimented on delivering a Festival which ran like clock-work which must have been a logistical nightmare and which demonstrates the well-oiled machine that Rox has become during its 19 year existence. The volunteers also played a massive part in keeping the show together and a special ‘thanks’ must go to them all.
The Rox Festival reputation continues to spread beyond the Town’s borders with visitors coming in for the weekend from Worthing, Chichester, Portsmouth, London, Derby and Brighton – and these are just the ones who made themselves known. One sleepy lad heading back to Derby on Monday morning said "it was an amazing Festival and I’m still trying to understand how it was all free"! A question that is answered by Rox on numerous occasions, Steve Goodheart says, "We owe a huge thanks to WSCC, ADC, and Bognor Town Council for their financial input this year. We’re also indebted to our key sponsors Butlins, The University of Chichester, Chichester and Chichester College. Whilst we greatly appreciate what these larger organisations contribute to Rox we can’t forget the smaller local businesses who help out at varying levels. In simple terms, without their combined support and the tenacity of our fund-raising team, the Rox Festival just would not happen"
Marketing Manager, Robin Parker said, "We’ve been literally bombarded with compliments this year and it’s great when you drag yourself up early next day to begin the break-down and just check the contacts that have been made via the Rox website. The first one in was a message that simply said ‘We would just like to say that we have been to a few of the Rox on beach now and this weekend 15th/16th August 2009 was by far the best yet!! Keep it up – keep it going..xx’ which says it everything and makes it all worthwhile for everyone involved in Rox"
Pictures of the event were uploaded to the Rox website virtually as they happened over the weekend so if you want to take a look at Bognor’s biggest event in pictures then just click on the Gallery.
