Following Ken Bodfish's response (Letters, March 11) to John Parry's article on Storming The Dome, I must confess to totally agreeing with Mr Parry's comments.

I really wanted to sit back, enjoy the atmosphere and see the whole building come back to life. With more than 400 local performers taking part, I could not believe the lack of atmosphere (the Dome was half-empty), the awful music and the almost total lack of relevance to Brighton and Hove.

I would have thought chief executive Nick Dodds would have made an effort to come on to the stage to say a few words before the first show.

Instead, we had a disembodied female voice asking us to stay seated at the end while a photographer snapped us all.

As we left our seats, heading for a double brandy in the nearest pub, I saw Councillor Bodfish standing in the bar, obviously about to see the second show.

Perhaps he and his council colleagues then saw a different show to the rest of us.

The musicians, singers and actors all did their best and I am sure they must have found the whole thing as baffling as the audience.

We are neither stupid nor snobs, just normal people who wanted to enjoy a show by and for the people of Brighton and Hove, as the publicity material promised.

It was all very sad. I could not help thinking of the Emperor's New Clothes.

-M Ashby, Goldstone Villas, Hove