Festival puts pop into town

It's great news for Brighton's music-lovers that a festival will be held in the town once again this summer.

But it's less good for the residents of Stanmer and Coldean who suffered a lot of noise and disturbance when the last Essential Music Festival was held in 1997.

The problem then was that Stanmer Park was overwhelmed with revellers and the area could not cope with 45,000 people. This time, sensible steps have been taken to restrict trouble by holding concerts inside marquees, finishing shows at 11pm and holding an all-night party between the two days at the Brighton Centre.

Brighton, with its reputation as a tourist centre and its huge numbers of young people, is the ideal resort for a music festival. But because it's tightly packed between the Downs and the sea there is no ideal place to stage such an event.

Stanmer Park is the best there is, but residents have to be protected. Let's hope the precautions work in July otherwise it will be hard to justify another festival there.

Mum's the word

After a century of struggle, many women have achieved equality with men at work. The exception tends to be if they are mums.

Research by Dr Susan Harkness at Sussex University has shown women with children earn less than childless women in similar jobs and many mums who return to work leave soon afterwards.

It's unacceptable that mothers should be demoted and paid less money as has happened to many women in this research. Militant mothers who were once in the women's movement may care to set up Mums' Lib to press home their point with employers.

Fit for junk

There's just one thing wrong with the sculpture put up by Ella Bissett Johnson in Victoria Gardens, Brighton. It's a heap of junk.

Residents complained that it looked like an abandoned car on the grass and that's essentially what it is.

Ella may say it's art. But when art is an abandoned car, it's fit only for the parking pound or the rubbish tip.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.