NEWSLETTER ONE
10th January 2010

Hello everyone and welcome to The Better Festival Group’s very first Newsletter! I am sorry it has taken so long coming, but 2009 got so busy so quick this is the first chance I have had to get this done, so thanks for bearing with me.

Firstly I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas and wish you all the best for the New Year.

So what has been happening since the re-brand from Love Not Riots?

2009 was a fabulous year for The B.F.G. and its fantastic team of volunteers, and I would like to say a massive thank you to each volunteer that worked so hard and really helped to make our first year a success!

Reading, Leeds, Sonisphere and Bloodstock were an absolute success in 2009 and it’s all looking really promising for 2010!

Campaigns for 2010 – With environmental responsibility becoming more important, and individuals and businesses alike having to take more accountability for their carbon footprint, we are launching 2 new campaigns for 2010. The BIG Tent Recycle aims to tackle the huge amounts of reusable / recyclable items that get left behind at larger events, enabling local charities and global organisations to make use of as much stuff as possible. The second is a smaller version of the above and aims to implement recycling initiatives and opportunities and a Green Team into events to promote a green message.

Blogging on VF – We have also started to blog on the Virtual Festivals website. VF Blog Here
So far we have blogged about The Better Festival Group and the new Glastonbury Emerging Talent competition! Have a read and bookmark the page so you can read our other blogs as we post them!

From Donington to Download: The Official History of Rock at Donington Park – Ian Carroll, author of The Reading Festival: Music, Mud and Mayhem, is looking for your favourite Download Festival stories to publish in his new book. The writer needs your best stories, memories, standout performances, moments, photos and tales about meeting famous people in the crowd to for his Donington memoirs.

Fans can submit anecdotes of any size with most submissions so far between 150-300 words, but some are as little as 20 words and others as big as 2000, just send your name, town/city and story or photos to doningtonexperiences@iancarrollauthor.com

Reading & Leeds Focus Group – The Focus Groups for Reading and Leeds will take place early next year, so if you have a comment, complaint or a suggestion that you would like considered for discussion at this meeting please register on the forums if you haven’t already done so and let us know.
Reading – http://bit.ly/55XtZo
Leeds – http://bit.ly/7s7kIX

Sonisphere Focus Group – The Sonisphere Focus Group is planned for March 2010 so if you have a comment, complaint or a suggestion that you would like considered for discussion at this meeting please register on the forums if you haven’t already done so and let us know – http://bit.ly/58Ucah

Forum – We have launched our own Discussion Board for volunteers to chat, BFG Announcements and a way for volunteers to build a nice community, so if you aren’t already registered why not pop along and say hi to everyone – http://thebetterfestivalgroup.co.uk/forum/index.php

Ultimate Festival Kit – I had the pleasure a few weeks back to meet up with Jill and Andrea, the brains behind “The Ultimate Festival Kit”. It’s really hard to not appreciate the quality and uniqueness of the kits that they supply, because they are just so awesome and great value for money! Head on over to their website and check their kits out – http://www.ultimatefestivalkit.com/

How to apply to Volunteer – We have various volunteering vacancies available in 2010. Please go to the following link to find out about our vacancies and apply. http://thebetterfestivalgroup.co.uk/get-involved/apply-on-line

More Links
Twitter – Follow us on Twitter http://twitter.com/betterfestival and follow our Festival List for Festival Only Tweets from events around the UK http://twitter.com/#/list/betterfestival/festivals
Facebook – Join our facebook group http://bit.ly/6GJjKc
Myspace – Join our myspace page http://www.myspace.com/thebetterfestivalgroup

Thanks for reading and hopefully see you at a Festival soon :o )

Zee
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