Friday, May 18th, 2012
Clare Grant on turning a disaster into a triumph. WHEN £6,000 worth of fireworks were let off in 50 seconds in Oban that’s one hell of a show – but when the extravaganza was intended to last 30 minutes, surely questions must be asked? Yet the local bigwig-who was forced to apologise to a crowd on the night-is now hailing the cringeworthy technical glitch as a TRIUMPH.
Oban, now the firework disaster capital of the world.
According to Councillor Roddy McCuish, it’s put Oban on the map -and could spark a trend for shorter more spectacular displays.
It’s true that YouTube footage of the event has been seen by an estimated one million viewers-but how much good will this do the Hebridean port itself?
All the world saw was a laughably truncated firework display where the backdrop didn’t matter. Who’d want to copy that?
This cynical revisionist view of an absolute fiasco is plainly how they do public relations in cloud cuckoo land.
Especially as the event was funded by public donations and NOT-as is the norm in countless UK towns-a local authority .
So much cash has gone up in smoke at a time when there’s little to spare but STILL this is billed as a marketing masterstroke. Do the organisers need a rocket up them or what?
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Plainly cooncillors tasked with playing down this firework farce sought to make a virtue out of necessity . Is this what passes for excitement up by this weather? Roll on the re-opening of Oban’s cinema!