Following our recent articles on the Worlds 2022, these social media responses are worth repeating. The first is from from reader Mark Christy:
In past years I too was annoyed by the inability to hear the Grade 1 bands. Indeed the free seat location was far better than the paid seat. The RSPBA should have a study of the professional production down the road.
At the Edinburgh Tattoo it’s all about the customer experience. Nine thousand seats at £40 minimum a pop, sold out for 25 shows is a very big number. That confirms a good customer experience! There is no reason that the best piping on the planet can’t be showcased properly in a professional manner.
It’s always been difficult to hear the Grade 1 bands, so fix it! The march-on into the circle, how important is that, really? An archaic tradition that was thought up in a bygone era. Concert formation is much easier to create a good listener experience. Get the crowd closer to the band. The distancing from the performance is ridiculous.
The feeling you get as a player with a huge crowd close by is fantastic. An adjudication bench can easily be factored in. Invest in a good professional sound system that eliminates the talking in the crowd simply by overpowering it. Learn from the BBC as they have the sound production figured out. Come on RSPBA, you can do better!
Another reader wrote: The stand is overrated and grossly over priced. Seats are too far away to properly hear the bands. The emptiness really devalues the excellent performances. The RSPBA need to offer the seats to school / juvenile bands to fill them and further encourage interest from the next generation, and to people who simply need to have a seat due to age or mobility – or at least make the seats a cheaper supplement price to the core entry ticket.
It really doesn’t look good on TV/ livestream having empty stands. It looks as if no one is interested in the world-class, excellent performances. I can’t see there ever being an opportunity for revenue from TV sponsorship as no one would want to put their company logo on a stand with no one interested in sitting there. Companies (and TV audiences) want to be associated with popularity and success, not emptiness and a sight of disinterest. At least have the TV cameras pan onto the large crowd opposite the stands a bit more.
And another: I agree completely [with Mark Christy]. How demoralizing for bands to play in front of 23 people in the stands and four judges. Not to mention the optics. If that’s the World Championship where are the people?