Friends of Covent Garden 60th Anniversary Open Day?

[Geoff]

Here below is the relatively uninformative announcement I - as a Friend of ROH - got at the end of last week. Anybody know where one can find out what is going to be on offer (surely at least as important as the big news of when to book)? I suppose this paragraph counts, technically speaking, as “further details” but I found the text annoying rather than delightful. Maybe it’s my fault? 

 

We are thrilled to announce further details of our Friends’ 60th Anniversary Open Day, celebrating 60 years since the Friends of Covent Garden were founded. Join us on 16 October to get closer to the music and dance you love, with behind-the-scenes access, tours and activities, exclusively for Friends. This is a daytime event, with two available slots to book (morning and afternoon). Booking will open from 12pm on 6 September*, when you’ll be able to book up to 4 tickets online or by calling the Box Office on 020 7304 4000. We would absolutely love to see you and your family or friends for what promises to be a truly special occasion in honour of your invaluable support. Tickets are limited, so don't miss out.

[Geoff]

PS Admins please delete if Friends-only discussions are unwelcome here. Or if the post belongs in News, maybe you could be so kind as to move it. 

 

[MJW]

No - its not you - I thought exactly the same thing. Also if I ask a friend or family member to go with me, I'd like to know the cost beforehand!

[Linnzi5]

54 minutes ago, Geoff said:

Here below is the relatively uninformative announcement I - as a Friend of ROH - got at the end of last week. Anybody know where one can find out what is going to be on offer (surely at least as important as the big news of when to book)? I suppose this paragraph counts, technically speaking, as “further details” but I found the text annoying rather than delightful. Maybe it’s my fault? 

 

We are thrilled to announce further details of our Friends’ 60th Anniversary Open Day, celebrating 60 years since the Friends of Covent Garden were founded. Join us on 16 October to get closer to the music and dance you love, with behind-the-scenes access, tours and activities, exclusively for Friends. This is a daytime event, with two available slots to book (morning and afternoon). Booking will open from 12pm on 6 September*, when you’ll be able to book up to 4 tickets online or by calling the Box Office on 020 7304 4000. We would absolutely love to see you and your family or friends for what promises to be a truly special occasion in honour of your invaluable support. Tickets are limited, so don't miss out.

I got exactly the same email too. 

[JNC]

I’m a Friend and I didn’t receive this email, did any other friends not? I checked my spam folder but other emails from ROH don’t end up there. Agree it’s light on information and pricing. Not much notice given of either the event or booking. 

[jmhopton]

I'm a Friend and I didn't receive it either.  Very strange and uninformative.  If that's the best the publicity department can come up with it doesn't say much for them. 

[Guest oncnp]

For me it was included in the Friend's Fortnightly e-newsletter last Fri 26 Aug, about halfway down page.  It wasn't a standalone message.

 

 

Edited August 30, 2022 by oncnp

[bridiem]

7 hours ago, oncnp said:

For me it was included in the Friend's Fortnightly e-newsletter last Fri 26 Aug, about halfway down page.  It wasn't a standalone message.

 

Me too, though the email subject line was 'Celebrate 60 Years of Friends!' so it did highlight the information. (I assumed that because it was celebrating Friends it was a free event for Friends! Maybe that was naive... If it's expensive I just won't go.)

[MJW]

I've dropped the ROH an email to ask about prices and will let you know if I get a response before booking opens next week!

[MJW]

From the ROH:

 

Thank you so much for your email and for your interest in our Friends' Open Day. Tickets for this event will be free and you can book up to 4 tickets.

 

Please do let us know if you have any further queries and thank you for your support of the ROH.

[TurningPointe]

20 hours ago, oncnp said:

For me it was included in the Friend's Fortnightly e-newsletter last Fri 26 Aug, about halfway down page.  It wasn't a standalone message.

 

 

Yes, I’ve received this ‘invite’ as part of a larger e-newsletter last Friday.  Half way down the page, same here.

[jmhopton]

21 hours ago, jmhopton said:

I'm a Friend and I didn't receive it either.  Very strange and uninformative.  If that's the best the publicity department can come up with it doesn't say much for them. 

 

I tell a lie I did receive it in the Friends newsletter. However, I found it so uninformative as to be absolutely useless, my eyes glazed over and I think I'd forgotten it before I finished reading it! Living 200 miles away I knew I couldn't be there anyway but even if I lived nearer more information would be helpful especially if you have to book and can't just turn up on the day.

[Geoff]

On 31/08/2022 at 11:14, MJW said:

From the ROH:

 

Thank you so much for your email and for your interest in our Friends' Open Day. Tickets for this event will be free and you can book up to 4 tickets.

 

Please do let us know if you have any further queries and thank you for your support of the ROH.

Many thanks MJW. They didn’t happen to mention what, er, we will be able to see?

[MJW]

1 hour ago, Geoff said:

Many thanks MJW. They didn’t happen to mention what, er, we will be able to see?

 

I didn't ask! However they now have a little more information on their website:

 

https://www.roh.org.uk/tickets-and-events/friends-60th-anniversary-details

 

 

Edited September 1, 2022 by MJW

[Geoff]

5 hours ago, MJW said:

they now have a little more information on their website:

 

https://www.roh.org.uk/tickets-and-events/friends-60th-anniversary-details

 

On 31/08/2022 at 11:14, MJW said:

From the ROH:

 

Tickets for this event will be free

Yet now the website says

 

>>You must be a member of ROH to purchase tickets for this event.

 

It isn’t grammatically possible to “purchase” free tickets (but maybe I expect too much from whoever writes this stuff). In any case this is a bit of a muddle, as well as a mystery.
 

The events will apparently be “exciting”. Any chance they are going to reinstate the showings of rare footage from their archive (which had to be cancelled because of lockdown)? That would indeed be exciting. 

[JNC]

This could be a really promising event but more information really should be provided in advance of booking. 
 

for those of us not living in London, it’s a long way and expense to travel without knowing what is on offer and if it would actually appeal. 
 

I wonder if people will book tickets and perhaps not turn up on the day - will tickets be “returnable”? 
 

I hope if it is something worth attending maybe they consider making it an annual event for friends - could be another sweetener for membership and also if they charged a nominal fee (say £5-10 pp) it could be a nice money earner if there aren’t many outgoings incurred? Even screening archival footage for a cinema style cost/experience seems like something they should consider if there is interest - surely it would hardly cost anything to do something like this in the Linbury, but could easily make a few thousand? 
 

Overall I’m feeling a bit frustrated by the communication - either they haven’t planned it yet and are making it up as they go along, which doesn’t fill me with lots of hope, or they are deciding to keep things deliberately vague/mysterious which isn’t helpful when deciding if it’s worth attending (and asking friends to come along), especially for making travel plans! 

[Jan McNulty]

11 hours ago, Geoff said:

 

Yet now the website says

 

>>You must be a member of ROH to purchase tickets for this event.

 

It isn’t grammatically possible to “purchase” free tickets (but maybe I expect too much from whoever writes this stuff). In any case this is a bit of a muddle, as well as a mystery.
 

The events will apparently be “exciting”. Any chance they are going to reinstate the showings of rare footage from their archive (which had to be cancelled because of lockdown)? That would indeed be exciting. 

 

 

I have noticed that if you book tickets for something using Eventbrite you "buy tickets" even if they are free.  I suppose it is easier to use the generic word "buy" rather than work out whether an event is paid or free.

 

I'm not a friend at ROH but it sounds like a fantastic opportunity for friends.

[maryrosesatonapin]

Included in the information is that you should expect a fair amount of walking, so it sounds like a behind-the-scenes tour.

[Geoff]

4 hours ago, Jan McNulty said:

I have noticed that if you book tickets for something using Eventbrite you "buy tickets" even if they are free.  I suppose it is easier to use the generic word "buy" rather than work out whether an event is paid or free.

Indeed Jan. But Eventbrite has to use the same basic form for all events, paid for or not. Whereas this is a piece of copywriting for a specific event: they could easily have done it right. 

[Jan McNulty]

16 minutes ago, Geoff said:

Indeed Jan. But Eventbrite has to use the same basic form for all events, paid for or not. Whereas this is a piece of copywriting for a specific event: they could easily have done it right. 

 

True - I was just trying to be generous.

 

[JohnS]

As I’ve booked double Mayerling on the Saturday and so will be staying Saturday night, I’m hoping to go along on the Sunday morning. A few more clues would be welcome and I see full timetable details will be available soon but there may well be uncertainties about what’s going on and as Sunday’s normally a day off I guess any rehearsals would have to be specially arranged? Having always enjoyed every tour I’ve been on, I’m quite sure ROH will provide something memorable - didn’t one recent series of tours include being shown how to take bows etc on stage and then having a go? Unfortunately I doubt ROH’s magic will extend to sorting transport disruption and Aviva’s emergency timetable so I expect I’ll have to make a few changes to my Autumn plans.

[bangorballetboy]

I have to say that, given this is a free event for Friends with "behind the scenes access, tours and activities", I'm very disappointed at the extremely negative reaction of many on this thread.

 

The ROH is doing something to help ensure that Friends don't think they are being taken from granted (which I think is very important) and I applaud that.  I will try to get tickets, notwithstanding the minimal information.

[Guest oncnp]

37 minutes ago, bangorballetboy said:

I have to say that, given this is a free event for Friends with "behind the scenes access, tours and activities", I'm very disappointed at the extremely negative reaction of many on this thread.

 

The ROH is doing something to help ensure that Friends don't think they are being taken from granted (which I think is very important) and I applaud that.  I will try to get tickets, notwithstanding the minimal information.

 

Agree that the ROH needs to show Friends they are not taken for granted and also applaud them for the event. Yes, there's a "but" coming....

 

The admission may be free there is cost in time and travel and opportunity costs (other things you could be doing). I don't think it's unreasonable for people to ask what they get in return. 

Edited September 5, 2022 by oncnp

[Candleque]

Being a dance lover and longtime supporter/friend of the Royal Ballet doesn't prevent me from agreeing that the ROH could do a better job on communication. They are a world-class organisation, but not particularly user-centric (i.e., structuring their marketing, website, et al, around user needs)

[JNC]

11 hours ago, oncnp said:

 

The admission may be free there is cost in time and travel and opportunity costs (other things you could be doing). I don't think it's unreasonable for people to ask what they get in return. 

exactly this. If you live in London it’s not that much of an issue and a low risk situation (admittedly still helpful to have a better idea of the programme to decide if it’s for you or not).

 

for everyone else, considering whether to spend potentially £100 plus two-three hours each way for something that you may not be interested in, or find underwhelming, is a frustrating decision to make.

 

I don’t want to miss something that I would truly enjoy and might not come around again for a while, but I can’t afford to spend this money and time with this level of information, which means it disadvantages anyone non London based (or without loads of free cash, maybe they think all Friends have less money concerns?). 
 

it’s not hard to give more information. If it’s the same type of behind the scenes tour that I’ve done before and is open to the public (when you pay and book in advance) it’s not worth me spending the time and money to travel down for that. If it involves something with the dancers or staff for example (like talks, practical workshops like a little ballet class or some crafting) then it may be something I’d be more interested in if (and it’s a big if) there’s no train engineering/strike issues (usually Sunday is bad for trains anyway with reduced service as standard compared to Saturdays and weekdays) and I could get cheaper advance tickets. 

 

I just think it’s very easy for them to provide more details (even if they caveat subject to change and finalisation etc) and just because it’s overall a nice, good thing that is being done, it doesn’t mean we can’t provide critical feedback to make sure it’s better next time. 

[bridiem]

It's more than a month away so I imagine a lot of the details are yet to be decided. I think that the initial announcement should have made it clear (trumpeted!) that it's a free event, but I think it's good that they're doing it. Given that a lot of non-Friends will be there as guests of Friends, I imagine the content won't be very specialised but I hope it will still be special. (And I hope that some Friends who want to go won't find themselves unable to do so because a lot of guests have been invited by other Friends...).

 

[JohnS]

I managed to get my free ticket for the Sunday morning when booking opened for me at 9:00. Slightly surprised to see a ‘last few remaining’ tag for the morning (100+ showing for the afternoon). There may well be a rush at 12:00 today.

[MJW]

Managed to get two tickets for the afternoon without any problems 😀

[Geoff]

The ROH is once again wonderful in all it does. A careful examination of the marketing email sent to me this afternoon shows they have now abandoned the use of the word “purchase”. They have even put in bold that this event is free. Nothing to do with our objections of course.
 

Still no more information but coming “soon”. 

[JohnS]

I see the open day is now ‘sold out’, both am and pm. Looking forward to attending and enjoying any surprises.

[SPD444]

Web site says “Full timetable of events to be announced soon”

[Guest oncnp]

Also noticed this in the Friend's email

 

We are anticipating high demand and will operate a waitlist if the event is sold out. If you are unable to obtain tickets today and would like to be added to the waitlist, please email friends@roh.org.uk and specify what time you would like to attend (10.30am or 2pm) and also how many tickets you would like to book (up to 4 per member). 

 

And if any Friend (and I'll take you at your word) would like to attend and couldn't get tickets PM me. 

[alison]

Whatever happened to the term "waiting list"?  "Waitlist" sets my teeth on edge every time I see it.