Michael Chubb, the man behind Birmingham’s much-criticised Winterval festival, dismisses claims that it was an attempt to abolish Christmas.
Whilst marketed as Winterval, each event had its own marketing plan but clearly it was Winterval that drove the initiative.
Google Winterval and you get nearly 18,000 results.
Investigate further and you have an amazing array of personal comments from pukka broadsheets to off-the-wall blog sites to Birmingham’s own Post: “Christmas has been rebranded Winterval”.
Oliver Burkeman in the Guardian in 1998 investigated thoroughly and found that claims of a PC campaign against Christmas were “pure nonsense”.
He went on: “Perhaps the most notorious of the anti-Christmas rebrandings is Winterval, in Birmingham. According to an official statement from the Council, Winterval – which ran in 1997 and 1998, and never since – was a promotional campaign to drive business into Birmingham’s newly regenerated town centre.
“It began in early November and finished in January. During the part of that period traditionally celebrated as Christmas there was a banner saying Merry Christmas across the front of the Council House, Christmas lights, Christmas trees in the main civil squares, regular carol-singing sessions by school choirs, and the Lord Mayor sent a Christmas card with a traditional Christmas scene wishing everyone a Merry Christmas.”
None of that, though, was enough to prevent a protest movement at the time, whose members included the then Bishop of Birmingham, Mark Santer, as well as two members of UB40”.
When asked about the de-Christianisation of Christmas, Julian Bond of the Christian Muslim Forum, admitted that evidence was hard to come by.
He added: “You know, we were in Birmingham for a meeting the other day and there’s a big Merry Christmas banner in the middle of New Street.”
I think it is now time to put my head above the parapet and declare why I have been asked to write this article.
Pretty simple really, I was the one that coined the term “Winterval”.
I was Head of Events for Birmingham, responsible for over 400 events a year from St. George’s Day to Fireworks Fantasia, international street festivals to… yes Christmas.
As an events division (the largest in the UK at that time) we were always seeking to improve the service to the Birmingham community and whilst we aided specific communities to develop their own festivals, Diwali, Chinese New Year, St Patrick’s Day to Gay Pride, mainly because we had the professional expertise to help those communities realise their ambitions, our remit extended to all festivals and events.
All were to be totally inclusive and the majority free or at an affordable price.
In my first Christmas, Birmingham received national coverage, Blue Peter launched the Christmas lights switch on and Eamonn Holmes’s How Do They Do That? show closed its Christmas edition with a burst of flame projectors on the Town Hall... “and a happy Christmas from Birmingham!”.
As Head of Events with such a professional team behind me, it was always important to deliver bigger and better events more often than not though with reduced funding.
The imperative for delivering these events was to maximize the quality of the experience, increase our audiences and deliver Birmingham as a forward thinking energetic city.
Promoting the events to a local, national and international audience and thereby gaining recognition was vital to the council’s overall aims and objectives. Recognition of a city’s innovative approach reflects on all.
To businesses considering relocating, to increasing bed nights to the hotel sector, to marketing the city’s retail offer – all these were factored in.
So to Winterval. The events division were charged with putting on 41 days and nights of activity that ranged from BBC Children in Need, to the Christmas Lights Switch On, to a Frankfurt Christmas Market, outdoor ice rink, Aston Hall by Candlelight, Diwali, shopping at Christmas, world class theatre and arts plus, of course, New Year’s Eve with its massive 100,000 audience. With funding from sponsors and with very many more events to market, the decision was to bring all the events together under a generic banner under which they could all sit.
Whilst marketed as Winterval, each event had its own marketing plan but clearly it was Winterval that drove the initiative.
Leaving Birmingham, to another job, I started to notice the ridiculous banshee that pervaded Winterval.
So as originator of Winterval, what are my thoughts?.
Rather like Oliver Burkeman of the Guardian, that it’s nonsense and I feel that around the festive season, when news is fairly thin on the ground, the media seek out what they term “silly season” stories.
Political correctness was never the reasoning behind Winterval, but yes it was intended to be inclusive, which is no bad thing to my mind, and a brand to which other initiatives could be developed as part of the Winterval offer in order to sell Birmingham at a time when all cities are competing against each other for the seasonal trade.
I do believe that those who took umbrage did it for their own reasons, to peddle their own message and of course, everybody got on to their own hobby horses in the process.
I am amazed that no-one could see the simplicity of The Winterval brand, but read into it what they wanted; to further and give voice to their own aspirations and prejudices.
Maybe, perhaps , the opportunists will now put away their righteous indignation and reflect on what the city has lost. A unique festival that celebrates what Birmingham is world famous for. A city that shares and celebrates with a sense of style and adventure.
It is time for Birmingham to be proud of Winterval and stand up for an innovative initiative that befits an outward looking city.
