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By Ruth Latham
30th October 2009: It was with high expectations I had been looking forward to the 1st annual BEFFTA awards, held on Saturday 17th October at the Hilton Metropole, London, UK. I had believed the propaganda; I had been drawn into the excitement of promoting my favourite and requesting the votes of many others too. I had believed in the whole process of vote registration, I had liaised with the BEFFTA team getting their assurance that our party would be seated together on our VIP table, I had provided all guest names for their guest lists. The evening itself was going to be the icing on the cake, an enjoyable experience of watching a professional awards show up close not through the vision of a TV screen, so to say I was disappointed by the reality of the evening, is a complete understatement.
I was expecting to be greeted at the door by professionals equipped with copies of the guest list, we would give our names, they would check us off, note the fact we were listed as VIP guests and produce our VIP guest passes..... What I wasn't expecting was to be met by someone in the Hotel entrance hall handing out a small red card with the letters BEFFTA VIP emblazoned on it, to anyone who requested one!
I was expecting to be told from the guest list the number of our table so we could walk into the auditorium, approach our table and take our seats...... what I wasn't expecting was to walk into the dining area, be handed a goodie bag and told to sit where we liked! Even saying we had notification that our VIP table was booked and we would be able to sit as a group, held no weight at all, we were just told the VIP tables were at the front, unsurprisingly, all tables were already occupied, so our options were to sit separately on various tables, or take a table at the back. Naturally wanting to sit together as a group, we settled for a table at the back, still at this point determined to enjoy the evening and take our complaint up with the appropriate people on Monday. I was expecting with my ticket price, a meal and drinks, even if the drink was basic orange juice. What I wasn't expecting was to be told by the apologetic waiter that drinks were not provided, they were to be bought separately, but he could provide jugs of tap water.
I was expecting a delicious meal to the high quality and standard of Hilton Metropole Hotel. I hadn't eaten all day so was at this point positively salivating at the prospect of an impressive menu. What I wasn't expecting was a meagre chunk of chicken in a red wine sauce on a bed of chopped potatoes with random roasted aubergines or I think that’s what they were!! There was no starters, no dessert!!!! How can that be? Isn't the promise of a meal automatically assumed to be including a starter, main course and a dessert, or at the very least a main course and a dessert. I have to say I felt hugely let down by the meal itself, it was certainly not the tasty haute cuisine I had anticipated of the Hilton. Even hungry, I was unable to complete the meal.
It was soon time for the main event of the night to unfold...
I was expecting a well choreographed timetable of presentation, entertainment and accolades for all worthy winners. I was not expecting the slow process of a complete shambles. At one point I even whispered to a friend, "Do you think they have cameras hidden and someone is going to burst on stage in a moment and scream.... You've all been framed!!"
The sound wasn't right for a start, you couldn't hear a word at first that the presenters were saying. A young girl was announced to come on stage and sing, she sang two songs and she had a fantastic voice. The range in her first song made it a delight to listen to her, the second song was disappointing, not because of her voice but the lyrics tend to leave me flat when the song is centred around the same half a dozen words repeatedly. We were then told to welcome another singer, she strutted onto the stage, the background music started and so did the lyrics!! It was a terrible act of lip synching!! On a show?
The first award started, the nominees were read out with baited breath, well I tried but at this point I was so over the whole evening, it was hard to find excitement on any level, so there we were waiting for ..."The winner is...." but what we got instead was "Anyone knows who the winner is? I don't have it? With much embarrassment, the two hosts tried to freestyle through the big mess, eventually a clearly embarrassed host announced they needed to take a 10 minute break to work out who the winner was!
What!!! Just how difficult is it to print off a list of results from a computer generated voting poll that ended 5 days previously!!
Something was very wrong. Negligence and Farce were screaming loud and clear.
The 10 minutes stretched, no one knew what was going on nor what was happening and those 10 minutes soon disappeared into close to half an hour, a tannoy message was then given for all guest presenters to come back. Finally it started up again, my heart sank lower and lower as each award was read out, for a start there were no winners there !!!! Each time the winner's name was called there was an apology that the recipient was unable to make it tonight. For the first maybe 10 awards, we only saw 1 winner actually claim the award.
There was also a significant pattern happening with the winners. The nominees who had the huge followings were not winning, it made no sense to me, in having a voting pole in the first place, the awards had lost their merit changing the competition from an award based on talent to an award based on who had the most friends, now it seemed that even those with the biggest profiles, thus likely to claim the most votes were still not winning, what had happened with all the votes? Had it after all been a worthless and pointless exercise? It seemed clear that the winners mostly had been chosen by association not the voting we were all led to believe.
I don't believe for one minute that the voting system I asked everyone to partake in was genuine, I am deeply sorry for that. I was taken in by their publicity too.
The person I was supporting whispered to me, not to worry, they were not going to win, it wasn't about the votes, observing the shambolic mess that had preceded all. I felt a complete fraud and traitor as I sat there, still supporting them. How could I turn around and tell them? I now sat next to them feeling totally sick and praying that they definitely WOULDN'T win!!! I wanted as much distance between their genuine talents and this farcical event as possible.
The names of the nominees were now starting to appear on a screen behind the presenters. However, on some categories some of the nominees’ names were missing! How this had quickly turned into a ceremony of public humiliation for all those nominated. Were you to now be grateful that they remembered your name and added it to the list or were you to feel relieved that you could slink away unnoticed and unassociated with this ridiculous event?
On one category, the name of the winner was read out, but their name wasn't on the screen!! A shouting session started as the confusion kicked in between hosts, who wanted to re do the whole award and present it to someone from the list on the screen and supporters of the one whose name had been called insisting he was a legitimate winner.
Disappointed by all we had seen during the evening, we left early. My mind was racing. How could I untangle this whole mess that we had been inadvertently dragged into. It’s not that I went there expecting my choice to be the winner, in my eyes, they already are a winner in every sense and need no awards to prove it, but I did go there thinking I was attending a fair competition and a well organised evening. I was so wrong.
The BEFFTA awards 2009 was nothing short of a shambles. It was a total discredit to all who were there whether they were winners, nominees or guests. Regardless of whether the event was a team effort or down to one person. Pauline Long (Founder of BEFFTA) has a lot of explanation and apologies to make before her word and her work will ever be taken seriously again.
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