Thank you again to everyone who took the time to fill out our Audience Feedback survey at the end of last year. We are incredibly grateful. And were very pleased to hear such positive remarks.

Just over 200 people responded, of whom, most of you had been more than once. Which means we didn’t put you off the first time!

Over half of you said you come because you like the events we put on, followed closely by 23 per cent of you who come because you like supporting a local charity. Which is wonderful news.

Most of you enjoy the live music, with a close second being cinema and in third place comedy. Joint fourth was children’s events and theatre – something which we didn’t put on as much last year. We will look into this. Fewer of you enjoy the craft workshops, live talks, and art exhibitions. But we recognise that The Goods Shed should have a vibrant array of events on offer and we will continue to offer an eclectic mix as much as possible. Whilst taking into account the entertainment angle which people are looking for.

We then asked you how we could improve. By far, the biggest problem seems to be acoustics. The main auditorium is a huge space and therefore sound issues are inevitable. The other problem is that the space is so flexible – one night we might have cinema, the next classical music. And each event has different sound requirements. We are sorry for this and we will investigate further what could be done to make things even more comfortable for our audiences.

Secondly, you asked for more ‘populist’ events – big names, entertainment, and live music. We have fed this information back to our events committee who will take it into account for their future event planning.

Lastly, you requested slightly cheaper bar prices and more drinks on offer behind the bar – we will work on the provision, but we are sorry we won’t be able to reduce our bar prices for the foreseeable future as it is an incredibly important income stream for the Arts Centre.

A few of you also asked for more daytime events, dance and yoga classes and children’s events – particularly for younger children and toddlers.

A couple of people on social media also asked about the Car Boot Sales we used to run and our intentions for a Farmers Market. We are at the moment unable to bring back the Car Boot Sales. However we already have Aunt Addie’s Fruit and Veg Stall every Saturday and would love to be able to add to this provision. If anyone is interested in running a Farmer’s Market stall every weekend, or would be able to volunteer to help with the organisation of this we would be grateful to hear from you.

Apart from this – “just keep doing what you’re doing” was the overriding answer, which is music to our ears.

Then we had some wonderful ideas from some of you which were lovely to read about and we thank you for taking the time to send these in, including starting a young people’s theatre group, offering local hotel packages, discounts when you recommend friends and family and a monthly prize draw for those who join our marketing email distribution list. All excellent ideas and all on the to do list.

Thank you again for taking the time to complete our survey. We are taking into account all of the responses, positive and negative and will do our best in 2019 to accommodate everyone where we can. We do hope you will continue to support The Goods Shed, our staff and volunteers. Happy New Year!