OPINION – by Warwick Rasnussen – Deputy Editor – Manawatu Standard. 01/03/2012
Fairfax NZ News Story
“fringe conspiracy theory thinking does Mr Crow no favours. And if he seriously thinks that the council plotted against him, he’s got to be kidding.”
It caused plenty of reaction when it first arrived in town, but it will leave with barely a whimper.
In 2005 when it first came to Palmerston North, and every subsequent return, the Boobs on Bikes parade and Erotica Expo it promoted raised the hackles of people who thought it was filth, degrading to women and downright inappropriate.
It was hard to gauge whether the anger towards organiser Steve Crow’s activities was more aimed at the parade or the expo. He also had his share of supporters, who used the defence of “if you don’t like it, don’t look at it”.
Now that Mr Crow has announced that the expo and parade will no longer be in Palmerston North, you’d think that would be the end of it and both sides would move on.
Clearly, it had a lot of impact in the first few years, but the shock value and free publicity that Mr Crow and his events had simply wore off.
Marketed as something a bit risque, it ended up being something of a sad fizzer.
It had done its dash and once the money and the punters started to dwindle, it would have been an easy commercial decision for Mr Crow to make.
That didn’t stop him taking a pot shot at the city council, claiming that they should be “embarrassed and ashamed of themselves” in an online rant.
The verbal spray was because Mr Crow believed there was some kind of deliberate plan by the council to put on a number of other events the same weekend as the expo, just to make sure his event didn’t succeed.
He failed to consider that Palmerston North is actually a city where things happen and, during summer especially, there are plenty of events on when the weekend rolls around.
That fringe conspiracy theory thinking does Mr Crow no favours.
And if he seriously thinks that the council plotted against him, he’s got to be kidding.
Events run their course and just because you turn up year after year doesn’t mean you should expect the same result each time.
ONE MORE THING…
While many would be glad to see the back of the Boobs on Bike parade and associated Erotica Expo, the same can’t be said for the Lift Off Levin balloon festival….