GALE-force winds have forced the Orange Order to scale back its day-long Cultural and Heritage event, dubbed “Orangefest”, and abandon plans for a huge centrepiece exhibition marquee in Glasgow’s George Square.
Winds of up to 46mph and heavy rain expected today have also put the kibosh on a children’s play area that was to include a bouncy castle.
Last night the Grand Orange Lodge of Scotland event organisers were waiting to see today if it would be possible to hold their exhibition celebrating the history, culture and famous Orangemen in a much smaller tent built with secure sides.
Almost 30,000 people have signed an online petition opposing the event, which the Orange Order says is aimed at promoting better understanding of its activities and community work.
The online petition said people were “sick” of putting up with “sectarian, hate-filled Orange marches”.
However, Grand Orange Lodge of Scotland executive officer Robert McLean insisted that the organisation was “not fazed” by the online opposition.
He said: “The online petition doesn’t faze us at all. Anyone can sit there and click, click, click, click.
“The event is going ahead but it will be a smaller event now because of the high winds expected in George Square and we have had to cut back which means the exhibition marquees will not be erected.
“The massive exhibition marquees which were 100ft by 20ft each are not going to be put up because we are expecting 46mph winds. It is disappointing and we had put a lot of work into it.
“Inside the marquees was going to be an exhibition showing our history, culture and education and famous Scottish Orangemen. The decision not to erect the marquees scales it back a good bit.
“It will all depend on the weather now to be honest, how many people turn up. I think people will turn up but there won’t be the same amount of bits and pieces for people to see and do.”
At a meeting held yesterday, Glasgow City Council warned organisers that the high winds forecast could raise safety concerns over the planned marquee and children’s inflatables.
A Glasgow City Council spokesman said: “We understand the organisers are going to make some minor alterations to their plan, due to poor weather which is forecast for Saturday.”
McLean said: “There was supposed to be a bouncy castle, helter skelter and inflatable slides for the kids. If the council says we can’t do something we won’t just turn our backs and do our own thing. We still get a lot of flak but we try our best and do everything by the book.”
McLean added: “We won’t look as good as it was going to without the marquees. We don’t know how many people will turn up but the council has said we can only have 2,000 people on George Square at any one time so there will be crowd control barriers in place and 35 professional stewards we have hired to control the crowd barriers, who will count the people in and count them out.”
Police Scotland has signalled its readiness to ramp up officer numbers as backlash to the event’s staging continues. The force has categorised the event as “low risk”, but said at a meeting of Glasgow City Council’s licensing committee that due to the volume of online commentary and opposition it would have more resources available if required.
McLean said the Grand Lodge of Scotland had tried its best to deter the hangers-on who turn up to cause trouble: “We have done everything we can to eradicate it by asking the blue-bag brigade hangers-on not to turn up.
“This event has cost us a lot of money. So far we have spent about £35,000 and we have paid for this all ourselves.”
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