The third smoker's festival was a huge success and it was encouraging to note that there were so many supporters of choice.
The festival, held at The Jolly Brewer pub in Lincoln, kicked off on the Friday night with Jon Gomm, supported by the Uncomfortables. This legendary local guitarist kindly agreed to wear the Save Our Pubs and Clubs amendthesmokingban.com T shirt , despite the fact that he doesn't have a view either way on the issue. JB bar staff also wore the T Shirts and campaign messages were scattered about the pub for people to pick up. It was encouraging to note that as soon as the info was displayed, it was read, pocketed, and constantly restocked. Hundreds signed up to register their support for free Forest T Shirts with messages such as "Don't Walk, Don't Smoke, Don't Drink, Don't Think."
Freedom2Choose sent delegates on Saturday who had a stand throughout the festival. Many punters came up to ask about the campaign for choice and again it was heartening to note that many took away F2C literature and expressed an interest to join. The place was heaving and we estimate that there were more than 200 people there. Nick Smith, who hopes to stand as the UKIP Lincoln parliamentary candidate next year, also popped in to meet potential constituents. Fair play to him because I couldn't imagine Gillian Merron, the current MP for Lincoln, in that setting.
Pub customers could also get copies of Christopher Snowdon's excellent book Velvet Glove, Iron Fist, a history of anti-smoking.
While waiting at the very busy bar to get served, it gave me such a buzz to hear punters all around me debating choice instead of the usual pub banter. The event certainly had an impact and succeeded in raising awareness of the issue and reaching those disgruntled smokers who knew nothing of the online campaigns. Many said it was great to know they were not alone in their love of tobacco and hatred of the blanket smoking ban.
Phil Johnson, F2C pub and club liaison officer, and I went on a dry pub crawl through Lincoln City Centre on Sunday afternoon talking to pub landlords and managers. All but one were hungry for more information and great contacts and support were gained for an amendment to the smoking ban. This will be followed up with more visits and I certainly hope to get out to more pubs to spread the word.
Emma Chapman, the Brewer landlady, told us that the Sunday night would be a different event. It was loud House DJ music - the sort that makes your brain rattle inside your skull but very popular with the 300 young people who attended, and who just wanted to drink and dance all night long. We didn't expect there to be much interest as very often youth and politics doesn't mix but again we were very surprised that many of them came to the F2C stand to vent their displeasure at the ban.
One young girl told me that she had forgotten that she couldn't smoke in a pub anymore. She had got used to going outside.
"But I do miss being able to play snooker with and pint and a fag," she said.
Another smoker told me how she runs three 10k races a year. So much for smokers being wheezy and unhealthy.
An anti-smoker who started off by saying he loved the ban, his clothes didn't stink anymore, and he believed being outside benefitted smokers who could get fresh air along with their tobacco, moved to the point of saying that there would be no harm in creating a room for smokers inside and choice was important, after a long discussion of the issue.
Emma Chapman deserves congratulations for hosting such a successful event, that began as a way of showing she valued her smoking customers who she did not want to chuck out in the cold, and for inviting the pro-choice groups to take part. Both Emma and I look forward to more campaigning locally.