Despite all
the fanfare and pre-event promotion, many of the City businesses, a significant
number of Waterford people and myself, do feel that it has been rather a damp
squib, unlike the Spraoi fireworks on The Quay, a couple of weeks ago.
Dig deeper
into the programming and you will see that many of our annual summertime events,
attractions and festivals have been incorporated under the one umbrella and
this of course is a good idea, if we are to compete with other “festival
cities”. This in fact should have been done years ago and by building a strong
promotional summer programme we make the whole region more attractive. However,
as the majority of events were in existence prior to the Summerval banner being
flown, they cannot be claimed as “new”!
Any event
which receives some form of Council, therefore rate/tax payers’ subvention,
should be listed under a “Waterford Festivals/Events” banner and co-promoted at
every opportunity. The fallout from the Three Sisters bid has promised better
interaction and closer ties with our neighbouring counties. But what about
closer cross promotion from the, literally, dozens and dozens of year round festivals/events
we all attend on an annual basis? Take time to count these, you’ll need more
than two hands and feet to do this, and you will be mightily impressed with the
levels of activities around this City and County.
So, the
bigger question must be, have we received good value for money for the
Summerval branding? Bear in mind that the budget for this, is in excess of
circa €100,000 and if you add on the existing budgets from Summer in the City,
Art Beat etc then you are looking at budgets in the region of circa €140,000. A
very healthy budget indeed, when you do not have to create any new events –
well at least very few new events!
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| Waterford Walls 2015 |
In addition,
I have been told that the marketing, PR, event management etc and in fact all
the committee work is being carried out free gratis and this should be
applauded. (This of course continues the Waterford tradition of giving your
precious free time for other causes.)
Thus, with
no salaries, as such to pay, the whole €100k budget could be spent on new acts,
new attractions, regional/national advertising campaigns, competitions, social
media etc etc.
Alas, I
fear that the promise that Summerval would bring thousands of extra visitors to
the City and County has not materialised and in fact the whole idea needs to be
closely looked at and scrutinised as it has clearly not captured the
imagination of anyone.
I sat in
the Council meeting when Summerval was fist muted and I know that the funding
was ultimately approved by our 32 Councillors after extensive
“In-Committee-Meetings.” Meetings where we, the public, our local press and media,
do not get access to the minutes. It would be interesting to read those minutes
and see just how forensically the business plan, budgets, cost benefits
analysis etc were scrutinised by the Councillors who approved the awarding of a
six figure grant!
Sadly, we
will never know. But reading between the lines I would imagine that many Councillors
are now asking just what value for money this exercise has delivered?
The idea of
listing our many attractions/events/festivals under one corporate “Waterford’s
Just Better” banner is the right way to go. But to have allocated so much money
to this project, at the detriment to others, is wrong.
Yes, we
needed a “Summer Festival” but the work done on the likes of Summer In The
City, Art Beat etc was a foundation stone to expand on. Allocating even a
fraction of the €100,000 to develop these programmes would have been, in my
opinion, money better spent. There has sadly been a lack of engagement, very
poor PR, and the result is no significant increase in footfall. In addition as
the largest donator/sponsor Waterford Council’s logo is conspicuous by its
absence from posters around the City.
Summer value
– we have yet to be convinced!
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