Festival are a GO, GO!

Believe it or not, Waterford City and County is one of the busiest festival regions in Ireland – FACT!

The annual Waterford Council Festival Budget distribution, took place at the first Plenary Council meeting of the year. Much of what was brought into the public gallery was of course discussed, agreed and preordained, behind closed doors, in “secret” Committee Meetings. With circa €1,400,000 to be allocated across the whole City and County, this is one of the key functions of our 32 sitting Councillors.

With all things budgetary, there are of course metaphorical swings and roundabouts. Some festivals/events in 2016 were one-offs and obviously some applications did not make the grade. The process involves the Council Executive assessing the organiser’s application for funding and this is then brought to our Councillors for ratification.  Accompanied by an associated increase or reduction in grant funding. The process is lengthy, involved and forensic. But it has to be, as these are after all public funds and transparency is paramount to the whole procedure.

The four big ticket items for 2017 are Winterval, with €430,000 being allocated and a potential income of around €250,000 from sponsorship, stall income etc. The Winterval committee will, I am sure, be re-jigged this year and I have no doubt that such is the size of the grant allocation, this will have to go out to national tender. Our two excellent food festivals, Harvest (September) and WWFF (April), receive around €150,000, which like Winterval, will be counterbalanced by some additional income. The Sean Kelly Tour (August) is supported by €180,000, which is, I assume, front loaded to offset later income sources and is therefore, in reality, cost neutral for the Council.

Finally, Spraoi (August), is supported by a grant of €67,000, which of all the festival allocations is probably not enough. Considering this was the event that started our love affair with festivals and events. Spraoi will shortly be celebrating their 25^th Birthday and perhaps we could ask our Councillors to be mindful of this and save up a few Euro, in the build-up to what will be a worthy celebration, in the coming year/s ahead?

 

The breadth and variety of festivals and events right across Waterford, is something to behold. From Lismore to Tramore, Dunmore to Ardmore, Comeraghs to Dungarvan.....there are so many to choose from, that in reality we do not need to venture outside of our county boundary to find something that tickles our fancy.

There are, within these processes, losers. Some events have had to have a funding cut, due to the very tight financial constraints which our Council must work with, because of continued reductions in Central Government funding. This in turn puts pressure on Councils to increase Commercial Rates, Local Property Tax and that wonderful “Cash cow”, that is car parking charges. In future years, to keep our festivals and events going, we will without doubt, need to spread less money further. This will be a challenge and in time may be easier to get blood out of a stone, than more Government support, allowing us to experience the wide variety of festivals we host.

The biggest cut was to the Summerval Festival. You will recall that back in August, I asked the question in this very column, “Are we getting Summerval(u)?”. For 2017 this will revert back to a “Summer in the City” type festival. This has excellent foundations, to build a first rate brand and with the support of ArtBeat, we should see a Summer long programme of events. Starting the June bank holiday and ending early September.

Circa 70 festivals/events were granted some form of Council assistance. Ranging from a few hundred Euro, to hundreds of thousands of Euro. I suppose that the tricky part will be encouraging all these festivals and events cross promote. Working together for the betterment of the whole County and across the wider South East region. If we are to put our stamp on the festivals and events map then we need to shout collectively!

Just look at what Galway espouses! According to their blurb, they are Ireland’s only festival City – a hum!

Happy Burns Night as well!

How ithers see us!

Chocolate Mannequin Pis - what bit would you bite first?

Like it or not we do so many things in our day to day lives through our eyes.

We pick our partners on their looks. The first thing that attracts us to the opposite sex is the look of said possible suitor. All other traits such as personality, sense of humour etc come later. If we like what we are looking at then the chances are we will pursue, chase and ultimately get together. And when you look at the animal kingdom that is why so much effort is made in courtship that so often involves colour, dance, display etc as it is the eyes that do most of the initial work.

Trying too hard?

We choose holidays based on the pictures in brochures or based on pictures we have researched on the internet. I have no doubt that many readers now use the internet to actually look at, in real-time, holiday destinations. We also look at pictures posted by other holiday makers on discussion pages and holiday review sites.

Our food tastes so much better if we like the look of what we are about to eat. That is why so many top chefs spend so much time picking the right ingredients that not only tastes good but will look good on your plate. You only have to look at the plethora of TV chef programmes and look at the time spent on arranging the produce on the plate prior to serving. In fact we have now gone one stage further and we are seeing dishes being served on slate beds, wooden boards and all manner of items that are not our traditional china plate. Going to such great lengths on the presentation are ways to enhance our experiences and to make sure that we come back time and time again.

Should our City be treated any differently? I would argue No!

It has worried me and many others for quite some time now that the entrances to our wonderful City have been a very poor reflection on what our City has to offer. But like it or not the entrances to the City are in many ways our shop window to the City. And like a retail outlet that shop window must be dressed properly and appropriately to give people the right first impression of what type of City they are entering, what the City might have to offer and will the City come up to their expectations!

As it stands I do not believe that we have it right.

If you are driving from Dublin, and assuming that you do not get mixed up with the poor signage and redirected across the toll bridge, then you are presented with a quite foreboding drive down to the train station. The vista is not welcoming and in fact rather industrial. That concrete wall creates a claustrophobic impression and it is somewhere you feel that you must drive passed quickly. This wall is ripe for inclusion as part of the Waterford Walls project and should be a key focus for 2016. Likewise coming in from the Wexford side is also rather industrial and depressing.

But your spirits could be lifted when you see the bridge. But alas this is not festooned with flags, it is not adorned with wonderful floral displays, it is not lit correctly and so on. You do not have to look too far to see just how impressive a well dressed bridge looks - New Ross for example.

Then coming down through the Dunmore Road is like navigating a Himalayan mountain pass. All sorts of different patchwork surfaces, full of big lumps and large bumps and it is never ending.

No matter what spin you put on it we have NOT dressed our shop window correctly and I often wonder just how others see us.

“O wad some Pow'r the giftie gie us, To see oursels as ithers see us!” Robert Burns.