You know it is Summer when Spraoi arrives!

As you get older the years come more and more quickly and 2016 is no exception. It seems like it was only yesterday when we were all getting excited, ready for last year’s festival and low and behold the 2016 event is now upon us.

“The Spraoi Weekend”, as it has now become known locally, takes place this Friday, Saturday and Sunday. It is so good to see that the Festival programme is bigger and better than ever. This has to be one of those very special events that Waterford people actually come out in hordes to support and I, for one, am delighted that TV and their wonderful crew are once again reconnecting Spraoi with the very heart of the City.

To me, the event works so well, with the parade winding its way down the very spine of the Waterford City. The fireworks exploding over the River Suir and of course spontaneous street theatre right across, and I mean right across, the City Centre and not confined to the VT, our leaning tower of investment!

Other organisers take note. The very best Waterford has to offer, starts by incorporating the whole of the City Centre, which in turn means the event is supported in huge numbers. Squeeze or concentrate your event(s) into the wrong areas and you get very little support. The businesses who get behind Spraoi, support Spraoi and “love” Spraoi, for it gives them back much needed footfall across the WHOLE City. It truly is a pan-City event that has, to quote James May, “the fizz” and somehow manages to capture the imagination of young and old.

We have a model for event organisation that has developed organically here in Waterford. A format that works and has adapted to changing and challenging times (financially). The event has weathered the political storms around national funding and has, I have no doubt, managed to steer through the maelstrom of local politics that is needed to ensure continued support from City Hall and the wider Council remit.

Spraoi is a Waterford success story. But sadly it is only one of a lesser breed and we need to make sure that if we wish to compete with the Galways of Ireland then we need to drag, pull and elevate our other events to a similar high level of excellence.

As I have said many a time, in print, we have the people, with the skills, we just need to get the powers that be, to make brave decisions, and actually employ the right people to deliver.

We are a small City that sometimes demonstrates a village mentality. This mould needs to be cracked and we need to step away from using the same old broken formulas, regurgitated time and time again, seeking out the right people to bring our other events up to the high standards set by Spraoi.

In fact it is not only Festivals that need our attention. Many other projects around the City need that injection of “new blood”, with innovative and creative ideas, which will drive events to another level. Yes, it is very hard for originators to let go, but to build a better brand, a better City and County, we need to do just that. If that means paying the right people, then we must find the means to do so.

When I look at the potential of where we could take Waterford, in terms of being an attractor for investment and tourism, I often wonder if I am seeing these possibilities through rose tinted glasses. Yet, when I speak Waterford people, they too can see this potential. They just do not yet have the leaders or facilitators they feel that they can follow, to deliver on what is an untapped latent potential.

Urban renewal, Michael Street Shopping Centre, SDZ on the North Quay, footbridge across the River Suir, Ireland’s Ancient East.....etc are all potential game changers for Waterford. But do we have the “drivers” in place to actually deliver for the people of this great City and County?

Enjoy Spraoi and remember to look after your City this weekend!

Cinderella’s ugly sister!

Well that’s what it feels like!

Like the story of Cinderella we in Waterford, once again feel like one the ugly sisters, unwanted, having lost out on the judging for the 2020 European Capital of Culture. Galway will go to the ball having put her best foot forward and by all accounts her glass slipper, on judgement day last week, was worn with panache and style. Of course the fact that the judging took place at the very start of the Galway Arts Festival, must have given them a significant start in the race for the top step of the podium.

However, the judging dates would have been well know in advance and our Three Sisters Team would have been aware, that we were competing against the gale force wind that ultimately turned around at halftime to become a hurricane force for the second half.

We all witnessed the live streamed pictures of the people of Galway, watching on a big screen, in Mainguard Street, in real time. Celebrating wildly, as the announcement was made from The National Concert Hall, in Dublin. The City of Tribes came out in their hordes to support the bid process. They celebrated as if Galway’s was being announced as a World Cup or Olympic Games host!

There was so much passion and joy openly displayed after the announcement. You got a sense that having gone to ALL the trouble of setting up a big screen, for the live stream, they ALL believed that they would NOT lose.

Maybe that is the crux of Galway’s many success stories. Maybe they just believe deep down that they are the best City in Ireland. Maybe, just maybe, they will, collectively, move hell or high water to do what it takes to succeed.

Well, Friday 15^th July 2016 just proved all of the above.

What of our Three Sisters bid?

I note once again the many knockers and key board warriors, commenting across the many social media platforms. Where were you when the “call to arms” was made to put your shoulder to the wheel to help the bid?

Therein lies our problem. We will never be able to compete with a Galway, as there is not a sense of togetherness across our City, never mind the whole County. As for across the three counties who formed our bid – don’t start me on this. Just measure the fallout from the ongoing Boundary Commission looking at Ferrybank! The arguments over who should have influence over our Port and so on!

Yes, we could very well argue that we did not do enough on the judging day. We should have had FREE car parking ALL day to flood the City with mums, dads and children. Summerval should have identified Wednesday 13^th July as a key date and the City streets should have been buzzing to the sound of street music, street entertainers and spontaneous shows. All our annual festivals, should have been represented in John Robert’s Square. The City should have had a world display of tricolour flags. After all are we not the home of the Irish Tricolour? Much, much more engagement should have been made. But above all we, the people, did not do enough to support this bid.

The powers that be also need to be brave enough to pick the right people, if we are to bid for future projects like the 2020 European Capital of Culture. All too often we see glimpses and signs of cronyism that will ultimately hold us back. Seek out our talented people, engage them and work with them.

Do we always want to continually be the nearly City? No one wants that.

Galway celebrates the 2020 hosting.

So, let us make the changes. Let us get the right people, to do the appropriate jobs, from the very start. Galway is not unique in getting this part of the process correct – it is just they have been doing it for years! They seem to have managed to find a way, to reach the very hearts of their citizens. But I know that here in Waterford, we have beating hearts also.

This Ugly Sister will one day go to the ball, wearing both glass slippers. We just need to find pair of slippers that fit!