Waterford City and County Council (WCCC) is changing how it supports festivals and events across the city and county.
€1.3 million has been allocated to 70 festivals and events here this year with the aim of making Waterford a vibrant and sustainable place to live and to visit.
Typically the events will have an economic, tourism, cultural/artistic or community benefit for Waterford.
Under a new festival and event funding policy, five flagship festivals will now receive funding for three years with a review to be carried out after two years.
They are Spraoi, the West Waterford Festival of Food, Winterval, Waterford Walls and the Blackwater Opera Festival.
- Of those, Winterval is fully funded by WCCC to the tune of €429,000
- West Waterford Festival of Food costs €240,000 and receives €50,000 from WCCC
- Spraoi costs €406,000 and receives €70,000
- Waterford Walls costs €160,000 and receives €35,000
- Blackwater Opera Festival costs €483,000 and receives €7,000.
Waterford Walls
Not all local councillors were supportive of the new policy.
Cllr Eddie Mulligan (FF) had a number of concerns, but chief among them was the exclusion of Waterford's Harvest festival from the flagship list.
"The fact we're losing Harvest as a pillar festival and bringing in Waterford Walls...like we have Food the Waterford Way, we're the home of the Blaa, the home of the rasher, the home of the cream cracker, I could keep going and we are dropping the Harvest Festival? And last of all this flagship criteria, I feel we're proposing people in as flagship that don't match the flagship criteria."
Crowds at Harvest fest in 2019
Cllrs John Pratt (Lab) and Seamus Ryan (Ind) both welcomed the inclusion of Waterford Walls as a flagship event. Cllr Pratt said it was great to see the festival move into the west of the county, and that it had been a 'phenomenal success' in the Tallow and Ballyduff areas. Cllr Ryan said it had provided national and international coverage for Waterford and was standing the test of time.
Other concerns centered on transparency issues, Cllr Declan Clune (Ind) said a "blank cheque" was being written for Winterval:
"429 thousand for x number of years - I'd like to see the income that's generated from Winterval, I'd like to see an income and expenditure statement, as well as the 429,000 euro that the council is contributing on an annual basis, where is the rest of the money? Where is it being spent?"
Cllr Conor McGuinness (SF) said it was a huge amount of money to be invested, and while he supported public investment in festivals, there needed to be an economic dividend across the county.
The local authority has committed to a review of the funding policy after two years and the majority of councillors voted in favour of it.
