Press Release:

    At the last meeting of the Community Culture and Place-making Strategic Policy Committee, a request by Independent Cllr Kieran McCarthy was asked for that the city’s Festivals Forum would be revisited, as it has ceased to engage. The Festivals Forum, which was led by the festival organisations, up until a few years ago. This Forum ceased to exist as members advised that they did not have time to commit to same and a decision was made to wind up the Forum. While originally set up by Cork City Council along with Civic Trust House, which was nominated as a venue for arts organisations, it was ultimately managed by the Forum themselves. The forum was led by the arts industry and their engagement. In addition to industry partners, other festivals with an arts focus were also represented i.e. the Cork City Marathon and Cork Harbour Festival.

    Cllr McCarthy noted: “there should be some overview of the city’s thirty or so annual festivals. Some are ahead with their public relations and audience capacity building and some are not. Some are good at accessing funding; some are not. Some get more publicity than others. A Festivals meet-up event even once a year may help the smaller festivals in particular with support and access to promotional tools and possible extra funding access points at national and European level”.

     Director of Services at the City Council’s Community, Culture and Place-making directorate Adrienne Rogers noted at the meeting of councillors that a calendar, which captures festivals across the city is undertaken by Pure Cork.ie and all festivals and events should be encouraged to forward details of any event for posting on this site.