In accordance with the Committee’s decision, of 9th August, to receive a presentation from representatives of Festivals and Events International (FEI) to provide an overview of the Events and Festivals Strategy.
Minutes:
The Committee was advised that, in accordance with the Committee’s decision of 9th August, representatives from Festivals and Events International (FEI) were in attendance to provide the Committee with an update on the ongoing review of the Events and Festivals Strategy for the city.
The Chairperson introduced Mr. N. Dodds, Managing Director of FEI, and Mrs. D. Close, Lead Consultant, to the Committee and they were admitted to the meeting.
The Managing Director advised the Committee that he had thirty years’ experience in the events and festivals sector, having been the General Manager of the Edinburgh Festival for 10 years and Chief Executive of the Brighton Festival for 8 years and that, for the past ten years, had been providing advice on the sector to authorities and local governments around the world. He advised the Committee that Ms. Close had 22 years’ experience of working in the events sector, having formerly been a Head of Service in Brighton and Hove City Council and having worked as an Events Producer.
The Managing Director provided the Committee with an outline of their brief and methodology, which included a review of the City’s portfolio, consideration of delivery structures, consideration of the decision making criteria, consultation with stakeholders, benchmarking against other cities and impact modelling. They advised that, eventually, this work would lead to a new Events and Festivals Strategy for Belfast, 2018-2023.
He highlighted to the Committee that they were keen to hear the Members’ views on the work which had been carried out to date and that this engagement with Members formed an important part of the consultation process.
The Lead Consultant outlined that they had classified all events into six categories, namely, mega, major, signature, growth, local and neighbourhood events. She explained that, through their research, they had determined that over 70% of the events which Belfast had hosted were local and neighbourhood events, 25% were growth events, 1% were major events, such as the MTV Awards, and that it had hosted no globally-recognised ‘mega’ events, such as the Olympics.
The Committee was advised that benchmarking had taken place against similar sized cities, including Galway, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Aarhus and Rotterdam, in terms of investment and practices. She outlined to the Committee that they had compared the amount which each Council invested in its city events and how many of those events that the Council had produced.
In response to a Member’s question regarding the engagement which had taken place with those working in the events and festivals sector in Belfast, the Lead Consultant advised the Committee that, while they had been disappointed with the low number of survey responses which they had received so far, they had met with 67 stakeholders face to face. She advised that this had included engagement with 24 officers from numerous sections across the Council, 8 representatives from the Departments for Communities and the Economy, 5 representatives from business groups within the city, representatives from Visit Belfast, Tourism NI and Tourism Ireland, and around 20 participants at the festival forum steering group.
The Member stated that she was concerned at the low level of response to the survey which had been sent out to those who were involved in the organisation of festivals in the City.
The Managing Director of FEI suggested that, while he did not know why so few responses had been received, in his experience, those involved in organising festivals were often small groups which heavily depended on volunteers and might not have the resources nor the time to respond to the survey.
The Director of Development advised the Committee that, following the last Committee meeting, he had asked FEI to specifically engage with EastSide Arts and Féile an Phobail, and that consultation with those organisations was ongoing.
The Chief Executive reminded the Members that a parallel piece of work was ongoing to review the Council’s grants process. She advised the Committee that this would be brought together with the work of FEI at a later date.
In response to requests from a number of Members, the consultants agreed to analyse the postcodes of the completed surveys and that they would endeavour to engage with those communities which had not yet participated in the consultation. The Members also requested that further engagement with Members also take place.
The Managing Director of FEI advised the Members that the draft Events and Festivals Strategy 2018-2023 would be submitted for the Committee’s consideration at its meeting in January, 2018.
The Committee noted:
1. the contents of the presentation; and
2. agreed that the officers and consultants would consider ways in which they could engage with the Members and with festival organisers who had not already been directly engaged with through the consultation process.