Minutes:
The Committee considered the undernoted report:
“1.0 Purpose of Report or Summary of main Issues
1.1 The purpose of this report is to provide the Committee with an update on the delivery of two recent strategies, Make Yourself at Home and City Imagining. The report specifically updates members on:
- Development work and concept a year of culture with the working title Belfast Imagining
- Progress on Neighbourhood Tourism and approval for continuation funding
- Update on major events including overview of future commissioning model
2.0 Recommendations
2.1 The Committee is asked to:
- Note the principles, concept and work related to the development of a year of culture, Belfast Imagining and agree to receive future reports as this work develops further.
- Note the progress on the development of a Neighbourhood Tourism investment framework and timeline for the introduction of that framework.
- Agree the funding of £37,500 to each of the two partners within the existing `City Connections’ programme totalling £75,000 to provide security and the continuation of this work until the Neighbourhood Tourism Investment framework is active. To note the requested monies are within exiting departmental budgets and requires no additional monies.
- Note the findings from the evaluation of 2022 St. Patricks Day events and the proposed future commissioning model and the development approach to the Maritime Festival.
- Agree that a full bid is submitted for Belfast to host the Fleadh Ceoil and to receive future reports.
3.0 Main report
3.1 At its meeting on 6th April 2022 members were provided with the final version of the `Make Yourself at Home’ 10 year tourism strategy and approved its adoption as a council strategy. The strategy aims to double the value of tourism in the city and work with city partners to enhance and develop coherent authentic tourism offers, marketing and visitor servicing. The Make Yourself at Home strategy is designed to align to the ten-year cultural strategy, A City Imagining, in order to ensure that tourism development supports cultural development and is based upon an authentic and sustainable Belfast offer.
3.2 At this committees meetings in March and April members approved the 22/23 workplan for both strategies. Those workplans contained a number of initiatives to be delivered within this financial year. These activities are interrelated and are designed to equip the city to deliver on a core ambition of `A City Imagining’ - to deliver our home-grown year of culture to build capacity and ambition in our creative sector whilst placing Belfast on the map internationally as a culturally vibrant destination that will assist our cultural, tourism and hospitality recover and create more and better jobs.
Belfast Imagining
3.3 As laid out in the cultural strategy the ambitions of an upscaled year of culture will directly deliver on all 4 strategic themes and their associated priorities – A City Belonging, A City Challenging, A City Creating and a City Exploring – including:
- Long-term capacity building and ensuring sustainability of the cultural sector
- City-wide civic engagement and buy-in on culture and regeneration development for Belfast
- A new commissioning model for the city’s events and festivals
- Strengthening the tourism proposition in the city through greater understanding of the city’s cultural narrative and international appeal
- Integration of planned major developments, such as the Belfast Stories & UNESCO City of Music status, into a citywide approach maximising inclusive growth opportunities for this investment
Belfast Imagining 2024*- Post-Covid
3.4 We believe creativity will be at the heart of Belfast’s recovery from the pandemic ensuring that we can build back better – across culture, tourism, and hospitality - to a more sustainable position than we were in before the effects of the pandemic set in, leaving a lasting legacy for these sectors, as well as the people of the city. While the full impact of Covid-19 is yet unknown, what is clear is that recovery will require new and innovative approaches, as well as time. We recognise the profound socio-economic impacts across the city, especially for the culture and arts sector. We are pivoting our programmes to help build the capacity of our cultural sector and maintain our commitment to a year of cultural celebration in our city, this will now take place in 2024 recognising the impact on the cultural sector’s capacity post-pandemic. Belfast will continue to host a number of landmark international projects in such as UNBOXED 2022 and One Young World in 2023 in the lead up to this home-grown year of culture in 2024.
Belfast Imagining 2024*- Concept
3.5 Belfast Imagining* is an investment in the collective imagination of the city, giving space, time and resources for the coming together of its people to imagine, dream and invent. To speculate and investigate. To learn and experiment. To build and develop plans for new futures, new spaces, new expressions of humanness and our relationship with nature, new stories and new experiences that will assemble us together across the city (and in virtual spaces that now are an integral part of our lives) releasing new meaning and building new connections to pave our way into an exciting and creative future for our city.
3.6 Council will lead on a process of investment and capacity building that allows a collective imagination to take place across the city. A city allowing its imagination to flourish through creation and collaboration, connecting with each other and with nature, bringing our streets and neighbourhoods to life, through extraordinary things taking place in ordinary places.
Principles for Belfast Imagining 2024* Programme
3.7 Collaboration and Co-design - Belfast Imagining* is an opportunity for the city to connect, assemble and collaborate in a multitude of new ways. It is a year to make new connections, to build new relationships and to invent new ways of working and creating through partnership and genuine co-design. It will be a year of Inter-sector collaboration (culture, science, business, education) A year of citizen involvement in the cultural and artistic development processes of the city. And with new relationships come new processes and models of engagement. It is a year to explore and create together.
3.8 New work - Belfast Imagining* will involve a significant investment in new work and the creative process. Through a process of co-design, development, commissioning and grants the city will be alive with new and exciting experiences and initiatives that will assemble us together across the city throughout 2024.
3.9 Us and nature - It is the most challenging question of our time: how can humans co-exist more harmoniously with all that we share this planet. Sustainable. Inclusive. It will be a year to reassess, reinterpret and celebrate the splendour of interconnectedness with our natural world. How does nature become a part of how we regenerate our city centre? How can we use creativity to help people understand and engage with the climate crisis? The city will open itself to fresh perspectives and paradigms. 2024 will contribute to the search for harmony and a greener, more sustainable future for our city.
3.10 Future thinking - Belfast Imagining* will be an opportunity to project, develop and investigate what possible new futures lie ahead of us. What new spaces, new forms, alternatives, reinvention can we encourage and explore through creativity and culture? What lies ahead for Belfast and for the planet? It will be a space for our collective imagination to explore our future city.
3.11 Public space Belfast Imagining* will make a substantial contribution towards examining cultural belonging through public space. The city of Belfast itself will be the canvas for the year; Its streets, its walls, the water surrounds it, the air that fills it. It will be a chance for creators and the people who live, work and play in Belfast to rediscover their city, to build our civic pride and weave creativity and imagination into the very fabric of Belfast.
Belfast Imagining 2024* Next Steps:
3.12 As the Culture team progress with recruitment for the new staff structure designed to support the development and delivery of the ambitions of Belfast Imagining 2024* progress will now focus on delivering the following:
- SOC/ OBC – council have commissioned the development of a Strategic Outline Case and Outline Business Case for Belfast Imagining 2024* to be delivered in June and July respectively. This will help secure buy-in and both private and public sponsorship, as well as partnership, opportunities to deliver on these ambitions with collaborative cross sector, cross governmental and cross departmental approaches.
- Eden Project Partnership – Eden Project are currently finalising their feasibility study to commission as a lead partner in 2024 design and delivery with a focus on core themes of nature and public space, plans include urban gardens, social prescribing, urban bee keeping, largescale sculptural works and long-term city centre greening and wilding.
3.13 Governance Model – Culture & Tourism teams are working collaboratively, to design a governance model to suit a variety of largescale projects in delivery over the next 3 years (One Young World, Fleadh Ceoile, UNESCO City of Music, City Compact, Belfast Imagining 2024) to streamline these processes and the ask of various city stakeholders. A future report will detail this governance model.
3.14 Commissioning Model – Culture & Tourism teams are liaising with procurement, audit and legal departments to develop a bespoke commissioning model that is fit for purpose specifically for cultural development and events commissions for delivering on the ambitions of the year of culture in 2024 as well as the new approach to commissioning local, and of scale, artworks and creative programmes for city events such as St Patrick’s Day and Maritime Festival.
3.15 Update Neighbourhood Tourism:
Members will be aware that an Investment Programme for Local Tourism was included as an integral part of the Year 1 Action Plan of the Tourism Strategy ‘Make Yourself at Home’ approved at April 2022 Committee.
3.16 Initial work has indicated that this Programme will have multiple strands recognising that one size does not fit all. It will also include capacity building for those areas of the city or organisations that are at an earlier stage of development in terms of readiness for investment.
3.17 At the current time, Officers continue to:
- Consult and engage with the appropriate stakeholders around the outline parameters of the Programme ensuring strategic fit to tourism priorities.
- Develop aims and objectives and outcomes of the Programme which are inclusive of geographic communities, communities of interest and thematic clustering while delivering on the four strategic themes within the Tourism Strategy - Grow, Position, Experience and Sustain.
- Benchmark best- practice investment models from other jurisdictions and account for ‘lessons learned’.
- Scope and scale an appropriate delivery mechanism which takes cognisance of the varying tourism priority needs across the city.
- Map and develop a flexible and tiered approach to the funding delivery and investment model.
- Resource the internal mechanics to facilitate Programme development and delivery eg. grant management system
Next Steps:
3.18 The proposed timeline for the Investment Programme for Local Tourism is as follows:
- Detailed report will be brought back to Committee in August 2022 (ratified September 2022) detailing the process and criteria for the Programme.
- Consultation on the Programme including Equality Screening - (12 weeks) will be completed by the end of November 2022.
- Final Committee approval and ratification in December 2022.
- Programme opens for applications in December 2022.
- Programme closes and award of applications March/April 2023
Officers are initially working on a multi-strand approach to Neighbourhood Tourism funding recognising the differing stages of development and capacity across the city. It is envisaged the programme will have a core element of 2 year funding, and a one year capacity development component to address these differing requirements. This will allow capacity, product and experiences to be built across the city that align with key strategies including `Make Yourself at Home’, City Imagining’ and the Belfast Stories project.
City Connections:
3.19 Members will be aware of the ongoing partnership model between Fáilte Feirste and Eastside Partnership to deliver a programme of works that supports the development of local tourism products and city connections including market research, support for local business through joint initiatives, as well as support for delivery partners.
3.20 At the March 2022, Committee £25,000 funding (£12,500 each for Eastside and Fáilte Feirste) was approved to cover the period April to June 2022. This financial support was for the purpose of research and delivery of two collaborative projects. At that time, it was intended that the Neighbourhood Tourism Investment Programme would be open for applications to cover the period beyond June 2022.
3.21 However, in consideration of the ongoing work on the Neighbourhood Tourism Investment Programme as detailed within this report and with the projected opening date for applications now likely to be December 2022, it is proposed that Members consider approval to release funding for the remainder of the financial year, amounting to £37,500 for each organisation to cover the period July to March 2023.
3.22 This proposed funding would be allocated to further market research which could inform a future application to the Neighbourhood Tourism Investment Programme, as well as two further collaborative projects.
Major Events
3.23 St Patrick’s Day
Members will be aware that at a meeting of the City Growth and Regeneration Committee on 28 August 2019 a new ten-year cultural strategy for Belfast, A City Imagining, was agreed. As part of this strategy a new investment approach was approved and this model committed to a partnership approach to supporting the cultural sector, with the aim of sustaining and developing accessible cultural activity and infrastructure across Belfast and creating the conditions for long-term transformation. It was agreed that this partnership model should be applied to the direct delivery of City events by Council as well as funded programmes of activity.
3.24 For these reasons, it was agreed by SP&R Committee in January 2021 that a different approach would be taken to the future development of St Patrick’s Day. Officers designed an open and competitive process to support applications for creative development awards for St Patrick’s Day 2022. This opportunity was published to Council’s cultural database, promoted on social media and via Council’s website as well as through partner organisations and networks.
3.25 The Approach:
Building on the strong foundation of recent years, Council agreed to develop an ambitious approach to St Patrick’s Day in the city. This opportunity was designed to allow space for real innovation and experimentation and genuine co-design with the people of the city.?Rather than commissioning an external consultant to review the event it was agreed to?test a different approach by?directly investing?in?the local sector through Creative Development Awards that could then be progressed to a next stage commission for March 2022.
STAGE 1?- Application for Creative Development Awards:
The four? highest? scoring applications? were awarded £15,000?each to? complete a? Research and Development?(R&D)?phase on their approach as agreed by CG&R Committee.
STAGE?2 – Delivery of?a?feasibility study
For St Patrick’s Day pilots?in 2022:
The lead organisations for the four proposals outlined above completed a period of?Research and Development?to produce a feasibility study including full costings and delivery model?for the proposed?pilots for?St Patrick’s Day 2022. Organisations were asked to develop proposals based on a guide budget of £80,000?per pilot, however as this was a commissioning process Council reserved the right to offer more or less funding based on information contained in the section of the feasibility report relating to scalability and alternative options.?
STAGE 3?- Selection of pilots to be taken
forward for delivery in March 2022:?
By allowing an opportunity to pilot ideas in March 2022,?proposals?could?be ‘tested’ in real time and evaluated (by city stakeholders,?visitors?and residents) with an option of one or more of the pilots to be taken forward to full delivery in 2023. In 2022, Council assumed an overarching curatorial, programming, production and co-ordination role to produce a festival of events over multiple days and also lead on the marketing of the event.??
At SP&R in December 2022, Members agreed to proceed with the appointment of Duncairn and Beat Carnival to ensure deliverability for March 2022. Furthermore, Council engaged with Féile and MayWe to refine proposals around core themes of stories and music in keeping with the emerging vision for the programme. These refined proposals were also approved by SP&R.
3.26 Review of 2022 Activity
While there were clearly a number of successful outcomes from the programme, there were also some learnings that will be used to educate the process this year.
Strategic Learnings:
The uncertainty stemming from COVID-19 meant the timescales from the appointment to deliver the programme in 2022 was not feasible to allow the events to be delivered to full potential. Earlier commitment would assist partnership planning, production, programming development and community/participant engagement particularly in respect of the parade and concert. In addition, it allowed no time in attracting additional funding streams, putting in place a framework for worldwide streaming, a more intense, and longer, marketing campaign i.e. tourism package. The short deliver window greatly decision making on all projects.
Operational Learnings:
The parade attracted huge numbers to the city centre, and consideration needs to be given soon to extending the route and other logistical alterations. The concert would have also benefited operationally from a longer lead in time. It was clear that the ability of the Council to call on experienced contractors was of significant benefit.
3.27 The 2023 Approach
As in 2022, Council will have an overarching curatorial, programming, production and co-ordination role to produce a festival of events over multiple days and also lead on the marketing of the event.??Officers are seeking approval to use a similar commissioning approach for the events in 2023 and 2024.
3.28 That commissioning approach will utilise a similar model to that used in 2022, essentially a Design Contest that will allow council officers to actively review and feed into the creative elements to ensure alignment with existing council strategies including `City Imagining’ and our recently developed Music Strategy. It is proposed that design contest would request competitors to submit a concept for 2023 and 2024 recognising the opportunity to further elevate St. Patricks Day celebrations for our year of culture `Belfast Imagining’ in 2024. However, most significantly all parties will have adequate lead in time to fully explore the development of these projects, recognising the evaluation of 2022 activities. In addition, this will allow for greater collaboration between the projects and longer lead in time to develop a joined up marcomms approach. Early decisions on funding and delivery models will greatly assist with this innovative work so it is proposed the initial stages of the design competition are opening in early July 2022.
Maritime 2022/2023
3.29 It has been previously agreed to deliver the full Maritime Festival on a biennial basis in order to grow ambition, budget and impact of the festival. The Festival has been successfully delivered as part of a wider partnership model with key stakeholders in Titanic Quarter.
3.30 A Service Level Agreement will be drawn up in 2022/23 with Maritime Belfast Trust (MBT) to support the delivery of activity throughout 2022. Officers have been liaising with MBT to fully develop and cost their initial proposal, which will include a series of smaller events throughout the year. In tandem with this MBT direct delivery of activity, Council officers will conduct developmental work on future festivals, on the back of both an external and internal review. Some of this work may involve further pilots which may be trailed during the MBT events.
3.31 Officers continue to engage with both internal and external stakeholders such as the 2024 team, TNI, Derry & Strabane Council and MBT to establish future festival dates with the best strategic fit; aligning to A City Imagining, Make Yourself at Home, and recognizing Year of Culture, the Foyle Maritime Festival and The Open.
Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann Update
3.32 Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann takes place annually in August and is the most important event in the traditional music calendar and up until the COVID 19 pandemic had been continuously held since 1951. The Fleadh encompasses a range of entertainment activities including concerts, ceili/set dancing, traditional sessions plus competitions in music, song, language and national and international events.
3.33 The full Fleadh programme was last held in Mullingar in 2019 and Dundalk in 2018. In recent years the 10-year programme has attracted up to 450,000 visitors with 6,000 accounted for through competitors alone.
3.34 Whilst it is estimated that the initial outlay to secure the event is approximately £2.5 million there are also significant opportunities for the host city to recoup this investment through partnership initiatives including media buy-in. It would also be intended to bid for support from government and other sources using the UBC being developed for Belfast Imagining.
3.35 Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann will:
- Offer direct economic return through bed nights and visitor spend
- Profile the city’s cultural offering and increase awareness of the city’s tourism offer to attract new and repeat visitors in subsequent years
- Increase exposure of Belfast brand through national and international media coverage
- Provide opportunity for capacity and skills development within the music sector
3.36 Members will be aware that in January 2022 permission to submit an EOI was approved. The EOI submitted to the Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann (CCE), co-signed by Ards Comhaltas Branch was to host in 2023 (although this is likely to be 2024 or beyond). In line with the Cultural Strategy, Draft Tourism Plan, UNESCO designation and recovery plans this expression of interest would indicate 2024 and 2025 as optimum years to host the event. Work will continue to ensure that any plans are progressed in a complementary approach to other activity in that period including working in partnership with other cities as required.
3.37 The EOI was submitted on 26th April 2022 following a very positive site visit to Belfast on 13th April 2022 which included representation from CCE and Fleadh Executive Committee. The delegation visited City Hall, 2 Royal Avenue, Belfast Waterfront Hall, the Mac, University of Ulster and other venues. Officers presented to the delegation, highlighting the alignment of the Fleadh Cheoil to Cultural and Tourism Strategies and within the context of Year of Culture 2024 and there were discussions involving other stakeholders on project bidding and delivery.
Next Steps Fleadh Cheoil
3.38 BCC are currently awaiting confirmation of a further site visit from the wider Fleadh Executive Committee - this is likely to be June / July 2022. It is envisaged that a full bid will need to be submitted following that visit, so approval is sought form members of the committee for the development and submission of that bid. In advance of submitting a bid work is continuing to address particular bid elements, which are deemed to be of significance, in order to prepare for the next visit (areas such as camping, accommodation, school of music requirements). If permission is granted for the submission of a full bid regular updates report will be brought back to committee for consideration. It is envisaged that any financial implications stemming from a successful bid would be funded via departmental budgets with a bid being made for Executive funding, with a report detailing this approach being brought back to committee.
Financial and Resource Implications
3.39 The activities outlined within this report will be resourced from the 2022/23 Economic Development budget agreed by this Committee in March 2022.
Equality or Good Relations Implications/
Rural Needs Assessment
3.40 The unit is currently working with our Equality unit to develop the required programme of EQIA and screening for the individual elements of this work.”
The Committee:
· Noted the principles, concept and work related to the development of a year of culture, Belfast Imagining and agreed to receive future reports as the work developed further;
· Noted the progress on the development of a Neighbourhood Tourism investment framework and timeline for the introduction of that framework;
· Agreed the funding of £37,500 to each of the two partners within the existing `City Connections’ programme, which totalled £75,000, to provide security and the continuation of the work until the Neighbourhood Tourism Investment framework was active;
· Noted that the requested monies were within exiting departmental budgets and required no additional monies;
· Noted the findings from the evaluation of 2022 St. Patricks Day events and the proposed future commissioning model and the development approach to the Maritime Festival; and
· Agreed that a full bid would be submitted for Belfast to host the Fleadh Ceoil and to receive future reports on the submission.