AQW 12733/22-27

Mr Daniel McCrossan
Social Democratic and Labour Party
West Tyrone

Tabled Date: 30/05/2024
Answered On Date: 10/06/2024
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister for the Economy to detail the actions his Department is taking to support festivals.

Answer:

Tourism NI is responsible for the administration of tourism events funding within my Department.

Events funding from Tourism NI operates on an annual open call basis. The key objectives of Tourism NI’s Tourism Events Funding Programme (TEFP) are to:

Enhance the visitor experience.

Increase visitor numbers and spend.

Develop a positive international profile.

Generate increased bednights.

Elongate the tourism season.

Tourism NI is not a core funder of events, therefore applications for financial assistance must evidence how the funding will be utilised to generate additional tourism benefits and maximise on the key objectives of the TEFP.

Since 2019, Tourism NI has provided over £1.6m of financial assistance to festivals that contain elements of musical programming, for example the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival.

Tourism NI has also supported funded event and festival organisers with skills development and capacity building through one-to-one mentoring, and masterclasses on topics such as delivering environmentally sustainable events and developing commercial opportunities.

As music festivals are largely privately held and funded events there is no single source of data on their economic impact in the North over the past five years.

Music festivals are however considerable economic drivers, providing a much-needed boost for our local tourism and hospitality industry and employ thousands of people each year. Recent examples of this are last year's Belsonic festival in Ormeau Park and Emerge Music Festival, held at Boucher playing fields, which between them attracted 200,000 paid attendees, with substantial numbers of customers travelling to the events, and some coming from as far away as Australia, USA and mainland Europe. These two events also generated additional economic activity amounting to £30.8 million and created almost 6,000 paid employment opportunities, according to an independent report.