Fermanagh’s first food and water festival spent £11,300 on its headline act, The Bay City Rollers starring Les McKeown, but only sold 65 tickets, generating only 11 per cent of the total cost of the Scottish rockers.

Festival Lough Erne’s headline concert was billed as “a night of sheer nostalgia” and it was expected that “Les and his legendary Bay City Rollers [would] quickly turn this Fermanagh gig into one big party”.

A report shown to Councillors this week is critical of a “series of deficiencies” in the planning of Festival Lough Erne, which took place in Enniskillen’s Broadmeadow in June.

One month before the event was due to take place, the event organisers, a private sector partnership from Fermanagh’s tourism and hospitality sector approached Fermanagh and Omagh District Council (FODC) because they were unable to coordinate the event. In a bid to save the festival and avoid negative publicity, the Council agreed to undertake full management and co-ordination of the festival and to pay £12,000.

In this week’s report, Council officials state: “The use of a ‘headline band’ at a cost of £11,300 and ticket revenue of £1,300 inevitably needs to be considered. The removal of this element alone would have negated the need for a substantial portion of the Council’s subvention.” The report commends Council officials for reducing the actual Council grant from £12,000 to £7,400. In order to meet this cost, the proposed Ambassador Programme will not proceed. The report also points out: “To deliver the project there was a need for very extensive time commitment from the Head of Tourism and Economic Development and two Tourism Development Officers at an in-kind of £18,415.” The Council’s Tourism Development team undertook an evaluation of Festival Lough Erne. Its report says that “lessons should be learned” so that the Council is not placed in a similar situation in the future.

Before the Council was called upon to take over the festival, its organisers had secured over £68,000 in funding (including almost £30,000 from the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development’s Regional Food Programme). That required the Festival to generate an income of £12,043 to break even. The private sector partners believed they would generate this money through the hire of trade stands, the pop up restaurant, festival guide advertisements, entrance fee charges, friends of the festival initiatives and ticketed events. However, local businesses were not willing to underwrite the £12,000 financial risk.

This week it is revealed that the DARD funding was secured “very late” and organisers were working on the hope that, if the DARD funding did not come through, they would make up the outstanding income of £44,000 through entry fees (£3 per adult, children under 12 free), ticket sales etc.

The report states: “Given the volume of visitors that would have been required to cover the shortfall, had DARD’s funding not been received the potential shortfall would have been significant. It appears that the financial risk had not been appropriately considered.” Another criticism is that “a key change occurred close to the date of the event with the Festival shifting from a two day event, to become a three day event with the Bay City Rollers concert moving from the Saturday to the Friday”. According to the report, “this was a substantial shift at a late juncture, and would raise questions as to how effectively it could have been promoted”.

It adds: “It may also be the case that the timing of the concert effectively diluted the Festival rather than enhanced it.” The report continues: “Given some apparent grievance from the Festival Committee that they felt removed from the Festival planning at a latter stage and for the event to be more private sector led, roles and responsibilities should be established at the earliest stage of planning. Within those responsibilities, it should be clearly established as to where the burden of financial risk falls in the event of a deficit being derived.” Despite its criticisms of the handling of the event, the report concludes that Festival Lough Erne offers locals and visitors “an authentic experience of the area” and states: “Whilst aspects of the inaugural Festival Lough Erne could inevitably be improved on, it is the Review Team’s opinion that on the whole, the Festival appears to have been a success, and has provided a foundation upon which a successful annual event could be created.” According to the Festival Lough Erne website, the organising committee for the festival includes: Joe Kelly,; Joanne Cunningham, Tanya Cathcart, Norman Coalter, Nicky Cassidy, Emmett Sweeney, Adrian Kelly, Darragh Collins; and Terry McCartney.