The Happy Days Enniskillen International Beckett Festival plans to return to Enniskillen in September this year with a “more modest” programme due to the failure to secure Arts Council and Tourism NI funding for the second year in a row.

The festival celebrating the work and influence of Nobel prize-winning author Samuel Beckett, who attended Portora Royal School, has been held four times in Enniskillen on the August bank holiday, from 2012 – 2015.

Enniskillen International Beckett Festival (EIBF) Ltd are seeking £25,000 from Fermanagh and Omagh District Council (FODC) to ensure the festival goes ahead, with an expected total cost of £78,000.

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Council officials have recommended that the £25,000 is provided.
Each year, festival organiser Sean Doran ensured that famous faces such as Game of Thrones star Ian McIlhenney, Line of Duty actor Adrian Dunbar, Starsky and Hutch star David Soul and comedian Frank Skinner were on the eclectic programme and the Beckett Festival caught the attention of media outlets across the UK, Europe and America.

In 2016, festival organisers had to cancel plans for the Beckett Festival after they were refused funding from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland (ACNI) which said the festival was ineligible for 2016-2017 funding because it had been unable to make its records of expenditure for the 2015-2016 event available. Tourism NI did not provide any funding to the Beckett Festival last year either.

READ: Funding loss brings curtain down on Beckett festival

This was in sharp contrast to previous years – over £800,000 funding was provided by Tourism NI and ACNI from 2012-2015.

A report to FODC’s Regeneration and Community Committee contains a warning from EIBF Ltd that “if it is not possible to deliver a festival in 2017, then it will be highly unlikely that a festival will return to the Fermanagh and Omagh District Council area as momentum gained and audiences developed from previous years will be lost.”
The report outlines that organisers have secured £25,000 from the TS Elliott Foundation and £14,000 from private donations for the 2017 Beckett Festival.

In addition to the Happy Days Beckett Festival, EIBF Ltd have delivered an [Oscar] Wilde Weekend in Fermanagh in May 2015; a Lughnasa Friel Festival in Donegal and Belfast in September 2015 and Commoncez! Beckett in Paris festival in March 2016.

This year’s Enniskillen Beckett festival, from 1-3 September, would be delivered in partnership with the Nerve Centre in Derry to “ensure administrative and production functions are delivered to a good standard.” Both the ACNI and Tourism NI have told Beckett Festival organisers that they will accept an application in 2018 and funding will be dependent on the quality of the application made and the Festival 2018 content.

A draft Beckett Festival programme shown to the Council outlines plans for a new production of Beckett’s Letters, directed by Alan Gilsenon; a UK and Ireland premiere of Not I & Pas Moi by Samuel Beckett (commissioned by Paris Beckett), with actress Clara Simpson in the Ardhowen Theatre; Ohio Impromptu, directed by Adrian Dunbar on Devenish Island; and a series of talks at Portora.

EIBF Ltd will also be delivering the Lughnesa festival inspired by Brian Friel from August 25-28 in Derry and Donegal, with a performance of ‘The Enemy Within’ to take place in Friel’s birthplace of Omagh.
The report recommends that the Council does grant the festival £25,000. 

This recommendation is subject to ratification at the August Council meeting.