IT'S the most expensive arts festival you never heard of and it cost £8m – all out of your pocket.
For figures received exclusively by the Andersonstown News reveal that Belfast 2024, the controversial carnival of culture organised by Belfast City Council, splurged hundreds of thousands of pounds on events which passed largely unnoticed by our readers.
While longstanding arts bodies at the very heart of Belfast were struggling to stay afloat, Belfast 2024 was signing cheques worth many multiples of the annual funding of local groups like Brassneck Theatre and New Lodge Arts.
Belfast City Council said almost 600 events have taken place across this programme including workshops, screenings, talks, exhibitions and performances – all at a varying scale and quantity according to the requirement of each contracted project to deliver on the principles and ambitions of Belfast 2024.
Among the eye-watering amounts lavished on visiting performers were:
Little Amal (£469,000): The largescale international puppet commission opened Belfast 2024.
Roots (£175,000): an immersive performance blending dance, poetry, and sound design.
Drift (£198K): A new public space on the River Lagan.
Shadowdock (£190k): light and music spectacle housed at Thompson Dry Dock.
Bríd Ó Gallchóir, director with professional Irish language arts troupe Aisling Ghéar said she did a double-take when first seeing the Belfast 2024 expenditure figures.
“As a local artist it was thrilling to have an opportunity to see so much large scale International work in the city,” she said. “But as a local artist I think Belfast City Council needs to look to the catastrophic effects that decades of cuts have had on indigenous artists. We are the life blood of culture in Belfast and we are being starved and wiped out.”
Last year, on its 25th anniversary, Cultúrlann-based Aisling Ghéar had to launch a campaign to keep the lights on after it lost its core grant from the Arts Council.
“I think the time to invest in large scale International work is when you have built a thriving local cultural life," she added. "We have in the past and we will be applying again for funding from Belfast City Council.
"I am very pleased that Belfast is to host Oireachtas na Samhna next year, which Aisling Ghéar will be a part of and that Belfast City Council is backing.
"Policy change needs to come from Stormont. Groups like Belfast City Council take their lead from our politicians and until they send out more of a message that the arts is vital, then the attitude won't change.
"The Department for Communities used to be known as the Department for Culture, Arts and Leisure. The rot set in after the name change and the policy of putting arts and culture to the front fell away.
"The sidelining of the arts here is catastrophic. During the entire month of August here, there was only one professional theatre production available on the island of Ireland.
"Most weekends, you will not find any artists working professionally."
