The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
O’Keeffe Festival launches crucial funding initiative
PATRICK O’Keeffe Traditional Music Festival Chairman Cormac O’Mahony called a special meeting of the committee, and it convened at Fagin’s Bar on Friday night.
Top of the agenda was the funding issue for this October’s festival, which will run from Friday 26 to Monday 29 inclusive.
In a statement, Mr O’Mahony laid out the committee’s plans to launch a GoFundMe campaign with the aim of combining its contribution with that of the locality to get the festival over this funding hump.
He also explained how the Arts Council funding was missed for this year’s event, and he appealed to the friends of the festival everywhere to show their support now in its hour of greatest need.
“This year, against a back- drop of greatly reduced funding, the Patrick O’Keeffe Traditional Music Festival Committee members are endeavouring to organise the 26th annual festival in Castleisland,” said Cormac.
“In the past few years alone we have had a group of South Korean folk musicians with a full TV crew; a troupe of Canadians, Japanese, Americans and Dutch, as well as many others.
The festival was given a fulllength programme on TG4’s flagship traditional music programme ‘Hup’ in 2017.
“Every year, musicians, teachers, concert performers and lecturers must have their expenses paid, and performers who travel long distances must be provided with accommodation. We advertise the festival in the local media. We hire in a sound-system and engineer for the main concert.
“The cost of running a festival in a normal year is €22,000 approximately. Local business generously provides us with sponsorship through adverts in the festival programme that raises €6,500. The pubs and vintners’ society contribute €4,000.
“Kerry County Council Community Support Scheme comes to €2,000.
“The Arts Council grant is usually €5,000. Receipts from the concert and workshops raises €4,500. The total: €22,000.
“At 5.20pm on the opening day of last year’s festival, on Friday, October 28, 2017, we submitted our application online to the Arts Council for funding the 2018 festival.
“The deadline being 5.30pm that evening, the Arts Council office computer system had crashed and did not accept our application. Despite our protests, which included screenshots of our application being submitted on time, our application was rejected.”
The Arts Council said its system did not crash and that all its decisions may be appealed by those concerned.
“We knew we were in trouble for 2018,” Cormac continued. “Earlier this summer we were contacted by a local politician who told us he had secured a large grant for us from Leader funding.
“As the 2018 festival approached we went about drawing down the said grant to discover it was not there at all.
“He had mistaken it for the grant we had received and spent on the 2017 festival. We have decided to launch a GoFundMe drive to make up the shortfall.
“There is, I hope, enough goodwill towards the festival in the local community and among the large Castleisland, Sliabh Luachra and musical diaspora spread all over the globe.
“I would be hoping that people who have never been asked before to contribute to the festival would do so now to help get the 2018 festival over this hurdle. In the words of the well-known grocer, every little helps.”
The Patrick O’Keeffe Traditional Music Festival GoFundMe page can be found on www. patrickokeeffefestival.com.