Festivals and events in Waterford receive over €128k in funding

Allocations to festivals and events across Waterford were agreed at the recent county Plenary meeting, seeing €128,050 in proposed funding allocated to groups within the Dungarvan-Lismore District for 2022.

Locally, several groups were named among those to receive funding from the council, with West Waterford Festival of Food receiving the largest allocation in the Dungarvan-Lismore District, being allocated a sum of €50,000.

Blackwater Valley Opera Festival was allocated €12,000 for 2022, while Lismore Towers and Tales received a €5,000 allocation. €2,800 in funding was allocated to the West Waterford Drama Festival.

Director of Economic Development and Planning with Waterford City and County Council, Michael Quinn, presented the allocations to those in attendance at last Thursday’s Plenary meeting.

“We have brought agreement to the proposals, so the Executive are recommending that the festival grants as presented would be adopted by the council and we will proceed on to the monies available to the various recipients,” Mr Quinn said.

The Festival and Events Funding for 2022 was proposed by Cllr James Tobin and seconded by Cllr John Pratt.

Commenting on the agreement, Cllr Damien Geoghegan stated that it ‘represents some of the best work we do as a council’. Local councillor John Pratt concurred.

“It is quite a lengthy process and it is hard to keep everybody and every person in every area happy. The way it was done this year was brilliant, they gave us so many opportunities at the workshops and listened to our concerns and took them on board where it was possible,” Cllr Pratt said.