When the 45th Belfast Festival opens this month, there won’t be the usual big public event to launch the entertainment. There’ll be no outdoor installations with aerial acrobatic displays and free fireworks for the people. Director Graeme Farrow says they can’t afford to see money literally go up in smoke. But he’s confident there’s still plenty for everyone. Reports earlier this year of the death of the Belfast Festival at Queens (BFQ) were not simply premature: the festival is alive and, in spite of ailing finances, most definitely kicking.
Arts funding in Northern Ireland is a live subject. Per capita, the spend from the public purse is lower than anywhere else in the UK. Seven thousand people lobbied the government last year for more arts money – out of a population lower than two million. Graeme Farrow is reluctant to commit himself to an absolute sum his institution wants for next year – he’s a good businessman and the festival body, based at Queens University, is in negotiation with the NI Arts Council and the relevant government department over money for its immediate future.
There was a public threat that the event would be cancelled this year, but a £150,000 one-off grant from the Department of Culture gave it a lifeline. But Graeme insists that the bottom line is that they are still underfunded. He reckons the subsidy needs to be a minimum of a third of the total turnover to ensure a healthy outlook. Box office receipts should account for another third: last year they took half a million pounds in sales which was more than the total in grants (the Arts Council submitted nearly two hundred thousand pounds, which it says was its absolute limit).
“The Festival wants parity with other, similar-sized events in the UK and the Republic of Ireland”, says Graeme. “We’re part of a bigger picture, the battle to for the arts sector in Northern Ireland. Historically the arts have come low down on the totem pole here, because other political priorities have sucked up the economy. For good reason in the past other things have dominated, but now things are different and I’m more optimistic than ever.”
The devolved government (restored to Stormont in May) is currently undertaking a spending review so practitioners are waiting to hear the arts budget, and how that’s to be spent.
The Minister for Culture Arts and Leisure, Edwin Poots, states: “I will be arguing strongly for increased funding for arts as part of Comprehensive Spending Review. This is one of the Department’s top priorities and the outcome will be known later in the year. But,” he adds,“the festival must adapt to meet new challenges and the organizers have been urged to explore opportunities for commercial sponsorship to secure the future of our flagship arts festival.”
The BFQ has in fact managed to maintain sponsorship at the same level as last year –difficult when your product itself is uncertain, and the public purse isn’t seen to be pitching in. Graeme argues that in fact arts campaigners are not asking a great deal: “In real terms we’re looking for less than a third of a percent of health funding. Nobody would argue the Arts are more important than the health service, but people have to realise arts and culture contribute massively to well-being and the quality of life.”
But while we’re waiting for this recognition, how has the team managed to pull a complete festival out of the hat, after having announced it wasn’t likely to appear at all this year?
Apparently straitened finances have only been allowed to influence programming very slightly. Graeme Farrow admits they would have liked to have had one more international “draw” – a large-scale drama or dance production – but says a leaner programme was on its way in any case: “The brochure was becoming unwieldy. It was hard for customers to pick out the hot tickets, so it was getting harder to sell them”
As the minister and the Arts Council point out, there is more competition for funding – and audiences – than ever in Northern Ireland. “I really welcome other events on the arts scene. There are more stages in Belfast than there have been for years – great! It all creates a cultural habit in residents. Still, Festival should be SPECIAL. If you don’t pickup the brochure and go “wow” I’m not doing my job…”
He says he’s managed to keep that sense of occasion with similar ticket prices this year, but with a slightly more commercial bent. It’s certainly successful – long before opening several of the shows such as Bill Bailey and Frank Skinner had sold out. This popular slant doesn’t disturb Graeme Farrow; the programme’s been well received and, as the late George Melly commented, it’s never been an event to make a distinction between high and low art. It sells well, considering the city has a population of 700,000. But it would be good to bring in more people.
Which brings us to another budget cut – there has been no dedicated marketing overseas. Ironic – and silly – in a year that Belfast is being cited as a “must-see” destination, that a major event cannot exploit international interest and so prove the economic value of the Arts to a city.
There have cuts to staffing; one post which has been left unfilled is Education and Outreach, again meaning potential new audiences are sidelined.
But Graeme Farrow refuses to abandon hope. He thinks Belfast is one of the most inspiring cities in Europe to programme for. There are so many resonances. The South African play, Truth in Translation, looks at reconciliation and justice and it’s hard to envisage it having same impact anywhere else in the UK or Ireland. He’s also excited about the use of the Victorian Crumlin Road Gaol to stage Macbeth, or a West Belfast Monastery to perform Bach’s B minor mass.
There may be no fireworks, but we’re promised plenty of spark.
Belfast Festival at Queens runs from 19 October – 4 November.
