Funding avenue for Offaly’s rural festivals

GRANT aid could be snapped up from Offaly Local Development Company (OLDC) under the Rural Development Programme for festivals. The deadline for applications is fast approaching and the local support company is calling on community, voluntary groups, enterprise groups and business networks that have a festival idea that will encourage economic activity in rural areas to get in touch! This is the first year that OLDC has made a call to festival organisers, although they have funded festivals in the county in the past, including OFFline Film Festival, The Tullamore Show, The Fleadh Cheoil Festival, Birr Vintage Week and The Queen of the Land Festival. OLDC, RDP Project Officer, Theresa Hennebry said: “We hope by making a call to festivals we can capture a picture of what is going on in County Offaly in terms of existing festivals and see if there maybe new areas of interest emerging in the county. “Depending on the response it may also assist in OLDC compiling a calendar of events for County Offaly, which would help promote festivals and the county as a whole,†she enthused. A whopping 75 per cent up to a maximum of €20,000 for community and voluntary group applications and 50 per cent up to a maximum of €20,000 for enterprise group or businesses networks is up for grabs to help with costs associated with the purchase of equipment, marketing and promotional costs and capital costs associated with developing the festival. Funding will only be given to festivals outside the Tullamore town boundary or if the event is located within Tullamore it must show clearly that there is a predominant countywide value and that participation in the festival comes from around the county - ultimately the beneficiaries are from outside the urban area of Tullamore. For further information to see if your festival is eligible for funding and an application form please contact Theresa Hennebry, RDP Project Officer on 057 9322850, thennebry@offalyldc.ie or www.offalyldc.ie. Deadline for applications is Thursday February 3, 2011.