INIS Fest 2015 - It's happening!

CptSternn

galvo_clare wrote: »

I was at both meetings between the residents and the organisers of Inis Fest.

...


I can speak for myself that I have objected to the drink licence as is my democratic right.

...

Scapegoating those living near the Fair Green is not the answer.

No one is scapegoating everyone living near the Fair Green, just those like yourself who objected to the event.

It's a horribly selfish, small minded, and petty thing to do. This town needs events like these. We have a massive amount of empty businesses throughout the town and more businesses go to the wall every year. The pubs now are less than half what they were a few years ago and more are closing.

The next time we hear about local funding issues at schools, or how there is not enough local government budget to help people in need, or read about more local businesses going bankrupt remember: YOU objected to something that could have made a difference and helped people, helped sick children, helped victims of rape all because three evenings of trad music near your home was something you thought was not worth the cost of helping this town, the local businesses, the children, and families of everyone who lives here. Sure it's your 'right' to do things, but you have to realise it doesn't make it the right thing to do.

And all of that IS on you and anyone else who did the same.

ger664

I would like if the organisers would also state exactly the percentage of revenue from Tickets sales and On site Bar facilities that will be after reasonable expenses, donated to the named charities.

Some turn around, 35 years ago I used to sneak over to the fairgreenn to drink a few bottles of Harp that we managed to acquire, this year my my son and daughter may have onsite bar facilities at the same location. progress :eek:

blowin3

Like some one said there is always two sides to every story. But what seems to be lacking here is consultation with local residents and consulting after complaints are made is properly a bit late as people are annoyed. I for one don't live to far from Lifford and would have been affected with traffic and parking but would have loved to have seen it happen and feel sad for all involved . It was also said to me yesterday that Nathan Carter has lets say a certain following that would be perceived as causing trouble and there was major concerns over this. But that would be up to the police and security to handle thats what they are paid to do. I don't know all the facts only what I have heard and read and that what I am commenting on

CptSternn

ger664 wrote: »

I would like if the organisers would also state exactly the percentage of revenue from Tickets sales and On site Bar facilities that will be after reasonable expenses, donated to the named charities.

Some turn around, 35 years ago I used to sneak over to the fairgreenn to drink a few bottles of Harp that we managed to acquire, this year my my son and daughter may have onsite bar facilities at the same location. progress :eek:

https://www.facebook.com/inisfest/posts/427641827391283

Tickets from outlets and charities will cost €27 per night (with €2 going to our nominated charities) Clare Crusaders RapeCrisis Midwest and Lions Club of Ennis Weekend tickets will cost €72 (€6 going to charities)
Tickets will go on sale this Friday Feb 20th via our website www.inisfest.com and through ticket outlets in Ennis and via our nominated charities next week for the prices stated above. Online prices will incur booking fees.

On the tickets alone the charities were taking in over €21,000. Not sure what the deal was with other sales but the charities themselves also would have been collecting at the events and would have made a nice bit of money off people tipping change and giving to collection buckets.

So on the low end €21,000 before any other money was raised, about €7,000 for each of the three charities - Clare Crusaders, RapeCrisis, and Lions Club.

And forget about the massive amounts of money all the local businesses, hotels, pubs, and restaurants missed out on - many of which were planning corresponding events with more money going to charity.

Truly sad that a handful of people took it upon themselves to do over such groups for such selfish, petty reasons.

crazyguy01

Many parties discussing this live on Clare FM right now
Turned on late and a female resident speaking, she is unhappy that individuals are being targeted on Facebook and boards.ie!

golfball37

Capt- Methinks one doth protest too much..

It was a nice idea and I was looking forward to seeing Damien Dempsey but its not the end of the world as we know it.

Clareman

crazyguy01 wrote: »

Many parties discussing this live on Clare FM right now
Turned on late and a female resident speaking, she is unhappy that individuals are being targeted on Facebook and boards.ie!

Was boards specifically mentioned? I didn't think we targeted individuals on here.

crazyguy01

Clareman, can't seem to quote you on my phone app.... It was specifically Facebook and boards! I thought nobody was named singled out on here!

eyebrows63

Clareman wrote: »

Was boards specifically mentioned? I didn't think we targeted individuals on here.

Ya, boards.ie was mentioned by the female who was part of the residents group

crazyguy01

http://www.clare.fm/news/alternative-venue-not-possible-inis-fest?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed

A Clare FM news article following up on the interview this morning.

buck65

I'm with Cpt Sternn on this one, this is a disgrace. Flipping selfish do gooders. Is that a solicitor in the bunch!?

CptSternn

http://www.clare.fm/news/alternative-venue-not-possible-inis-fest?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed

An organiser of the now-cancelled Inis Fest says the threat of legal action against the event prompted their decision to scrap it.

They didn't cancel it because they wanted to, they were threatened with legal action by a certain group. The threats came from specific people.

CptSternn

http://www.clare.fm/news/council-disappointment-cancellation-inis-fest

Clare County Council has expressed its disappointment at the cancellation of Inis Fest.

The three-day music festival was due to be held at Tim Smythe Park in Ennis in June, but has been called off in light of the concerns of people living near the venue.

...

The three-day event was set to attract a total audience of 9,000, generating an estimated 1.5 million euro boost for the local economy and raising funds for local charities.

In a statement last night, Clare County Council expressed disappointment that the event is not going ahead.

The local authority says it's satisfied the organisers had the "capability and capacity" to professionally stage it, and that its Event Management Plan was a "robust template."

The Council also says it's fully committed to supporting any initiative that aims to attract festivals and events to Ennis.

So the town loses out on 1.5 million thanks to a handful of people with their own selfish agenda.

What I like is how the council says its committed to supporting this sort of thing, because look what good that support did this time - a handful of people were able to bypass the will of the council, local business, charities, and 10,000 people who were scheduled to come to the event.

What good is 'council support' if they can't keep a few people from having an entire event that was properly planned, setup, and rolled out from getting cancelled?

Shapey Fiend

As one of the 8 objectors I feel deeply saddened that I haven't had a chance to tell my side of the story. I had perfectly reasonable justification for rejecting this proposal namely:

1. Mundy
2. Mundy
3. Mundy
4. Mundy
5. Mundy
6. Mundy

etc.

Could they not have relocated this event to somewhere else that has had concerts in the past like The Showgrounds. Lee's Road would work as well. Plus it's further from my house so I wouldn't suffer any Mundy related noise pollution.

Clareman

Shapey Fiend wrote: »

As one of the 8 objectors I feel deeply saddened that I haven't had a chance to tell my side of the story. I had perfectly reasonable justification for rejecting this proposal namely:

1. Mundy
2. Mundy
3. Mundy
4. Mundy
5. Mundy
6. Mundy

etc.

Could they not have relocated this event to somewhere else that has had concerts in the past like The Showgrounds. Lee's Road would work as well. Plus it's further from my house so I wouldn't suffer any Mundy related noise pollution.

Ahhh, the ultimate NIMBY post.

Balagan

Interesting addition to the saga in today's The Clare People
http://www.clarepeople.com/2015/04/14/finish-fest/

Jhcx

I really do hope karma comes back around. It's not just a matter of negotiation. When you threaten the town with court because your unhappy you really don't deserve anything. It really is unfair the impact a few people have had on such a positive event for ennis which is already in the gutter trying to survive. One or two events is needed to get the economy rolling back in this town.

There's no point in going on about moving the event. It was centrally located to the town for easy access. Put it out in Lee's road people will just bypass the town. Like saying move cusack park outside clarecastle we don't need all those people coming into ennis.

ger664

Residents didn't threaten the town or the festival with court. They had objected to the application for an alcohol license for the event by the promoters . This was stated early in the thread. This objection would most likely have been held up thus making the event a loss maker for the promoters. So they decided to cut their losses. Its a pity because if the residents had been consulted earlier in the process it may well have gone ahead and we could have avoided grathgateII

SILVAMAN

CptSternn wrote: »

People around the park are town residents and they represent less than a handful of people.

Hopefully someone will publish their names.

NIMBYitis at its best

Jhcx

ger664 wrote: »

Residents didn't threaten the town or the festival with court. They had objected to the application for an alcohol license for the event by the promoters . This was stated early in the thread. This objection would most likely have been held up thus making the event a loss maker for the promoters. So they decided to cut their losses. Its a pity because if the residents had been consulted earlier in the process it may well have gone ahead and we could have avoided grathgateII

Taken from the Clare people

Darren Purtill of Impresario Events told The Clare People the threat of a courtroom battle was the final straw for the festival,

Court room activity would certainly drive the event into a loss. not just the license but the fight for it. Does anyone have any information on how successful the event would be without a liquor license?

ger664

I will await the other side of the story in the Clare Champion on Thursday.

Johnboy1951

Seems that an objection to the liquor licence was the cause of the organisers pulling the rug.

'Courtroom battle' ...... are they serious?

Where else would an objection to a liquor licence be held?

What is so strange about such an objection?

What is strange is that the organisers pulled out because of something they must have envisioned happening.

ger664

Jhcx wrote: »

Court room activity would certainly drive the event into a loss. not just the license but the fight for it.

Then withdraw the application, no court room battle and proceed with the event without the liquor license. It doesn't require an event license due to its size thus the residents have no course to prevent it through the courts. This tells me enough about the profitability of the event on ticket sales alone.

MyKeyG

Clareman wrote: »

there's locals who think they can do whatever they want,

Well there are locals who think they have the right to protest in the interests of protecting their person and property...and they'd be right.

I didn't spot this mentioned but while I'm disappointed it's not going ahead was the fair green really the best place for this? There are people on Facebook putting up links to the Killarney Music and Food Festival getting the green light but that's being held in the Demense national park just on the verge of the town not too unlike the proximity of Our Ladies to Ennis, would that have been a better location anyway? Surely 3500, at least, people on three soccer pitches in a residential area is a bit much?

Most importantly were residents asked before hand? From what I can see the organisers only reached for the barn door after the horse bolted. If that's the case then it seems we're a little bit slow on the uptake after the whole Garth Brookes debacle and as a nation we seem like we wouldn't know how to organise a prayer in a mosque.

Personally I support the residents because nobody likes to be treated as an after thought or have their agreement taken for granted and with the sort of childish and sadly violent behaviour being directed towards the residents I think the real embarrassment is people claiming defense of their local economy when the truth is they're just bummed that they're not going to a gig.

Clareman

I can't understand why people are mentioning other areas for the event, Tom Smythe Park was redeveloped recently and has been nominated as the public area for events such as Inis Fest, other mentioned areas such as Cusack Park, Showgrounds and Our Lady's are all private grounds and have their own issues.

In regards to the objections, reading the articles, I don't think the residents were objecting to the actual festival but were threatening to object to the alcohol license that they were going to apply for. I can't understand why the organisers have factored in the selling of alcohol as a major blocking point for the event, surely if the event was to be successful then ticket sales would pay for it, axillary sales (such as merchandise or alcohol) would simply bolster profits. If their model was business model was so dependent on alcohol sales then surely they should have gotten the license prior to selling the tickets, if it was clear they weren't going to get the license then they could have adjusted the ticket sales accordingly.

The more and more I'm reading and hearing about this the more I'm forming the opinion that 1 person managed to get the event cancelled with a threat, this to me shows a lack of proper risk management in the organisation of the event, surely local objections should have been seen as a major risk and factored into the events planning.

CptSternn

http://www.clarepeople.com/2015/04/14/finish-fest/

Clare Champion MD and former President of Ennis Chamber of Commerce John Galvin asked; “So what am I going to do if someone starts tearing into my car? The normal amount of guards will not do,” he said.
His wife Shelly Galvin asked what would happen when gardaí go on their break.

Well, I for one will never buy Clare Champion again nor visit their website.

Seriously? What will happen when Gardai go to the jacks? That was why they decided to have the whole event shut down? Muppets.

But more importantly, I live in the area as well, on the same road. I had no problems with the event and every single weekend as well as many week nights especially in the summer I have to deal with large groups of drunken youth and loud music coming from the Queens. Every weekend large groups of them wander up the road, urinating on things, roaring at the top of their lungs, drinking in public. For years I have said nothing but yet for some reason these resident, who live next to me, seem to have a problem with the idea of a festival but have stayed silent for so long in regards to the trouble that continually happens in the same area due to the Queens Nightclub. I'll be going door to door and speaking with them after I am able to gather enough evidence.

I am just after getting a new digital video camera and will be spending this summer recording said events along with the noise I can hear coming out of the place late at night - and you would be surprised how loud it is when you leave your window open when it is warm. If we are going to become a town that takes people to court to block alcohol licenses and groups of roaming drunks from urinating in alleyways, we need to start at the source and there is no bigger offender when it comes to this sort of thing than the Queens.

Johnboy1951

CptSternn wrote: »

http://www.clarepeople.com/2015/04/14/finish-fest/



Well, I for one will never buy Clare Champion again nor visit their website.

Seriously? What will happen when Gardai go to the jacks? That was why they decided to have the whole event shut down? Muppets.

But more importantly, I live in the area as well, on the same road. I had no problems with the event and every single weekend as well as many week nights especially in the summer I have to deal with large groups of drunken youth and loud music coming from the Queens. Every weekend large groups of them wander up the road, urinating on things, roaring at the top of their lungs, drinking in public. For years I have said nothing but yet for some reason these resident, who live next to me, seem to have a problem with the idea of a festival but have stayed silent for so long in regards to the trouble that continually happens in the same area due to the Queens Nightclub. I'll be going door to door and speaking with them after I am able to gather enough evidence.

I am just after getting a new digital video camera and will be spending this summer recording said event along with the noise I can hear coming out of the place late at night - and you would be surprised how loud it is when you leave your window open when it is warm. If we are going to become a town that takes people to court to block alcohol licenses and groups of roaming drunks from urinating in alleyways, we need to start at the source and there is no bigger offender when it comes to this sort of thing than the Queens.

So you complain about others not objecting to roaming drunken youths ...... yet you are the very same as those you complain about ?

For years I have said nothing

I fail to understand your reasoning.

CptSternn

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

So you complain about others not objecting to roaming drunken youths ...... yet you are the very same as those you complain about ?



I fail to understand your reasoning.

The people who seem to be so worried about that sort of thing have been turning a blind eye to it for years. Why is it they only now have decided to take action, and limit such action to what would have only been two nights as opposed to making similar complains about the ongoing behaviour we are already witnessing which is identical to what they claim they are worried about?

This picture pretty much sums up how certain individuals in our town operate, especially in this case...

CptSternn

https://declanbrandon.wordpress.com/2015/04/14/a-feeling-of-deja-vu/

A very good post in Declan's Blog in relation to the event and Ennis events in general from a recent history perspective.

Also note, for everyone who said 'why not just use the showgrounds', well aside from the fact all the involved organisation based their plans on another location and you can't just change that without an equal amount of work, in the past large events were planned there and just like in the Fair Green you find the same small group of people suing the event organisers.

Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. It's well worth a read sure.

Johnboy1951

CptSternn wrote: »

https://declanbrandon.wordpress.com/2015/04/14/a-feeling-of-deja-vu/

A very good post in Declan's Blog in relation to the event and Ennis events in general from a recent history perspective.

Also note, for everyone who said 'why not just use the showgrounds', well aside from the fact all the involved organisation based their plans on another location and you can't just change that without an equal amount of work, in the past large events were planned there and just like in the Fair Green you find the same small group of people suing the event organisers.

Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. It's well worth a read sure.

Very interesting blog, especially .....

But sadly the storm clouds were gathering.To this day I have never encountered so much obstruction to a what was essentially a carnival as occurred in every rural village in Ireland all through the 60s and 70s.We were called to meeting after meeting with bodies I never knew existed and more and more demands were made of the organisers .Extra Gardai up to the rank of Inspector,a drugs incident room,increased security.And there were no residents objecting.

So I am not sure what comparison you are drawing to the present ........ except that maybe you think that the residents' objections are just an excuse for the organisers and not the real cause of the cancellation.