The arts sector in Northern Ireland experienced its latest debacle last week when a row emerged over the hosting of concerts in Ebrington Square in Derry.
BBC Foyle broke the story that the newly-opened Ebrington Hotel had objected to a series of gigs due to take place in Ebrington Square in August and threatened legal action if they were not cancelled or relocated. The BBC explained that the threat of legal action related to the length of notice given to the hotel about the dates of the upcoming gigs and the fact that the hotel had a right to be properly consulted on any events taking place in the square.
There was uproar in Derry once the story broke. Ebrington Square is a public space and many locals were outraged that one company should not have a carte blanche veto on its use. The revelations that the hotel received public funding to the tune of £1.75m from Invest NI and £7.25m from the NI Investment Fund helped fan the flames further.
Without being privy to the legal small print, the reasoning for the objection by the hotel is bizarre. It was common knowledge that the Council intended to host live events in the Square from July 2023 and was widely reported by the BBC. The Ryan McMullan show pencilled in for 25 August, was announced as far back as February 2023 and local residents highlighted various posters advertising the gigs around the city. The concerts were also advertised on Visit Derry, the official tourism website for the city.
Six months’ notice seems like a fairly reasonable period for an event, especially when you consider the hotel didn’t open its doors until 7 July 2023. Even if the hotel had not been officially consulted or notified by the Executive Office or the Council, it is difficult to argue how that they weren’t aware the concerts were scheduled and I would’ve thought any judge or jury of our peers would’ve thought the same.
If I was in charge of a multi-million pound tourism business, a key part of my strategy would be monitoring and working alongside the events happening in my city – not trying to shut them down. Especially if those events were taking place only a few minutes’ walk from my front door…
The latest statement from the Hotel referenced weddings as being part of the reason for their objection. From an outside view, booking a wedding in a venue next to a public square carries a risk & the onus should fall on the hotel for notifying potential customers of this.
If they failed to do that, then the promoters of these concerts should not be punished. The promoters will be under strict conditions for their licence and will likely have a curfew of 11pm at the latest. Given the run time of the concerts, disruptions to any weddings would be minimal. It’s likely the band or DJ at the wedding will usually be in full flow from 8pm and guests won’t be any the wiser of what’s going on outside the hotel.
While it wasn’t reported in the media when the objection and legal threat came from the hotel, it is quite appalling that the story broke with less than three weeks before the first event was due to take place. Anyone working in event management will know how much preparation is done in advance and, if the roles were reversed, I doubt the hotel would be thrilled at an event they’d been planning for six months being cancelled just three weeks before.
If I was launching a new business in a city, I’d be keen to develop relationships with the organisations and individuals responsible for putting on events and driving tourism to the city. Even the subsequent begrudging withdrawal of their objection once the public outrage became too much, will not have won them many friends or fans in the city. Businesses in the area should relish the opportunity to have up to 20,000 people across those four nights potentially needing somewhere to stay, or at the very least somewhere to have a drink and a bite to eat either before or after the shows.
Some commentators have warned that people should be careful of criticising the hotel, as it may discourage future investment in the city, or in a worst case scenario could put jobs at risk if the management team decided to pull the plug. Let’s be clear, no organisation should be above criticism – especially an organisation that avails of significant amounts of public funding and subsequently takes actions that go against the values and ideas of the community they’re based in.
While I suspect that the hotel may be frequented more by overseas tourists rather than people within the city, hopefully they’ll have learnt some important lessons from this episode.
Ebrington Hotel took the brunt of the flack for this saga but the episode raises further questions about the competence of our government departments.
Firstly, if the contract for the hotel did contain a requirement to consult with them regarding any events in the square, or give them specific notice of any events, why was it not done? Why was no-one keeping track of any legal requirements? Surely any licensing or approval processes should have factored in these requirements? Sitting Executive or not, our civil servants and legal advisers should be on top of these things.
Of course, we could also question why such a clause was required at all. If an organisation or individual decides to open up a business next to a public place then there should be a reasonable expectation that events may take place there and it may cause some disruption.
The approach taken here – prioritising one big business over the general public – causes distrust in public and government bodies. This contrasts to areas like planning where hundreds of people and organisations can object to a planning application but the application can still succeed regardless – see the Tribeca development as an example. There should of course be a robust and effective process for objection, but that process needs to be fair.
Given the cost of living crisis and the budget overspend issues in Northern Ireland, our civil service should be more careful, rather than risk wasting taxpayers’ money on compensating the promoters for re-locating the concerts, or on costly legal fees for challenging the objection. If they’d followed the legal requirements agreed in the first place, neither would have been necessary.
The Executive Office have also set a risky precedent here: that if an organisation threatens legal action, they are just willing to withdraw the license rather than challenge it. Of course tax-payers don’t want to see money wasted on frivolous legal challenges, but our government needs to be strong enough to stand over the decisions they take.
A BBC News NI article this weekend questioned what is stopping big acts like Taylor Swift from playing in Belfast. The general consensus seemed to be around the costs of touring, especially for coming across the Irish Sea, and the lack of suitable infrastructure. But what hope do we have of these mega gigs, when local promoters in our country’s second largest city have to overcome local obstacles to put on four gigs capped at 5,000 each.
These promoters invested in hiring staff, providing jobs in their local communities as bar staff, catering, security, cleaners, marketing, box office, sound & light engineers – the list goes on. They spent money on public liability insurance, licensing costs, hire charges for the stage, sound and lighting equipment, and of course marketing their events. Why would you risk doing events like these in the future, if your previously agreed license can be withdrawn mere weeks away from your event…
It would have also been interesting to see who would have footed the bill reimbursing ticket holders. While tickets would be refunded, concert-goers are rarely reimbursed for accommodation and travel when events are cancelled.
Tourism NI and our elected representatives love to champion our music success stories. They can’t wait to mention that Snow Patrol, Van Morrison, Two Door Cinema Club, all come from these shores. They never fail to reference that we hosted the MTV Europe Music Awards in 2011 and the latest drum to bang is that Belfast is a UNESCO City of Music. None of this talk is any good if they don’t put the money where their mouths are and support the arts sector.
Funding for the arts in Northern Ireland is abysmal, compared to other parts of the UK and Ireland. Investment in the Arts in NI sits at only £5.44 per capita, based on 2022/23 budget figures. This contrasts sharply with Wales at £10.35 and the Republic of Ireland at £25.90 per capita.
A prime example of this lack of care and support was the withdrawal of funding from Tourism NI. Multiple organisations that had been told they would receive funding this year had it withdrawn at the last minute – including the biggest music festival in Northern Ireland, Stendhal. While there had been rumblings that promised funding amounts would be cut, Stendhal were only notified that they would receive no funding at all five weeks before the 2023 festival.
How can we expect to grow and develop our arts sector when we continually de-fund it and fail to support the hard working people and organisations behind it? The story about the Ebrington Square concerts broke on the same day UK Music announced music tourism contributed £136 million to the Northern Ireland economy. The irony should be lost on no-one.
Imagine what we could achieve if we properly funded and supported our arts…
Tickets for the four events at Ebrington Square can be purchased below:
- Stack City Raves – 5th August 2023
- Arrival From Sweden – 6th August 2023
- Ryan McMullan – 25th August 2023
- Jika Jika Festival – 27th August 2023