Plug pulled on music competition

THE All-Ireland Music Competition, the finals of which were set to take place in the West County Hotel, Ennis this weekend, has been cancelled.
The show’s producer has blamed poor ticket sales saying he is “disappointed” with the cancellation of the talent search, which had been supported by both Shannon Development and the Shannon Region Conference & Sports Bureau.
Shadowhawk Entertainment, the company behind the competition, has since ceased operations after financial support was pulled. The finals of the competition, which sought to find the next big Irish singing talent, was due to be held in the Ennis hotel over two nights this weekend. Sixteen acts, including Ennis’ Thomas Dormer, had made it to the finals with Gemma Hayes and Paul Harrington set to perform.
Anthony Joseph, who was producing the show for BTM Management and Shadowhawk Entertainment confirmed, “We had very bad ticket sales. This is not the first time that something like this has happened with a music competition. The Voice in the UK cancelled their tour. We had hoped that this would become the next big thing in Ireland and that we would give people an opportunity to take part in something great but it just didn’t happen.
“We are disappointed as we were really looking forward to it. We had a massive staging system in place and massive advertising was done in the area. I don’t know what it was; maybe the recession affected ticket sales. We did try and bring the price of tickets down as much as we could and there were deals in place. The hotel was a fantastic support; often when there are events on, hotels put up their prices but the West County were offering fantastic value.”
The show was to be hosted by Talent Management International (TMI) Ireland, part of United Film Productions International, who were offering representation to the winning act.
Darragh Galligan of TMI, while he would not comment on the reasons behind the cancellation, told The Clare Champion that a number of the acts due to perform at the finals have been contacted by the agency with the offer of a contract.
“A number of acts have already agreed to sign and that will happen in the next week and we have arranged to meet with more of them. A number of  these performers have the potential to be very successful,” he said.
Among those to be contacted about the opportunity to sign with the company was Ennis’ Thomas Dormer. He said, “I’m disappointed that I won’t get to perform in Ennis this weekend but I have been offered a contract and I will see how that goes. They were sound about it and it’s something that you just have to take on the chin.”
Shadowhawk Entertainment, which includes DSF Animation and BTM Management, ceased operations from Friday, December 21, 2012, it was announced by Shadowhawk Films (Eire) International CEO MJ White in a statement.
This comes after finance partner WBMG, an associate of Group Management (parent of Shadowhawk Films (Eire) International) pulled all further financial support following the loss of a motion picture production and the All-Ireland Music Competition following poor ticket sales.
The Talent Management division, United Film Productions International, will continue to operate as it is supported by its own finance.
Group Management CEO Jason Murray said in a statement, “MJ and myself still have a three-month option to secure a new finance deal before WBMG can force us to shut down completely and we will begin working on this from January. We have put a lot of hard work into the Shadowhawk Entertainment Group over the past four years and I have every determination in succeeding beyond this unfortunate setback”.