ENNIS is set to benefit from a multi-million euro boost as a result of the upcoming Ennis Trad Festival.
According to festival director John Rynne, more than 10,000 people are set to descend on the county town for the festival next weekend, bringing with them a welcome spend worth between €2.5 and €3 million to the area.
“When you take into account all the musicians that come in and what they are contributing to the town and all of the people who come to enjoy the music, it all clocks up. It’s impossible to gauge figures accurately of how many people come to Ennis for the festival, unless you had a team of marketing specialists down for the weekend and if somebody wants to sponsor that, we’d happily do that. Most people go to more than just one event, so it’s impossible to track them but I would suggest that there would be over 10,000 people over the week of the festival coming and going.
“Most of them will park up for a bit, so there is money spent on taxis, restaurants, accommodation, food, pubs, gift shops, car hire, everything. The festival affects quite a lot of people within the region. We have been doing some figures on the spend and looking at how things are calculated, I would suggest at this stage that the reality of the spend, when you take into account the overseas visitors who often stay a week or two, and knowing the general average spend of most people who come to the festival, I would say we could be looking at something in the region of between €2.5m and €3m. I wouldn’t consider that an outlandish figure at all,” he said.
This year’s festival kicks off on November 8, running until November 12 with events for all tastes throughout the town. The festival is already proving so popular that organisers have had to put out an appeal for accommodation with hotel, bed and breakfasts and the hostel filling up fast.
“There is still some accommodation available in the town, the festival is a five-day event. But Saturday is difficult and I know that Friday is pretty much full too. The activity on the internet is up considerably. We have had lots of enquiries coming through by emails and Facebook from people all over the place. We’ve got a few requests to help people find accommodation so we’ve put it up on Facebook. If anyone has a spare room or a house and they want to give it away, or rent it out for a few nights then they should get in touch with us.
“We have a lot of visitors who come every year and each time they come, they bring another friend with them from overseas, especially the ones that are travelling the farthest – the Americans, the Australians, the Japanese. A lot of them make a week or two of a holiday out of it. There are a certain number I know down through the years who come here regularly, who stay three or four weeks in some cases. They will be in the region for a lot longer than the extent of the festival itself. The benefits aren’t just confined to the town, the visitors go around the county and see the other attractions, the Cliffs of Moher, Bunratty and all of that. The benefits aren’t just confined to the time of the festival. This is an economic boost not just for the town but for the entire county.”
According to John, the festival has benefited greatly from its reputation worldwide as a welcoming place for lovers of good music.
“There is a repeat business aspect to this. I think any business or marketing person will tell you that the best advertising you can have is the good word of a satisfied customer. We have such a lot of overseas visitors to the region during the festival and we generally tend to give them such a good time that they all want to come back. One satisfied musician talking on a stage in Boston about their experiences in Ennis is as good as any amount of advertising. A lot more people come to the Clare area as a result of the festival at other times of the year.”
The line-up for this year’s event has been finalised with eight main events. There will also be a number of CD launches, session trail in 25 venues, masterclasses, workshops, dancing and, of course, the return of the Árd Ghaisce na mBuíonta – The Great Céilí Band Competition.
Thursday will see the festival launched by Frank Custy followed by two CD launches and a late-night concert featuring Dan Brouder, Angelina Carberry, Séamus O’Kane and Donal Clancy.
“Right from the word go, we hit the ground running with an enormous amount of entertainment and sessions around the town,” said John.
Friday’s headliner will be Frankie Lane, Paul Kelly and the Not So Big Band. On Saturday, The John Carty Festival Band will perform followed by the ever-popular trad disco. On Sunday evening, Dermot Byrne, Bríd Harper and Steve Cooney will be the headliners, while the festival’s closing act will be London band Le Chéile with special guests.
Saturday’s Céilí Band Challenge in Glór is set to be among the highlights of the festival. This is the sixth year of the senior competition, which uniquely features audience voting.
“There are four adjudicators and the audience are given a ballot paper and the bands are screened off from the judges. We have a band travelling from Fermanagh, two from England and possibly one from Scotland. It’s generating a lot of attention from serious céilí bands because they know they will have a level playing field, that if they are good enough they will win it. We have bands from almost every county coming,” said John.
While this year’s festival is still approaching, the committee are also looking towards 2013 to see how it can capitalise on The Gathering.
“We need to see if we can generate financial assistance in some of the efforts that we have come up with. This year, we are laying the foundations for what will hopefully be a much bigger event next year,” he said.
Among the hopes for next year is to attract more céilí bands from all over the world.
“There is a Japanese band out there, part of the Comhaltas branch in Tokyo. It’s these kind of bands we are hoping to bring over. And because in each band, the 10 members might be married, have kids, girlfriends, or whatever, if they are travelling, there could be 30 or 40 people coming. I will be looking for some assistance in trying to encourage them to come over. For every band that comes over, you’re bringing over many more.
“Through Facebook and otherwise throughout the year, we are endeavouring to create a gathering emphasis, to bring as many musicians as possible to Clare next year because it is regarded very highly musically internationally. It would be the ideal vehicle for welcoming people into the town in the Ennis Trad Festival. Particularly as the festival is towards the end of the year, it would an ideal way to wrap The Gathering up with a big bang
“We have quite a number of people from far distances travelling this year. We want to capitalise on that and show them a good time this year and we will definitely see a lot more of them next year.”
John he is appealing to the people of Ennis and Clare to give a big céad míle fáilte to any visitors to the festival this year so they can encourage others to make the journey.
“I would be calling on the town to give them a warm rosy, almost Christmassy welcome, as there is often a Christmassy feel during the trad festival. So that all the visitors go away with a fond memory of the town and so in future years, particularly next year, we see a surge of people embracing this gathering initiative and going to celebrate their connections to Irish music and culture here.
“There are huge business benefits from a festival like this but apart from that, there is a goodwill element and it creates ongoing attraction to Clare and to Ennis in particular. Every satisfied visitor here becomes an ambassador for Clare going forward. If we get into the spirit of it as a community, it’s a great morale booster, heading into a dark and dreary winter economically and weather-wise. The cultural impact of a big festival in Ennis at this time and the vibrations that flow out from it can keep us all lifted up for a while.”
Details of all events of Ennis Trad Festival can be found at www.ennistradfestival.com, on Facebook at Ennis Trad Festival and on Twitter at @EnnisTradFest.