Cork 2005 hopes to raise €7m with ready-made sponsorship packages

CORK 2005 European Capital of Culture hopes to raise up to €7 million through an innovative prêt à porter collection of sponsorship packages they will offer to businesses, priced from around €5,000 to €1m.

City of culture director John Kennedy told business leaders yesterday he is aware many of them want to be involved in the 2005 programme of events and promised that, within the next few weeks, a menu of sponsorship packages would be available.

"We know you have been waiting. We are now ready to move to the next level and we know that we will be pushing an open door in most cases," he said at a Cork Chamber of Commerce forum yesterday.

Mr Kennedy explained afterwards that, while they have 90% of the necessary finance in place for the elements of the 12-month programme that have been published, they hope to raise between €5m and €7m in sponsorship to add more items to the programme.

Already with 40% of the programme in place, Cork 2005 has more than 130 programmes with as many as 5,000 events planned.

"Sponsorship will enable us to provide an even bigger programme," the director said.

Mr Kennedy said, having listened to the local business community, Cork 2005 is providing ready-made sponsorship packages from which individual companies can choose.

He said the packages will feature items already in the Cork 2005 programme and will outline the potential benefits and costs of the sponsorships required.

The full programme and calendar of events for Cork 2005 will be published in October.

Mr Kennedy was asked at the forum if he felt Cork was getting sufficient support from Government and if he subscribed to the theory that if Dublin was the capital of culture a minister or junior minister would have been assigned to the project.

Mr Kennedy said he is now satisfied the Government is fully behind the project and said the absence of an overseeing minister gave greater freedom and less opportunity for interference. "I don't know if I would still be here if there was a minister in charge," he said.

Asked if there were ways businesses could help other than financial support, Mr Kennedy said there were.

He said that over 800 artists will be visiting the city in 2005 and said it would be nice if some of the new apartments currently under construction were given to Cork 2005 for the year to provide accommodation.