Festivals ‘must be better planned’ to survive mounting insurance costs

HUNDREDS of festivals nationwide must be radically reformed in order to survive soaring insurance costs, the group representing festivals said yesterday.

The Association of Irish Festival Events (AOIFE) secretary general, Nicole Mulholland, said many festivals would struggle with rising insurance costs unless they were planned better.

“All festivals will have to be innovative if they are to keep going and we can learn a great deal from the best-run international events,” Ms Mulholland said.

The secretary general was speaking ahead of AOIFE’s annual conference, which will be attended by more than 200 event organisers in Tralee, Co Kerry, next month.

Festival insurance bills have risen by over 60% in the last five years and premiums rose by 40% in the last year alone.

“The conference will discuss several ways of making a festival safer and the key to this is planning. At least one person should be appointed to handle all safety issues at events,” Ms Mulholland said.

Small festivals pay a premium of between €4,000 and €5,500, while bigger events have an insurance bill of around €20,000.

AOIFE has established its own insurance scheme, used by 200 festivals to keep cover costs down.

“This helps because it’s cheaper and much more flexible than any insurance cover offered by other brokers” Ms Mulholland said.

Earlier this year, Fine Gael tourism spokesperson Jimmy Deenihan called on the Government to increase funding to festivals in financial difficulty.

“A festival has to have continuity. If there’s a break one year, it’s unlikely to return and they need to be supported,” Mr Deenihan said.

St Patrick’s Day celebrations also face an uncertain future over escalating costs, with parades in Ennis, Co Clare, Abbeyfeale, Co Limerick, and Buttevant, Co Cork, all cancelled this year.

It’s feared that hundreds of other towns and villages will be forced to either cancel or cut back their parade next year.

The Irish Insurance Federation said liability insurance cover cost brokers €38m in 2000 and €75m in 2001. The IIF claim that for every €100 awarded, a further 56 is clocked up in legal costs.