War of words over cancelled Oktoberfest Beag beer festival

A war of words has erupted over the cancellation of Cork’s Oktoberfest Beag beer festival.

Event promoter Daryl Cronin and the Vintners’ Federation of Ireland (VFI) Cork branch exchanged statements yesterday, with claim and counter-claim flying.

Mr Cronin again blamed the VFI branch for his decision on Friday to pull the plug on the event a week before opening night.

He claimed it was “frustrated intentionally” and said the city needs “unified thinking” to secure existing festivals, and attract new ones.

He said he has nothing to do with a similar beer festival in Belfast, which was also cancelled last week, and insisted ticket sales for the Cork event were strong, with up to 15,000 pre-sold tickets.

Mr Cronin blamed vintners’ objections for the cancellation on Friday after the adjournment of his court application earlier that day for an event licence.

In a statement on Saturday, the VFI confirmed it had “concerns” about aspects of the beer fest but said that, following discussions with Mr Cronin, they were “satisfactorily addressed”.

It said it had not lodged a formal objection in court against the licence application. However, the word ‘objection’ was used during various contacts between the two sides.

The VFI said it told Mr Cronin on Friday afternoon that it was withdrawing its concerns and wished him luck with the event.

“Subsequently, Mr Cronin cancelled the event,” it said. “The VFI Cork committee would like to state it is disappointed Oktoberfest Beag is not proceeding.”

Mr Cronin said notification of the withdrawal at 4.23pm came too late for him to respond.

In a Facebook post at the weekend, he wrote: “Things may have been different if the Cork VFI withdrew its objection earlier that day or reached out two weeks ago when this matter was first tabled with the VFI Cork. We exhausted every effort to prevent this but I felt it was being frustrated intentionally at every chance.”

Last night, the VFI rejected claims it had frustrated the event. It said there were phone calls between VFI branch chairman Michael O’Donovan and Mr Cronin on Thursday and Friday which led to their concerns being addressed.

The VFI also hit back at Mr Cronin’s suggestion that its refusal to issue a letter of support to the event on Friday contributed to the cancellation.

“We find it staggering that the decision to proceed with a large-scale event was dependent on such a letter, which was requested just one week prior to the start of Oktoberfest Beag,” the VFI said.

“It’s important to mention how unusual it is for a licence application for a large-scale event to be made one week before opening day. Normally applications are made to the courts six to 10 weeks prior to the event taking place.”

Speaking to the Irish Examiner last night, Mr Cronin defended his decision to leave it late to apply for a licence and said it was within the required time frame. He said he has made no decision yet on the long-term future of the event.

Last night, Fianna Fáil councillor Ken O’Flynn urged city publicans to unite to salvage the event, but publican Benny McCabe said it is probably too late.

“As a publican, I welcome any event like this that comes to the city,” he said.

“We provided services to the beer fest organisers for nine years.

“They were great to work with and we would be happy to work with them again.”