Taoiseach pledges to examine support for Leitrim festival following Tickets.ie collapse
The Taoiseach has promised to discuss assistance for Leitrim's Cowboys and Heroes after Tickets.ie went into liquidation owing the festival €135,000.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin has promised the Government will try to help local festival Cowboys and Heroes, which is owed €135,000 by a ticketing platform.
Tickets.ie, Ireland's largest independent ticketing company, has gone into liquidation and ceased trading. Cowboys and Heroes is owed approximately €135,000 from ticket sales processed through the platform.
The Rory Gallagher International Tribute Festival, held in Ballyshannon, Co Donegal, is also dealing with the fallout from the collapse of Tickets.ie and says it is owed €283,000. Both music festivals took place over the June Bank Holiday weekend.
On Wednesday, June 24, Taoiseach Micheál Martin confirmed he would discuss with colleagues what assistance could be provided to the organisers of the two festivals to help keep them going.
It came as Sligo-Leitrim TD Deputy Eamon Scanlon raised the situation facing the two festivals, calling it a “devastating situation.”
“The Rory Gallagher International Festival in Ballyshannon is owed €283,000 and the Cowboys and Heroes festival in Leitrim is owed €130,000 in revenue that rightly belongs to them. These festivals are not just annual events,” said Deputy Scanlon.
“They are significant cultural and economic drivers for communities in Donegal and Leitrim and attract thousands of visitors every year,” he added.
He noted that organisers are determined to pay their suppliers but warned that, without intervention, they will be left in “crippling debt” and may not survive until next year.
“What is urgently needed is Government assistance to ensure the revenue can be recovered. Beyond that, we need robust legislation to compel ticketing agents to ring-fence client funds so this kind of collapse can never happen again,” he urged, asking what supports the Government could provide to the organisers.
An Taoiseach described both festivals as “very significant” events and said there was a need for a legislative response. However, he added that work had to be done to determine whether assistance could be provided to the two festivals in the short term.
“I understand the Minister, Deputy Burke, has been examining this but I will talk to my colleagues to see what assistance we can provide or what we can do here because these are important festivals in those localities. I will revert to the Deputy on that,” he concluded.
Cowboys and Heroes organiser Simon Power has described state assistance as “essential,” while the organisers of the Rory Gallagher International Tribute Festival have launched a GoFundMe campaign with a target of raising €150,000.