Galway Arts Festival founder urges current regime to engage more with local acts

The founder of Galway Arts Festival Ollie Jennings has called upon the current directors of Ireland’s biggest arts festival to engage more with Galway acts and “include them a bit more in the programme”.

Jennings, who since went on to manage the Saw Doctors, made his comments in an interview with the Tribune as preparations are underway to mark the 40th Arts Festival.

Ollie, who is no longer involved with the event, spearheaded the original Festival in 1978, in a pop-up venue in what is now Sheridan’s Wine Bar.

He described the Galway Festival now as “the biggest producer of art in the West of Ireland because of the public money it receives”.

On top of that, the organisation “gets phenomenal money” to promote itself, so its support “would be invaluable for local bands and theatre groups”.

The Festival received a €530,000 grant from the Arts Council and €275,000 from Fáilte Ireland this year– in addition Dublin’s Landmark Theatre received €99,892 from the Arts Council specifically to premiere the show Woyzeck in Winter in partnership with Galway International Arts Festival.

In addition, Landmark received €500,000 from the Arts Council to fund a new opera production, The Second Violinist by Donncha Dennehy and Enda Walsh – the biggest single allocation for a single production this year and the opera will premiere at this year’s Festival.

“I am delighted the Festival is doing so well and I salute them for their success in New York [the Festival’s productions of Enda Walsh’s Arlington and Room 303 were staged there last month], but they could also develop local talent,” said Ollie.

“They have so many resources, they could give a bit to help a very thriving underground scene in Galway.”

He first made this argument more than a decade ago, when he headed up the short-lived Project 06 with the late Michael Diskin, then manager of Galway’s Town Hall Theatre.

“Project 06 happened  through people coming to Mike Diskin saying ‘how do we get stuff into the Festival?,” he recalled. “They couldn’t get a response from the Festival and Mike got involved and I got involved helping Mike.

“It showcased the quality and quantity of performers and the Festival has since picked and chosen from Project O6.

“The things we were saying then are still valid but if anything, the Festival has gone in the opposite direction.

“And unlike the massive Edinburgh Festival, having a Fringe running alongside the main event in Galway is not viable, because the audience base isn’t big enough,” he added.