Horse Fair Faces Serious Curtailment

Date Published: 14-Aug-2008

THE internationally renowned Ballinasloe Horse Fair is facing a seriously curtailed programme because of a lack of sponsorship and public support.

In a week when the organisers of the Fair urged the business people of the town to get behind the week-long event, the Connacht Tribune understands that a number of items on this year’s programme may not in fact go ahead unless the Fair and Festival Committee get a better response to their appeals for financial help.

The Ballinasloe Horse Fair is one of Europe’s oldest, and costs about €150,000 to stage. However, the Fair and Festival Committee who organise the week long programme of events have been taken aback by the “negativity” which they say is apparent among the town’s business fraternity to the famous event which is worth millions of euro to the local economy.

The message from the organisers is quite stark – either the business people of Ballinasloe row in behind the October Fair or else they will be forced to drop a number of midweek events.

Talking to two long-standing officers of the Fair and Festival Committee this week, it appears that all is not well behind the scenes, and that a culmination of ambivalence to the Fair amongst people, as well as the penny-pinching attitude of business concerns when it comes to putting their hands in their pockets to support the event, could jeopardise the Fair as we know it.

The real tragedy is that the Fair has been hugely successful in recent years and has now become a…