Festival and Event Training Programme for Communities in Feb & Mar

Festivals and events have become common place in our rural communities across County Westmeath. They are a valuable resource to our local communities and visiting tourists. They promote Westmeath’s rich heritage in music, film and theatre. Festivals can range from causal events to more extravagant affairs which need extensive skills and know how.

The importance of festival and events in Westmeath’s rural economy has been supported by Westmeath Community Development (WCD) through the LEADER Rural Development programme by way of the provision of funding towards marketing and equipment.

These included annual and new events such as the Ballymore Country Music Festival, the Westmeath Bachelor Festival, Winterfest, the Athlone Agricultural Show, Finnish Transnational Drama Project, Destination Athlone, Athlone and Mullingar Festival and events infrastructure and lighting and the Fleadh Cheoil.

Westmeath Community Development are delighted to announce a new Festival and Event Training Programme for Community Groups. The delivery of this training programme co-insides with the priority of our Local Development Strategy to work with young people to develop training opportunities that will identify and create additional youth leaders as well as improve pathways to employment.

The development of skills required to organise festivals and events will be invaluable to young people in their communities inspiring anyone involved in the business of creating, managing and developing festivals and events. It will also increase participant’s knowledge and improve existing events that run in the community as well as improving their employability. This Festival and Event Training Programme is aimed at community groups and festival committees located in County Westmeath.

It will be a classroom-based programme run over six evenings, over 6 weeks in February and March 2023 by leading experts Approved Productions. The training programme will be available in two locations, Athlone and Mullingar. The classroom setting will allow maximum opportunity to engage with the tutor and also give participants an opportunity to engage and learn from each other and their communities’ experiences. Brid and Tadgh Moriarty, owners of Approved Productions are an award-winning Event Management Company with over 20 years’ experience specialising in managing Festivals ranging from small community-based festivals to large scale commercial Festivals.

Topics covered will support to participants to deliver strategically focused sustainable Festivals and Events in their communities which will have a maximum impact their locality.

Topics to be covered include; 

• Event Planning 

• Festival Safety Management

• Marketing and Promotion

• Business finance Planning

Please download an application form and return to tgeoghegan@westcd.ie of Leader@westcd.ie before 7 February 2023.

Dates and Venues for trainings sessions to be confirmed.

Here is a link to this information on our website https://bit.ly/WCDFestival