Good practice:

Tubbercurry Old Fair Day Festival

This festival is a vibrant community led event that attracts 30,000 people p.a. to South Sligo. The festival showcases traditional culture, craft, music and food and is a living representation of rural Ireland and has been operating for over 30 years. South Sligo is a region that was heavily affected by the recession resulting in significant job losses. Significant demographic change has resulted in a dispersed, older population, reliance on farming activity, lack of opportunity, loss of services and a reducing retail offering. South Sligo is currently experiencing a commercial vacancy rate of 21.4% almost twice the national average. The erosion of the traditional fabric of this part of rural Ireland is what fostered the drive to produce, sustain and grow the Tubbercurry Old Fair into the thriving festival it is. This festival is reliant on a voluntary committee with support from state agencies, local organisations and volunteers. Sligo County Council provides funding to the festival along with logistical and health and safety expertise. Supporting organisations include Civil Defense, Order of Malta, Tubbercurry Development Company, Sligo Leader Partnership and South & West Sligo tourism.The main stakeholders are the local community,Tubbercurry Chamber of Commerce and Sligo County Council. The principal beneficiaries are the local community, the diaspora and the business community (particularly food, beverage & accommodation) that benefits significantly in terms of turnover.

• Sligo County Council investment of ca. €10,000 p.a.
• Stalls generate ca. €20,000 p.a.
• Local sponsorship of ca. €20,000 p.a.
• In excess of 300 local volunteers
• Sligo County Council, Sligo Leader Partnership, Order of Malta, Police all support the event with relevant personnel.

This event represents an example of a vitally important social enterprise. The attendance is quantified at 30,000 p.a. and estimated to be worth ca. €1 million p.a. to the local economy.
Cawley’s Hotel owner Teresa states “Our turnover during festival week is a mainstay of our business and underpins our viability over the winter ”.
Named 14th in list of global festivals in Canadian Travel Flight Network with coverage: Huffington Post/ LA Times / New York Post

• Maintaining sources of public & private funding.
• Maintaining the high level of volunteerism required to administer and steward the festival.
• The primary lesson involves the power of a local community to achieve significant success once appropriately aligned and focused.

This practice has the potential to be transferable to all rural areas across Europe where there is a dispersed rural population. The staging of events is considered to be one of the main pillars of place making and has a central role in attracting tourism to places which are not traditionally seen as tourism destinations. Event development is one of the ways in which a rural area can adapt and fight against ongoing demographic and economic trends which are running against rural areas not just in Ireland but all across Europe. Tubbercurry Old Fair Day is a shining example of what a committed and engaged community can do to help itself in the face of seemingly insurmountable macro-economic forces. Tubbercurry has built up a very strong knowledge base in terms of staging large scale events and much of this knowledge is transferable. The community led approach of this event is one from which other communities can learn.