This year’s Belfast St Patrick’s Day parade was “flat”, a Sinn Féin councillor has claimed.
Elected representatives at Belfast City Council have stated that City Hall could have done more for this year’s celebrations, amid claims the event wasn’t long enough and was not adequate in terms of logistical planning.
The debate came at the council’s most recent meeting of its City Growth and Regeneration Committee, where the strategy for next year’s celebration was agreed.
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Sinn Féin Councillor Conor Maskey told the committee: “The parade had huge numbers but for me felt pretty flat.” He said at one stage he felt “there was no incentive to stay,” and “it was easier just to go.”
He added: “We can get it right the next time, with a better lead-in time, more community involvement, more pageantry. What I was able to see wasn’t bad at all, I just felt there wasn’t enough of it.
What did you think of this year's St Patrick's Day parade? Let us know in the comments below.
“The other thing I witnessed was the concert, and I thought it was fantastic, it had the best family atmosphere that I’ve experienced in a concert on St Patrick’s Day in the town. No messing, everything was based around the family, in fun, with street art and brilliant music.” He said: “But I just hope we can get it right now.”
Green Councillor Mal O’Hara said: “There is scope for how we put investment into that particular element of it. It was over after a short enough period - I think we could have done more, and there needs to be a conversation.”
A council officer told the committee: “At the parade, we had a couple of issues. As soon as it started, it rained. It was very successful in terms of participants and the audience numbers, but are going to have to scale it up, and change the route of the parade, the size of the parade, and exactly how we manage that logistically.
“It was hard to manage given the size of the audience and the length of the parade.”
This year the four highest scoring applications for running the festival were awarded £15,000 each to complete a ”Research and Development” phase, before being accepted and given a guide budget of £80,000 per pilot.
Last December councillors appointed Duncairn and Beat Carnival for St Patrick’s 2022, and worked with Féile and MayWe to “refine proposals around core themes of stories and music.”
The council report states: “While there were clearly a number of successful outcomes from the programme, there were also some learnings that will be used to educate the process this year.
“The uncertainty stemming from COVID-19 meant the timescales from the appointment to deliver the programme in 2022 was not feasible to allow the events to be delivered to full potential.
“Earlier commitment would assist partnership planning, production, programming development and community/participant engagement particularly in respect of the parade and concert.
“In addition, it allowed no time in attracting additional funding streams, putting in place a framework for worldwide streaming, a more intense, and longer, marketing campaign i.e. tourism package. The short delivery window greatly affected decision making on all projects.
“The parade attracted huge numbers to the city centre, and consideration needs to be given soon to extending the route and other logistical alterations. The concert would have also benefited operationally from a longer lead in time. It was clear that the ability of the council to call on experienced contractors was of significant benefit.”
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