Food Festival Funding For 2023
On Friday 12th May I got two contacts telling me that Wag food were now funding food festivals running in May & June. This funding was being run through Cywain who had sent out the relevant paperwork. Obviously there was no need to tell media in general or me in particular who has been repeatedly asking what is happening about food festival funding for months.
I was too cross on Friday to create yet another Food Festival 23 post, but it is not something I can ignore as you should be aware of what is happening in the corridors of power. I’ve now spent a few days thinking about this chaotic shambles and I need to keep you updated, but also to be fair and highlight why I think this.
I assume that all food festivals running in May & June have been sent the relevant paperwork which they have to complete and return Cywain. First question why wasn’t this sent out in January? How are food festival organisers supposed to be able to plan if they don’t know if they can get funding? Council run festivals are quite a different ball-game as they do have staff to call on, but for many festivals, they are run by one or two persons or have a committee of volunteers.
The Food Festivals Recovery Fund is a discretionary scheme. The Welsh Government’s Food Division established the Food Festivals Recovery Fund in 2022 in order to support organisers in re-introducing successful events. This is also being made available to festivals being held in May/June 2023. Welsh Government will shortly announce whether funding opportunities will be available from July 2023 onwards.
Well that is fair enough, but once again, why has it taken so long for Wag & Cywain to get this information out? Plus when will festivals running outside May & June be told? Why can’t Wag understand how stressful this is for organisers that are literally running their festival without any spare cash in their bank this year?
These are the reasons/criteria that food festival have to hit to get their funding:
Assist and support food festivals to hold their event in 2022 and 2023 following two years of restrictions.
- Increase the opportunity for new and existing micro and small businesses to test trade – developing marketing / sales skills and local sales opportunities.
- Increase local engagement in skills / healthy eating.
- Provide a clear opportunity for locally / regionally sourced Welsh food and drink to be available
- Develop community links and partner organisational engagement.
- Encourage Local Food Tourism development.
Then festivals must have a presence of at least 25 Welsh food and drink producer businesses trading, with a minimum of 60% of the food and drink producers traders being from Wales. Well in my view 60% is too low if Wales is serious about supporting Welsh food producers. Then they have to have a minimum footfall of 2,500 visitors – in order to be eligible for receipt of funding. How many times have I called footfall out? How many times have I said some festivals don’t have a gate charge because they are running in the street? Footfall is ridiculous. If the festival cannot draw in punters then the producers will NOT return again, that is how producers work, they are trying to run and build their businesses. Actually Cywain will have no clue if a non-ticket event has 1,000 or 3,000 people through because they will not be there doing a count themselves. It’s obvious how non ticket festivals will deal with that by creating their own footfall figure as I suggested at a food festival conference held before Covid.
Organisers are told that this scheme, which of course ran last year, is discretionary and every application is judged on its own merits and the quality of the information provided. That is fair enough if only Cywain understood how much work is involved in a food festival and are fully supportive to these hard-working people.
Then onto written materials (including signage and information published online), this must be provided in Welsh and English, unless it would be unreasonable or disproportionate to do so. I’m not quite sure what covers ‘unreasonable’ unless we class Wag’s handling of funding for this year! It is way too late to tell festivals in May and running in May, as this is another box they have to tick. It makes sense that festivals brave enough to have pushed ahead whilst the waited for Wag to make their funding announcement will not have done this, why would they?
Organisers are also told that cash payments cannot be considered as eligible expenditure within the grant fund. But let’s please get back to basics as I’m sure some organisers will have already paid out some cash if they could get a good deal. So what happens to them as Wag seem to have thrown them under the bus?
Actually going through the sheets of food festival info and application form it appears to me it is much the same as last year, which makes me question again why is this info. so late appearing? If food festivals are important to Wag and Visit Wales then this situation should never have happened. I wish some May food festivals would make the Minister aware of what is happening, because with her workload, maybe she isn’t.
However I do query if Wag are really up for food festivals, because whilst I have been covering food festivals and that is over many, many years, little has changed and virtually nothing has improved. How Wag can say: Increase the opportunity for new and existing micro and small businesses to test trade – developing marketing / sales skills and local sales opportunities.
When to me it appears that what is said/written is not what happens in practice. I’ll tell Wag again – communication is the key – but seems they don’t agree with me. I wonder why?
18 May 2023 @ 10:38
Hi Kath
I was so furious about this article that I’d to read it twice, as I was baffled that wag & cywain still struggle to run the funding for food festivals. I agree with you totally about lack of communication from either of those two.
It makes no sense at all that either of them don’t know you and Ian are the supporters of food festivals and have been, well forever I guess. I’d call them silly which is me being polite in case you don’t post my comment!
I feel sorry for you and Ian and any festival organisers especially those in May & June. How do us traders know what is happening? How can we plan?
I cannot believe that this is such a mess, no lessons learnt by cywain or wag. Wag food need serious action and reorganising, my think is they are not being effective and we are suffering because of them.
19 May 2023 @ 09:12
I think Ian and I have got wag’s message now, even as media we are not worth talking to.
We’ve been complaining about food festivals for at least 15 years, will not count any further back! But now we are back to square one. I used to struggle and struggle to get a list of food festivals wag were funding now here we are wag telling us about funding for MAy & June IN May.
You really couldn’t make this up and it is more than sad when the smaller traders are struggling so much.
Sorry we can’t do more but it is knocking your head against the wag food and drink brick wall and it is painful!!!
18 May 2023 @ 20:57
I have spent ages reading through all the posts and pleased Kath you’ve brought this blog of yours back. You told me you’d stopped it because you had that good contact in wag food, now he’s gone we are back to stage one or maybe minus 10.
I have to question in wag food do know what they are doing and I’d ask about Cywain as well. Because for a small producer I can’t see the purpose of them. They seem to work for the big boys, they have had lots of cash and then if not perming well appear to be too big to fail.
Have they heard of acorns and oak trees?
It looks like not.
22 May 2023 @ 10:44
I cannot believe this post Kath. Wag food are taking festival organisers for granted unless they are so big for their boots they don’t care about them at all.
I don’t care about pressure on budgets as it was civil servant that saw Wales give back £155.5 million to UK Gov.
I wish we could elect civil servants, but we don’t do so good voting for politicians.
I despair of the lot of them
this is so difficult to earn a living as a trader when the gov is working against you. Festivals are important to me and many others.
You wanted a festival calendar Kath, best give up you cannot change wag food’s attitude
26 May 2023 @ 11:46
What are WG and Cywain playing at?
how can organisers plan with confidence. I pity those going ahead this month and next month, they’ve been left
no respect shown by WG at all
no clue why anyone would bother putting on festivals as they’ve been treated like rubbish for years.
Kath all the work you’ve done to try and help WG have pushed back in your face. It is disgusting for this to continue.
30 May 2023 @ 08:37
If wag knew what the plot was this shows me they have lost it. It is utter nonesense that they have left funding so late. Kath has said for years organisers need to know in January, but wag fail again. I’m not interested in wag’s excuses they couldn’t even tell organisers what was happening, too much troubel for them to do that. Another one from Kath is about wag communication. Well they still haven’t got any.
I find this disgraceful treatment of organisers.
5 June 2023 @ 09:56
Who would want to run a food festival unless they are working for the council and being paid?
Wag are being ineffective, sloppy and rude to food festival organisers.
Give up on them Kath – wag still THINK they know best
6 June 2023 @ 11:58
What are wag f&d playing at?
Why does it take them so many months to partially sort out funding?
Why can’t they tell all organisers for this year that they can apply for funding?
Why have they treated May and June festival organisers so badly?
Cowbridge and Brecon festivals were bril. to go ahead. Cowbridge have a great committee but Brecon have a person doing it on his own, 26 years later. Well done both, trade was good and much needed.
19 June 2023 @ 09:38
Is the food and drink dept in WG no longer operational?
Or is this disorganisational to to blamed on WFH?
28 July 2023 @ 11:34
I’m playing catch-up now this site is back and pleased it is here again. Thanks Kath
Food festival funding is a fiasco that sums it up although I’d call it a shambles as wag fail to grasp how important festivals are and more so after Covid.
Keep this going please Kath