Belfast International Tattoo producer criticises Tourism NI and Belfast City Council for lack of support
The producer of the Belfast International Tattoo says it has had all funding cut off by Tourism NI and Belfast City Council - despite attracting over 9,000 people to their performances every year.
Colin Wasson told the News Letter that Tourism NI refused to offer any funding after their most recent application highlighted 9,750 visitors to the two-day event in 2023, and an estimated 2,262 bed nights in local hotels.
In his mind, this contrasts sharply with the massive funding the body grants to the West Belfast Festival each year.
He said they have had a very similar experience with Belfast City Council.
Earlier this month the event delivered a spectacular celebration of military music, dance, and cultural heritage at the O2 Arena in Belfast earlier, attracting some 10,000 people over two days.
Mr Wasson’s claims came after some funding decisions by the local authority made headlines.
Last week the News Letter reported a council official describing long-standing blocks which prevent faith-based addiction-related services from getting funding as “inadvertent obstacles”.
In July the council made headlines once again when it was revealed that it decided in a secret behind-closed-doors meeting to give a £100,000 “stabilisation” grant to the troubled Irish language group An Droichead.
Mr Wasson said that Tourism NI has refused to offer any funding to them.
“We supplied the figures to Tourism NI in relation of one of their grants – but we didn’t get anything as we are not deemed an international event whereas the West Belfast Festival is,” he said.
In 2023 they told the body that they had attracted 9,750 people to the previous tattoo, which resulted in some 2,262 bed nights booked in Belfast hotels.
By contrast he noted the generous funding given to the West Belfast Festival – £425,000 over the past six years.
Tourism NI said that it funded the tattoo on eight occasions under the National Tourism Events Sponsorship Scheme (NTESS) – a scheme which no longer operates.
In the 10 years from 2013 to 2023 it granted £162,000 - some £16,200 per year.
This compares to some £70,800 per year given to the West Belfast Festival – funding which is ongoing.
Tourism NI said it now operates a different funding scheme, the International Tourism Events Fund (ITEF), which supports events that attract “significantly high levels of visitors to Northern Ireland”.
The tattoo has not made any applications under this, it said.
Mr Wasson responded: “We met Tourism NI on a number of occasions about this matter, they told us we did not meet the criteria to qualify as an international event, so we were unable to proceed with applying for that funding. When asked about the criteria around the West Belfast Festival, their comment was, they couldn't discuss other applications."
He also said Tourism NI did not give any specific reasons as to why their applications failed.
Belfast City Council has not been supportive either, he said.
“We have been down that road many times. And even this year we spoke to them and no, they're not interested.”
He said they got small grants from it in 2015 and 2018.
The council responded that the tattoo made subsequent applications for funding in 2019 and 2023.
“These were assessed under the published criteria for Cultural Multi-Annual Grants and were unsuccessful. No further applications have since been received from this organisation.”