Do it yourself! Cavan-Monaghan LEADER paves the way for local festivals

Casteblayney goes green in their successful attempt to break the Guinness world record for the most Hulks in one place. Photo: Glenn Murphy who is a voluntary member of the festivals committee in Castleblayney.

Cavan-Monaghan LEADER have helped to find a solution to a lack of sponsorship and sustain festivals and events in the two counties for years to come, by assisting in the purchase of equipment that would normally have to be hired at at a high cost.


After they were approached by local festival and event groups, regarding support in hiring equipment and assistance in marketing, public information events were held to raise awareness.

'Castleblayney Community and Enterpise in Monaghan' formed a band comprised of six local festival groups in order to purchase the relevant equipment which could be shared among them.
 
‘Castleblayney Festivals Group’ were helped with the purchase of festival infrastructure equipment including an all weather public address system, crowd control barriers, street cones, a small marquee and semi-permanent signs for each main access road to the town.   

Each of the six festivals also received support for local advertising, promotional banners, flyers and inclusion on a festival calendar which would be used to promote all events during the following year.   

Diverse events and festivals that have benefited from the funding have included agricultural shows, summer festivals, drama festivals, pipe band parades, fun sports events, film festivals, clan gatherings, heritage events, successful world record attempts and bog snorkelling.

Cavan-Monaghan LEADER has promoted this approach as a model of best practice to help sustain community festivals and events by keeping their running costs to a minimum, whilst maximising promotional opportunities.   Five lead groups have accessed approximately €250,000 in funding support for the benefit of a total of 23 individual festivals and events from Cavan and Monaghan to date.