By Carmelo Garcia – Local Democracy Reporter
Festivals such as the Three Choirs will likely not get any City Council funding this year as chiefs slash the events budget by more than half.
Gloucester City Council has applied for an emergency loan from the Government of around £15m.
And councillors say they have had to reduce the festivals and events budget as a result despite a successful year for culture in the city.
The council’s gross budget for festivals and events in the current financial year was £348,547.
However, due to the authority’s bad financial situation the plan is to spend £178,500 in the upcoming year.
Culture and leisure cabinet member Caroline Courtney (LD, Tuffley) spoke about how the budget would be allocated for festivals and events next year at the last cabinet meeting.
“We are planning for a reduction in the overall budget due to the council’s financial circumstances,” she said.
She said there would be no cuts to projects tied to Together Gloucester due to funding agreements.
But they could not guarantee financial support for the Three Choirs Festival which is planned to take place in the city this year.
The world’s oldest non-competitive classical music festival which rotates yearly between the cathedral cities of Gloucester, Hereford, and Worcester.
The Global Streets programme, which brings in subsidised international outdoor work to different cities and towns in England is also not guaranteed any match funded this year. As well as the Refugee Week activities.
“We are looking at where we can make savings, and what that means is likely we won’t be able to guarantee financial support for some festivals that we have historically,” told the meeting on January 14.
However, she said they would still support them through marketing with Visit Gloucester.
The council will continue to fund the civic events as well as Gloucester Goes Retro, the Lantern Parade.
“We will certainly be looking at how we can increase income generation and community involvement to try and reduce the burden even further on the council,” she added.
Councillor Rebecca Trimnell (LD, Westgate) said it was such a shame cuts were being made to the culture team after a great year.
“Because culture is seen as a discretionary service, it’s usually the first on the chopping block when it comes to budget cuts,” she said. “That is such a shame.”
She hoped the culture budget could increase in future and praised the work of the team in planning the activities for the next financial year.