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A Newry City Councillor has put forward a motion to Council calling for them to organise a regular Festival for the city.
Council have ran three signature festivals costing many hundreds of thousands of pounds, under the umbrella of 'Giant Adventures' in recent years but none of these are based in Newry, the council areas largest centre of population.
Wake the Giant has taken place in Warrenpoint since 2016, Footsteps in the Forest in Slieve Gullion since 2016 and Eats and Beats in Newcastle since 2022. The areas benefit significantly from the festivals.
Councillor Doire Finn read out her motion at Monday night's 3 November meeting of Newry, Mourne and Down District Council and it was referred to the Economy, Regeneration and Tourism Committee. It's currently not listed on the 10 November ERT meeting agenda so it may be December before it is discussed.
From 1975 to 1994 Council were involved in helping run the extremely popular Newry Canal Festival which hosted a full range of community events including the hilarious bathtub race.
In 2017 Council invented the short lived 'City of Merchants' festival for Newry to celebrate "Newry’s rich maritime and industrial heritage" Taking place at the end of September 2017 the festival then moved to the start of November 2018 taking in the usual Halloween festivities. After 2018 it was never heard of again!
A budget of £413,000 was set for the three festivals Footsteps in the Forest, Wake the Giant and City of Merchants in 2018 under the name "Guardians of the Mournes and Gullion" with another £200,000 for Wake the Giant to create four new giants.
Cllr Finn is keen for people to contact her about what type of festival they would like. Explaining the reasoning behind the motion Cllr Finn said "I think it's really important. We have Eats and Beats, we have Footsteps in the Forest and all of those really wonderful festivals but it's such a shame that Newry City doesn't have one and that's why I'm delighted to have brought this nothing and I am really looking forward to hearing from people about what kind of festival they would like to see for Newry because I think there is so much potential for our city and I can't wait till get working on it."
You can contact Cllr Finn with your festival ideas at doire.finn@nmandd.org
Notice of Motion - Festival for Newry City - Cllr Doire Finn
Newry, Mourne and Down District Council commends the work and success of Eats and Beats, Footsteps in the Forest and Wake the Giant and agree to commencing work towards a festival for Newry City.
