THE cancellation of a North Wales festival due to poor ticket sales has been greeted with dismay by an international eisteddfod chief.
The Faenol Festival, organised by Welsh opera star Bryn Terfel, was due to be staged in Bangor from August 27-29.
But last week organisers of the festival, which had been offered funding of £240,000 by the Welsh Assembly Government, said that due to poor advance ticket sales the show would not go on.
The announcement came a week after the Arts Council of Wales revealed that the Llangollen International Eisteddfod would not receive the £50,000 it had bid for from next April.
Speaking on the cancellation of the Faenol Festival, Mervyn Cousins, chief executive of Llangollen festival, said he was “disappointed and stunned”.
“The Faenol has joined Llangollen in recent years in becoming one of Wales’ iconic festivals; both of them have been so important, not only to the local area of North Wales, but also much further afield,” he said.
“But the news of the Faenol’s cancellation really does show how tough the economic climate is out there at the moment for the arts.
“Fortunately our efforts here at Llangollen to beat economic pressures continue apace, and we enjoyed another successful festival in 2010, with ticket sales up by 8 per cent on the previous year.
“I only hope that Llangollen will continue to receive the encouragement and support of WAG, the Arts Council of Wales, and others, of the kind that we have been fortunate to receive in the staging of this great international festival so far, and at a level which – make no mistake – will be needed to ensure a thriving future for the International Musical Eisteddfod as we take the festival into its 65th year in July 2011 and beyond.”
A WAG spokeswoman said it was disappointed to hear of the cancellation of this year’s Faenol Festival.
“Our funding for this year’s event was subject to the festival going ahead,” she said.
“We would be happy to meet with the organisers to discuss the possibility of future events.
“As we have said before we are in discussions about developing the Faenol Estate as a major strategic events venue for North West Wales and we hope it can be used for more high profile events in the future.”