Planning your event

Some key considerations for your Gathering event!

• location/facility that will be used- indoor or outdoor
• Expected number of attendees
• Approximate age group of attendees
• Activities to be undertaken
• Time of day/day of week/week of year
• Other events being held in the locality on the sameday and/or at the same time
• Public Liability Insurance requirement

The principles of managing risk should be applied to the planning of any event. To manage the risks it is necessary to establish the context including details of public safety; employee safety; health and welfare; environmental safety; fire safety; food safety (where food is stored, prepared, served, sold or consumed); safeguarding children and vulnerable persons and first aid.

You need to identify, assess, manage, monitor and review the risks. It is the responsibility of the event organiser to ensure liability insurance is in place, please discuss with your Gathering team,  refer to AOIFE (Association of Irish Festivals and Events), IPB (Irish Public Bodies) and theWheel.ie (association for community events).

Funding 

1.  IPB Insurance Fund for Flagship City and County Gathering Events

IPB Insurance which provides insurance to city and county councils has allocated €1m  countrywide to support flagship Gathering events and activities in every city and county. The fund was distributed on a weighted basis across the 34 city and county councils and was not be an open public application process, but rather was done on the basis of recommended proposals for no more than 3 designated Gathering events in accordance with the agreed criteria, being submitted by each city/county council to IPB for review. A flagship event receiving IPB Gathering funding must bring in a minimum of 200 incremental additional overseas visitors.

The three flagship events for Kilkenny are Trad Fest, Dig Deep: Castlecomer Underground and Kilkenny Design Workshops: Celebrating 50 Years

2.   The Gathering Local and Community Event Fund

The national fund of  €1m  from the Department of Transport, Tourism & Sport, provides financial assistance for smaller local and community events in every city and county.  The funding application process for Kilkenny events was managed by the Gathering Kilkenny Steering committee under the guidance of the Gathering Ireland .  Grants were allocated in a competitive process and range from €500 to €2,500 for individual Gatherings according to the number of overseas visitors that will attend, and complement existing funding sources for Regional Events and festivals.

All Kilkenny Gathering events can be viewed on our calendar page

 3. KLP Mentoring Support for rural gatherings

Kilkenny LEADER Partnership is providing mentoring support to rural communities in Kilkenny to support them in hosting their festivals and events as part of the Gathering 2013. The mentors roles is to guide the process of event management and to assist the communities in developing their project. This will entail supporting, advising and some coordination to the communities. The KLP mentoring service will work in close partnership with Kilkenny Gathering Committee. The mentoring support is a free service to communities. For further information please contact Fergus Horgan, Development Officer, phone 056 7752111. Email Fergus.horgan@cklp.ie

Download the Application for Support for the Gathering