‘Warts and all’ inquiry into Flavours of Limerick festival which cost €120,000

MAYOR John Moran has distanced himself from an ill-fated food festival, which has left council seeking to recover tens of thousands of euro from the liquidator appointed to the firm engaged by council to organise it.

Flavours of Limerick took place over the weekend of September 18 to 21 last, and was an initiative supported by the mayor’s fund to the tune of €50,000, a figure which rose to €70,000 during preparations.

But it was blighted by poor ticket sales, and the event management company behind it, the Dublin-based Neon Agency was eventually wound up, a move which saw council end up paying out a total of €120,000 in order to ensure local firms taking part were compensated.

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Speaking on Live95, Mayor Moran said the money for the festival was “allocated” to staff members in the council.

The executive mayor said by early September, the details he was getting on the food festival “were making me really uncomfortable”.

“For me, there should have been a clear programme of events, probably months before, a clear indication of what was happening,” he said, adding he wrote “a long email” to council director general Dr Pat Daly expressing his concerns.

The programme included a range of events around city centre locations, including a mystery dinner, street feast and live food demonstrations at the Milk Market. One scheduled event was cancelled due to adverse weather conditions.

At this month’s metropolitan meeting, Eileen Coleman, senior executive officer in the tourism, festivals and events department, confirmed the local authority is trying to “recoup” some of the money from the liquidator.

She has pledged a “full and frank discussion” and a “warts-and-all” workshop with councillors on the episode. It’s likely this will take place behind-closed doors.

At the launch of the festival, Mayor Moran said: “I felt strongly about allocating some of the mayoral fund to begin putting a spotlight on the quality of our food and to allow our food producers to achieve their full potential. We want to continue to enhance Limerick’s visibility as a food destination.”

Flavours of Limerick carried similarities to Pigtown, the successful food festival which ran in the city from 2017 to 2023.

The last time it was held, it cost around €25,000 to organise and stage.

Co-founded by Fine Gael councillor Olivia O’Sullivan, it was initially run on a voluntary basis until in 2024, it was agreed the council would take over its administration.

The following year, the Flavours of Limerick festival was introduced.

Mayor Moran has insisted he did not have “any reservations about Pigtown”.

“I made it very clear in the mayoral programme that I want to put Limerick food at the centre of what we are going to do. It could have been Pigtown, it could have been something else.”

Cllr O’Sullivan was visibly upset at this month’s meeting where she received support on a motion to review the Flavours of Limerick festival and investigate its value for money.

“I am gutted for all that could have been achieved with that €120,000. For context, all seven years of the Pigtown festival could have been delivered with that budget, plus our food producer directory project also undertaken. With change left over for another year’s Pigtown,” she said.

She said she is “genuinely upset” at what she described as a “disgraceful waste of public money”.

“Ploughing more cash into a failed festival was a mistake, a festival that didn’t seem to have any marketing campaign in place,” Cllr O’Sullivan said.

The northside councillor added: “Somebody decided to save face instead of making a hard call to cancel the festival. This was public money that a decent Limerick food festival could have done so much more with.”

Ms Coleman herself even interjected to apologise to Cllr O’Sullivan adding: “I believe this is very close to your heart.”

Social Democrats councillor Elisa O’Donovan described the situation as “awful and horrible”.

Her party colleague, Shane Hickey-O’Mara added: “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it. We are just abandoning things for the next shiny thing.

“This festival, it sounds like it was a really big failure and Pigtown wasn’t.”

Cllr Dan McSweeney, Fine Gael said: “We’ve blown €120,000 on a festival that if I asked many of the people who I represent in Patrickswell and Ballybrown, would know nothing about it. I’m really disappointed.”

Metropolitan district leader, Cllr Daniel Butler added: “Something is very wrong. €120,000 on a festival nobody knew about is one of the worst controversies in terms of spending I have seen in this chamber.”

Ms Coleman acknowledged there was “a lot of difficulty” with the festival and conceded its marketing “had not been as strong” as it was for other festivals.

In a statement following the meeting, council confirmed the cost of Flavours of Limerick was around €72,000 plus VAT.

The figure of €120,000 being reported arose, they said, “because the contractor appointed to oversee and manage the festival encountered financial difficulties shortly before the event."

"In order to ensure that vendors who had committed to taking part were paid, Limerick City and County Council took the decision to cover these payments directly.

“This step was taken to make sure that vendors—many of whom are small local businesses who had invested their time, energy, and resources—were not left out of pocket,” they continued.