Plans are scrapped for city street festival
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CITY centre retailers hoping for a bumper week during the ninth annual Inverness Street Festival were crushed to hear the curtain has come down on the celebrations because of a funding shortage.
The three-day event showcasing fire-juggling, stilt-walking and other top acts is not going ahead this weekend due to "pressures" on the marketing budgets of two of its three funders.
Managers at the Inverness Business Improvement Scheme (Bid) and the Eastgate Centre said a "difficult decision" was taken not to fund it this time around.
Bid manager Mike Smith said it was "unfortunate" but times were tough financially and similar street events were being cancelled for the same reason up and down the country.
And Jackie Cuddy from the Eastgate Centre said there was "a substantial cost" to running the festival. "It’s tough out there at the moment and there’s a lot of demand on people’s marketing budgets," she said. "It was not a decision that was taken lightly but all parties concerned felt it best to take a break from it this year."
She was not willing to put a figure on the Eastgate Centre’s annual funding.
Mr Smith said the total running costs for 2017’s event came to £22,000.
The cancellation news came as a surprise for some traders at the Victorian Market, where moves are under way to boost footfall.
Café owner Toni Rutherford from The Little Tea Pot said previous events raised the profile of the area.
"I’m shocked to hear it’s not going ahead," she said.
"It was great to see all of the people coming through the market."
The festival was expected to run from yesterday to tomorrow.
Last year’s event featured 10 acts including the popular Granny Turismo and Pete Anderson, who climbs and performs on a 10ft ladder.
The acts were expected to perform in the Victorian Market, and in the High Street, Falcon Square and the Eastgate Centre.
The festival has also been supported by the Inverness common good fund to boost trade during the quieter months.
Last year’s event was described as the biggest and best ever by organisers.
Mr Smith said his team’s market research during the festival suggested more than 90 per cent of those who were in the city centre had turned out for the festival.
Victorian Market trader Stephen Hastie from Hastie & Dyce Butchers said he too was disappointed to hear it would not go ahead.
He said: "Hopefully it can be resurrected next year and it’s not a thing of the past."
