FOR many years, the Belfast Festival at Queen's operated at a level of virtual infallibility. Criticism was voiced at one's peril. But the tide has turned - some would say, with a vengeance - and this year's event has been the subject of some very public hand wring ing and soul searching, as critics, supporters and organisers have stood back and taken a long, hard look at how the biggest arts festival in Ireland could be reshaped and given new bite, new presence, new energy.
On the sidelines of this notoriously sticky wicket has been the festival's recently appointed programme director, Sean Doran. With no input into this year's line up, Doran has been watching, making mental notes, planning for next year, when a great many hopes will be pinned on him and when, as he must be acutely aware, his will be the head above the parapet.
At the halfway point of this year's festival, he would take issue with those who have already written it off as an irretrievably damp squib. "I am full of admiration for the way that this colossal event is achieved by just three full time staff working with such limited financial resources," he observes. "To put it into the context of other comparable festivals, Brighton receives twice the funding and Edinburgh six times the amount that Belfast does. Those two areas - staffing and finance - are something that we have to look at very carefully. I will also be looking at the duration of the festival and at its timing in the year, with a view to making possible changes on both counts.
"After a slow start, audience figures have picked up dramatically and there have been a number of shows that we could have sold out a few times over. There is great variety in this year's programme, if you look for it. But what is missing, perhaps, is an exclusivity, an international `edge', which adds interest to a programme that remains endemic to the people of Belfast."
"Edge" is a word which increasingly pops up in Doran's forward planning. He talks of introducing an "edge of local impact" aimed at adding the buzz of local involvement alongside the aforementioned "international edge"; of a "producing edge" whereby the festival would abandon its exclusively umbrella role and commission and co ordinate a major event ... none of which will be accomplished, he concedes, without considerably broadening the financial base and adding new sponsors and backers to the existing list.
It has not been an easy either for the current organisers, who have been at the cutting edge of the festival for many years and whose mood was caught at the launch of this year's festival. Former acting director Robert Agnew ended his introductory speech with a plea to local journalists. "Be critical, by all means, of what we do," he said. "But please stop whingeing about what we don't do." His words endorsed the sentiments of staff at Festival House, who have long felt their efforts undermined by negative media coverage, which has threatened to detract from the artistic excellence of the festival's vast programme and make for a difficult task in marketing the event beyond its established territory.
SEAN Doran has stepped into a tricky programming and public relations scenario. He was appointed by Queen's University in July to shoulder responsibility for the festival's artistic content but overall financial and administrative responsibility remains in the hands of Agnew, whose position now carries the designation of executive director. Doran is aged 36, a native of Derry and an experienced arts administrator with a reputation for trawling challenging work from other countries and other cultures. In addition, significantly, he is a practitioner, an accomplished musician whose music theatre company Innererklang appeared at the 1988 Belfast Festival.
Thus, he is better versed than most on life on the other side of the festival fence and on the natural apprehensions experienced by many people at the prospect of appearing at a festival in Belfast.
"You must never underestimate the misgivings of people out there. I was recently the only Irish representative at the Informal European Theatre Meeting in Vienna, among theatre producers from Eastern and Western Europe, Scandinavia and the Mediterranean countries. There were people there who were absolutely staggered that an arts festival actually took place in Belfast.
"But there are plenty of performers who are attracted to Belfast by the idea that it is slightly dangerous, virgin territory and all that. There are others, of course, who, for obvious reasons won't relate to what is taking place here but who, if you go to them with an exciting project, might well reconsider."
Over the past three months he has begun searching for the stones with which to lay the foundations for the years ahead. And with a track record that includes navigating the choppy waters of IMPACT 92 and Octoberfest in Derry and the year long 1995 UK Year of Literature and Writing in Swansea, hopes are high for his Belfast incumbency. Doran is under no illusion, however, as to the complexity of the task that confronts him, as he begins to reassess and re position the festival's priorities.
"In comparison with, say, 10 years ago, cultural life in Belfast is really vibrant and rapidly growing. An annual festival like this has to respond to that fact and act as a leader in pushing back boundaries. That doesn't mean that it puts on events that only 15 people turn up to, but it has to take calculated risks and try to be one or two steps ahead. I think it has reached the point now where it is ready to look at new horizons.
I'M very excited to be in the process of putting together an artistic programme which will offer a temptation not only to people in the South but in the wider Belfast context too," he says. "And there are key cities like Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham, even London, from where for certain activities you will attract arts enthusiasts to come to Belfast. I feel that there is a very real opportunity, to put it crudely, to make the Belfast Festival "Ireland's Edinburgh", but more the Edinburgh of the early days, where a spirit of international friendship brought people together in an appreciation of the arts.
But surely people will only travel those distances in order to see challenging new work that they cannot or have not seen elsewhere? Doran agrees with the proviso, but suggests that a positive way forward lies in liaising with Tony O Dalaigh of the Dublin Theatre Festival and Jerome Hynes of the Wexford Opera Festival, both of which take place directly before the Belfast Festival.
"I have begun discussing with Tony and Jerome how we can together market ourselves internationally, bearing in mind that our festivals follow on, one from the other. Our differences are as important as our similarities. I think that we can co operate and collaborate in a very constructive way, possibly through co productions or by bringing in work that none of us can individually afford. Domestically as well as internationally, our marketing strategies are crucial - we should be looking towards Dublin audiences and Dublin should be looking towards Belfast audiences."
These plans will form an essential block in the three year strategy which is now being formulated and which will be completed by the spring of 1997. Doran describes his programming vision as: "A pyramid. The festival at the moment is very strong on the middle band but it is lacking a spearheading pinnacle. We need to raise our ambitions so that it is up there with the great festivals of Europe.
But what about the base of the pyramid, those often untouched areas of the local population whose engagement in the festival has so often been judged to be lacking?
"We have got to get out and put into practice those words `access' and `participation', both of which I believe in passionately. I am looking at various art forms that would work well in a wider geographical area - literature, for example, traditional music and public art. I would also be looking to introduce festivals for children and youth. And I am considering the prospect of bringing people in for residencies, even before the festival starts, to work on a product which will appear on the programme.
"In 1997 we will begin those strands. Nobody is suggesting that all this will happen straight away. But that's the opportunity and the challenge. I'm looking to consolidate and stimulate where the festival has already been successful and then to develop from there. It will take three years to test out our audiences but I think the strategy will work. I think we'll get the response."
