Dalkey Lobster Festival to go ahead despite cancellation claims

The Dalkey Lobster Festival is expected to go ahead in the south Dublin seaside town this weekend, despite its cancellation by organisers on Thursday evening.

Following the cancellation, Fáilte Ireland said that it would not be releasing €5,000 in sponsorship that had been designated for the food and music festival.

A message posted on the festival’s website stated that the event “has been cancelled due to circumstances beyond our control. Apologies for the inconvenience caused”.

A further message on Facebook states: "We can assure you that nobody is more upset than the Lobster Fest Committee. We are absolutely devastated that we've had to take this course of action, please trust that we did everything in our power to avoid this outcome."

The Facebook message goes on to explain that despite the committee having “worked tirelessly to make this event a success”, they had been advised that an “unexpected amount of liability lies with the committee for all events [during the festival] and not just those actually run by the committee”.

The message says that while the festival cannot proceed in its official capacity, the participating businesses were free to proceed with their own events, “accepting liability for their own plans”.

However, this message is not relayed on the festival website, which simply says that the event is cancelled.

Event organiser David Coulson, of The Tramyard restaurant, could not be contacted yesterday, but The Tramyard website says ticket refunds for the festival are available.

Dispute

However, local businessman Oliver McCabe, of Select Stores, said only the events run by The Tramyard were cancelled and the rest of the festival would go ahead.

“The paid ticketed events run at The Tramyard have been cancelled and the kids events at the church car park, also run by The Tramyard, those have been cancelled, but the events organised by the other businesses in the town will go ahead,” Mr McCabe said.

Restaurants in the town had had bookings cancelled following the announcement on the website, he said.

“There is no need for people to cancel bookings, the festival has kicked off and the other free events are going on as planned.”

A spokeswoman for Fáilte Ireland said it was contacted by the organisers on Friday morning to say the festival was cancelled.

She said none of the €5,000 in funding for the festival had been paid out and that it would not now be released.

A programme of events is available at dalkeylobsterfest.com.