City festival gets cash lifeline

The festival is staged by Queen's University

The Belfast Festival at Queen's has been thrown a funding lifeline from the government.

The university had threatened to cancel the international event if it did not get an extra £300,000 of public money.

The Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure has now agreed to give the festival half that amount as a one-off payment.

Queen's revealed last November that it was thinking of stopping funding for the festival.

A month-long media campaign to save the festival prompted 4,700 responses to the culture minister, Maria Eagle.

Queen's had complained that it was having to cover an annual deficit, which is expected to top £200,000.

The deficit is in spite of growing ticket sales which doubled last year and is due to falling contribution from public bodies and commercial sponsors.

Queen's University said it was still short of the money it needs to keep the festival going, but it has hopes of other sources of funding.

Ms Eagle said the festival made "a significant contribution to the artistic, cultural and economic life of Northern Ireland, and Belfast in particular".

"I am pleased to announce a one-off grant of £150,000 towards the costs of maintaining the 2007 festival," she said.

"During this year I expect to see the festival make good progress towards a business model that more proactively seeks to secure private sector sponsors and maximises income from ticket sales for all events across the programme."