The Arts Council of Ireland organised the first Night Economy Annual Forum on 17th January, 2023, which witnessed stakeholders across the night economy sectors including public and private sector representatives.
Key takeaways:-
- The Arts council representative highlighted the work being done such as updating of maps for arts and culture, new dedicated outdoor public spaces, survey of facilities with focus on physical accessibility, culture night, creation of shared artist workspace model and creating an inclusive environment.
- The night economy advocacy representative highlighted that dances floors reduced by 80% over the last few years from 500 to 80, the Public Dance Halls Act 1935 has not been updated, National Concert Hall was opened for late nights recently and NTE also needs to be viewed as a social economy.
The keynote speaker for the event was Professor Terry Stevens . His insights were very useful as it focused on key learnings from past experiences internally with respect to the night economy, how to conceptualise the night economy, underlining the key perspectives to consider while designing policies and sharing views on the Irish context.
- Night is generally viewed as negative, one that encourages risk-taking, a place which is feared and uncertain.
- Though many terms are used to describe the night time, it remains dynamic and inconsistent and night economy varies with respect to cultural meanings, geography, intensity and season. For example, variation by seasons could get reflected in Ireland where nights could be with 12 hours of darkness and some days with 6 hours of darkness.
- The policy context remains complex with respect to the night economy. The night has been neglected; however, it forms part of SDG 11 (Sustainable cities and communities). The activity needs to be managed for example with 20-minute neighbourhoods.
- The focus needs to be not just on flows of people but also the corresponding rhythms of the night.
- It is a perception that night is for younger people.
- The needs of rural communities are different: smaller residential population, limited range of assets and skills, lower wages, different go to market strategy (should be places of desire).
- The market trends reflected that post-COVID recovery was happening; COVID exposed silliness of city marketing and emptiness of city branding, people now more interested in reputation management, behaviour of businesses; younger generation care more about how one treats people and whether the places are cared for.
- The focus has been directed towards innovation, collaboration, hybridity, blurring, outliers, co-creation, co-dependency, transformation, re-purposing, talent and value.
- The challenges include things such as bar wars and 5’o clock flight.
- Internationally, benchmarking could be against the cities such as Bilbao, Turku, Copenhagen, Aarhus, Ljubjana, Slovenia, Lisbon, Linz, Washington, New York, Zadar. Each city is known for its unique offering and how night has been conceptualised.
- He also highlighted that for Ireland, a critical issue was that they played towards the diaspora market much more, and he emphasised that Ireland needs to find its unique offering and what model it wants to offer as a part of the night economy (one that cannot be found anywhere else, since he emphasised that Ireland should be the only country to be doing that however he did not comment on what it should be). He cited examples of other cities in different countries to exemplify what made them unique. The cities have been mentioned above.
Panel Discussion- 1
- The first panel discussion comprised of speakers from private sector and public sector. We were delighted to know that there were 1600 events in one night (Culture night), out of which more than 99% of the events were after 9 pm. The challenges included planning and licensing regulations, inclusivity and diversity, and how to bring in audiences.,
- The officer shared encouraging findings that 57% of the attendees were first-time attendees on Culture night and 77% of them wanted to go back during the year; it was posited that it might be possible to experiment during the year rather than have a once-in-year Culture night.
- The Cork city council representative focused on having an audit of spaces and venues, and reflected on the work they had done such as pedestrianisation and outdoor dining infrastructure;
- They expressed desire for public lighting audit, welcoming announcement for appointment of Night-time advisors and their role to bring together stakeholders, gather data and prepare action plans wherever the pilots would be happening.
- The private sector organisation reflected on the need to diversify away from alcohol and focus on curated nightlife offerings; he had expertise in developing talent for creative industry; they organised museum night in Netherlands and emphasised on policies where if one venue closes another needs to open as a replacement; he emphasised that cultural output needs to be factored into the night economy apart from upgrading of buildings and other infrastructure.
Panel Discussion 2
- The next panel discussion included an artist with special abilities and public sector representatives from different towns and cities. The artist requested to have a disability-graded system of disable-friendly spaces and emphasised on the need to apply universal design principles in disable-friendly nightlife spaces.
Comedian Perspective
- A comedian working in Irish Comedy guide reflected on her lived experiences where she commented that ramps did not work, bus did not come on time, lack of financial benefits and supports; venues were not accessible and it did not encourage other comedians to be a part of the ecosystem (since she had to crawl on the stage given that the stage was not disable-friendly).