Hot Press magazine has been awarded €320,000 in public funding for Irish Music Month 2022, billed as an innovative broadcasting initiative undertaken in partnership with local radio stations.
The music fortnightly is also partnering with Animo TV Productions and Virgin Media Television for the Uprising Irish Music Awards series, which will provide “a powerful and inspiring insight into the state of the music nation in Ireland”.
Uprising will receive €400,000 in public funding from the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland‘s Sound & Vision 4 Broadcasting Funding Scheme for programming that supports the live music sector.
Ten projects were successful in Round 45 of the scheme. The competitive assessment process included a requirement that applications demonstrated gender equality of at least 50% in the leadership roles within the creative production team and amongst the performers.
Other beneficiaries from the latest round of the scheme include Big Mountain Productions, who will receive €225,000 towards making a documentary about The Bothy Band to be screened on TG4.
In Association with
Dearg Films is being funded with €380,000 for a series being made for RTE called Songs of Ireland.
This will involve Pat Shortt and Stockton’s Wing frontman Mike Hanrahan taking a road trip around Ireland to discover the history behind some great Irish songs, and performing the songs in local venues.
Indiepics will receive €385,000 public funding for The Secret Headliner on Virgin Media One.
The programme producer describes the concept as "like Bowie in the Baggot Inn", where a major international act from Ireland plays in a small intimate venue.
The funding round received 28 applications that sought funding of €3.8m. Some 30% of the projects are Irish or bilingual, while 80% of the projects will be produced by independent producers, representing €1.9m of the total recommended funding package.
BAI chief executive Celene Craig commented: “The BAI included this specific live music round under the Sound & Vision Scheme at the request of minister Catherine Martin, and I would like to thank her for securing the additional funding.
“The voices and input of women will be significant across all projects, including roles such as presenters, general participants, and featured musical artists.
“It is also worth noting that this round will result in a significant amount of financial support being injected into the wider events sector, through artist fees, musician fees, venue hire, venue staff fees, stage and sound engineering crew costs, and other ancillary costs associated with live performance.”
Catherine Martin added: “The live performance sector has faced severe challenges over the past number of years, and I wanted to ensure a continuation of support measures as well as enabling further collaboration with the broadcasting sector."
This round of awards is one of several funded through the Sound & Vision Broadcasting Funding Scheme, which received an additional taxpayer funding of €10.5m last May.
Photo: The Strypes band with Hot Press founder and editor Niall Stokes
