David McWilliams
A TROUPE of volunteers is gearing up to work for free this weekend at Dalkey Book Festival, which received €40,000 in funding from the Arts Council this year and is sponsored by Zurich Insurance.
Attendees pay €15 entry to each event and fans can also donate to support the festival, which was set up by economist David McWilliams and his missus Sian Smyth in 2010.
Dalkey Book Festival Services Ltd made a profit in 2019 of €33,000, reducing accumulated losses to less than a grand. While it may not be keen on paying the volunteers who man everything from front of house to merchandise and production, it paid rent of €7,500 that year to Iconic Media, a media company owned by McWaffle.
Iconic had accumulated profits of €750,000 at the end of 2020, and McWaffle and Smyth are its directors. Their remuneration for the year was two hundred grand.
Iconic kindly waived Dalkey Book Festival Service’s rent in 2020, which was just as well as the festival was unable to run as normal due to the pandemic and made a loss that year of €31,000.
This year’s festival-goers also get to sample Kilkenomics, which may whet their appetite for that comedy and economics festival’s own programme in November.
McWilliams owns half of the company behind Kilkenomics with festival organiser Ricard Cook, but Goldhawk has no idea if it makes any dosh as it became an unlimited company in 2017.
As reported in The Phoenix (02/06/2022), the busy McWaffle has joined forces with Bono and Alan Moloney in a company set up for the business of “motion picture, video and TV programme production activities.” They are equal shareholders in Moneta Media Ltd, which was set up in April 2021.
Bono attended Dalkey Book Festival in 2019 with his wife Ali Hewson, and they posed for a selfie with McWilliams, Smyth and British actor Stephen Fry.
The festival’s literary awards have a prize fund of €30,000 this year, and McWaffle will be hoping that Sally Rooney, Blindboy, Marian Keyes and John Banville bring in the crowds.
Busy Dave’s own live podcast segment is sure to be a hit, and volunteers may even get to attend it.
Their reward for giving their time to work at the festival for free? The opportunity to attend “choice events” and meet “other like-minded people.”
