Carrick Town Hall event cancelled due to ‘error’ over entertainment licence

Community group Positive Carrickfergus were due to hold a Spring Fling ceilidh at the premises on Saturday, May 13.

However, the group’s newsletter at the beginning of the month stated that the event had been cancelled due to the Town Hall not having an “up to date” entertainment license.

Commenting on the matter, a council spokesperson said: “Council is reviewing the operational and management arrangements for the Town Hall and until this is completed, we can only facilitate internal events that require an entertainment licence.

“An error on our part resulted in Council having to cancel one event. We acknowledge the disruption and inconvenience this will have caused to the booking organisers, but our number one priority is the health and safety of both staff and users and we are working as quickly as possible to complete this piece of work so that external bookings can resume.”

Positive Carrickfergus is a group of people who live and work in the town, all of whom are doing their bit to make the area a great place to live.

Growing from a Facebook group established in October 2017, the organisation became a Community Interest Company in September 2020.

Since its inception, it has been involved in a large number of initiatives, from the ‘Sails and Tales’ maritime exhibition at the historic Kelly’s Coal Office to the ambitious ‘Wildest Dreams’ postcard project.

Following the cancellation of the Spring Fling event, members are planning to work with the council to “help push the renewal of the license on at a faster pace”.

“Secondly, we are going to make use of our lovely Talking Shop and adapt our upcoming events to suit a more intimate space,” the group added.

"Our work is all about developing and responding to what our community want to work together on and we have no shortage of ideas and great talent to get some creative events up and running.”

Coming up in the next few weeks is a vinyl mini-market in The Talking Shop at the Courtyard on Sunday, May 28 (1-4pm).

There are also plans for an open mic night in June.

For more information on Positive Carrickfergus, visit https://positivecarrickfergus.org/