There is so much going on behind the scenes of an event such as the Galway Arts Festival, writes Ciarán Brennan. Festival managing director tells him what it takes to get Ireland's largest and most prestigious arts festival up and running every year.

FOUNDED IN 1978, the Galway Arts Festival is Ireland's largest and most prestigious arts festival.

Each year it produces and presents an international programme of music, theatre, dance, visual arts, literature and comedy involving hundreds of artists and performers.

It is also a major economic contributor to Galway city and county during its two-week run.

Traditionally one of the busiest fortnights of the year, Galway is descended upon by arts lovers and tourists alike with more than 150,000 people expected to attend the festival. The city is due to benefit from a direct economic impact in excess of €25 million.

Festival managing director John Crumlish says: "The 2008 Galway Arts Festival programme spend is over €2.3 million and is a testament to just how far the festival has developed from a local event to major international flagship festival."

Managing a festival that has developed into a major international flagship festival is no easy feat.

"I would argue that culture is a business for a start and it needs to be managed like any other business," Crumlish says.

"We need to do a €1 million worth of ticket sales. So it is no different to any other business - you have a product, you have to promote it and you hope that it goes well.

Except that the window in which the Galway Arts Festival operates is quite small compared to that afforded to commercial enterprise.

"We launched some of the programme in early May and we launched the rest of it on June 7th. It is a short enough window to sell all you need to sell in order to be back next year," Crumlish says.

The festival carries major promotional campaigns overseas and over the last four years, events have taken place in London, Paris, New York, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Toronto.

This year's festival plays host to a wide array of companies and artists. Overall, this year there are 266 events stretching across 35 venues in the city, county and the Aran Islands.

Crumlish puts the seamless organisation of such a range of events, performers and times down to his management team.

"The key is that the people in charge of the different bits are very good at what they do," he says. "We have a PR manager, production manager, box office manager, artist liaison manager and then there's an artistic director who actually picks the programme."

The addition of the newly commissioned Festival Big Top, pitched minutes from the city centre on the banks of the River Corrib at the Fisheries Field, will be crucial to greater artistic and commercial success, he believes.

"It is hugely important for two aspects. Part of it is the capacity. It will cater for over 3,000 standing and 1,000 sitting, but equally importantly, it allows us to put in a very big stage, in which case we can take bigger dance companies, an orchestra, bigger theatre companies.

"The product mix can change as well."

Apart from the work put in by the organisers, Crumlish says the festival's success, like any business, is down to a willingness to innovate.

"A lot of our audiences return year on year and they basically force us to raise the bar," he says. "You have to be always introducing something new and better to audiences who are coming back."