This week on Bay Business, Breda's guest is John Crumlish, CEO of the Galway International Arts Festival — one of Europe's most significant arts festivals and one of the most important economic events in the Galway calendar — a role he has held since 2002.
A Donegal man by birth, John arrived in Galway in the late 1980s and, by his own description, "ran away with the circus" — drawn in by the city's extraordinary cultural energy at a time when GIAF was doing things nobody had seen before. He established Mac Teo in 1993 before taking on the CEO role at GIAF, where he has since overseen the festival's growth into a two-week cultural event that attracted a record 450,000 attendees in 2025 and generates an economic impact of tens of millions of euro for Galway annually.
Behind the spectacle is a complex, ambitious business — balancing public funding, corporate sponsorship and box office income while committing to artists and productions up to two years in advance, managing a workforce that surges dramatically each July, and competing for talent in one of Ireland's most competitive employment markets.
In this episode, John talks candidly about the financial model, the employment challenges, and what he is building toward as GIAF approaches its 50th anniversary in 2028.
Galway 360 on Galway Bay FM
Discover Galway through a fresh daily lens with Galway 360, a series of themed 10-minute segments airing every weekday as part of FYI Galway at 5:45pm, with extended podcast versions available on our app and website. From business and tech to youth culture and Irish language stories, each feature brings you closer to the people, ideas, and events shaping Galway today.
