POOLE Maritime Festival is set to take place again next year, despite there being no budget allocated to the continuation of the event.

This year’s festival, which incorporated the UK’s first European Maritime Day, brought together Poole Harbour Boat Show, Taste of the South, and the Seven Sea Festival.

The council is keen to hold the festival next summer but, due to financial constraints, it is proposing to limit it to an “umbrella” event for a number of “business as usual activities”.

Poole Harbour Boat Show, which was the main element of this year’s festival, attracted around 35,000 visitors over three days with 100 boats, tall ships, firework displays, live music and theatre.

Next year, the council plans to hold the show on June 8-10, with a family festival from June 1-3, and a business event from June 4-7.

Julian McLaughlin, head of growth and infrastructure, wrote a report for cabinet members about the plans.

He said: “The appetite for Poole to continue to develop a public festival is significant, with many expressing a desire for the event to continue. However the challenge for the council is that there is no budget allocated to the continuation of the event.

“The overall budget for Poole Maritime Festival, including European maritime Day, was £458k. To develop and expand the event the Borough of Poole would be required to underwrite the development and delivery cost, and to provide ongoing additional event management capacity.

“With a longer-term commitment in place an event can develop and grows its reputation, which increases the opportunity to offset some costs through sponsorship. However experience from elsewhere demonstrates that there remains a significant cost to the host authority. Additionally, if Poole Maritime Festival continues to include the Poole Harbour Boat Show then there will continue to be the issue that both events are seeking sponsors for a related event.”

He said further links could be made with Dorset Local Enterprise Partnership and the South Coast Marine Cluster in producing a programme of business events, including a marine/maritime conference.

He added the event had the potential to attract further tourists and visitors at regional, national and international level “as seen by the Bournemouth Air Show”.

However, “to achieve these goals the event would need to have a long-term strategy (3-5 years) with associated financial commitment to underwrite its development”.

Members of the Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee will be discussing the report at a meeting on Tuesday.