Eden Arts says it failed to secure enough money to keep Winter Droving in Penrith this year – but now says it wants the event back in the town next year, raising fresh questions over the future of the festival.
Eden Arts has issued another statment attempting to explain why Winter Droving has been pulled from Penrith this year, but its latest comments have raised further questions after the organisation said it is now hopes to bring the event back to Penrith next year.
The latest statement comes after a wave of anger and disappointment in Penrith following the announcement that Winter Droving would not take place in the town this year, with £65,600 of Arts Council England funding transferred to support a new event in Carlisle.
Eden Arts now says it wants Winter Droving back in Penrith in 2027 and is considering returning to crowdfunding to help raise the money required. It has also said it hopes the Penrith event could eventually run alongside the new Carlisle event, rather than the two being seen as alternatives.
The change in tone comes as the organisation prepares for Carlisle Carnivale, which is due to take place on Saturday, October 24, leaving just four weeks before the new event takes place.
In its latest statement, Eden Arts says: “This year, we simply didn’t secure the funding we needed to put the Winter Droving on in Penrith. We tried for 12 months and we failed.”
The organisation says it is devastated that Winter Droving will not go ahead for a second year and claims it spent months trying to close the funding gap before eventually accepting that it could not carry the financial risk of staging the event without sufficient income.
Eden Arts says previous attempts to raise additional money through crowdfunding and selling wristbands had produced only modest sums compared with the cost of putting on Winter Droving. It says the event was approaching too quickly to allow enough time to raise the remaining money through other sources.
However, the funding history of Winter Droving extends considerably beyond the £15,000 annual contribution previously made by Eden District Council, which Eden Arts has highlighted as one of the losses resulting from local government reorganisation.
In previous years, around £80,000 has come from local councils, Penrith BID and local business sponsors, alongside Arts Council England funding secured by Eden Arts. The local funding and sponsorship has therefore represented a substantial part of the overall financial support for the event.
Eden Arts says the funding model had become increasingly difficult over several years, with the former £15,000 Eden District Council contribution no longer continuing in the same way following local government reorganisation. In 2024, the Cumberland and Westmorland Herald provided £15,000, effectively filling that gap for a year.
The organisation says sponsorship has subsequently reduced and that some expected funding did not materialise, while attempts to broaden the funding base through public appeals, crowdfunding, wristbands and donation requests at the event failed to generate enough additional income to close the gap.
Last year's cancellation added another financial blow. Eden Arts says the decision not to stage the event was made following advice from an independent professional event safety expert and that it would have been irresponsible to ignore that advice.
Following the cancellation, Eden Arts says it honoured its commitments to artists, staff and suppliers and returned trader fees in full. However, it says two sources failed to honour their commitments, leaving the organisation with a loss of around £20,000.
The organisation says that if those commitments had been honoured, its financial position going into this year would have been very different and Winter Droving could potentially have continued in Penrith.
Despite the financial difficulties, Eden Arts says it continued trying to find a way of staging the event in Penrith this year. It eventually concluded that if the income could not cover the cost of the event, the shortfall would have to be met by Eden Arts itself, something its Board was no longer prepared to do.
The search for an alternative eventually led to Carlisle. Eden Arts says a viable Carlisle option only became deliverable less than two weeks before the public announcement, with Arts Council England agreeing to transfer its £65,600 grant.
Great Border City BID subsequently agreed to support the event, allowing Eden Arts to stage an event in Carlisle rather than return the Arts Council funding.
Eden Arts has strongly rejected suggestions that Winter Droving was “stolen” from Penrith or that there was any improper arrangement. It says the Carlisle option was a last-minute solution which allowed the national investment, artists' work and a major public event to remain in north Cumbria.
The organisation has also sought to make clear that the Carlisle event is not simply Winter Droving relocated.
It is being presented as a new event called Carlisle Carnivale, based on the format and lessons Eden Arts says it has learned from producing events across Cumbria during the past 14 years.
At the same time, however, Eden Arts is now talking openly about the return of Winter Droving to Penrith.
It says it is “working on ways to bring the Winter Droving back to Penrith next year” and wants to continue both events “side by side in future”. The organisation says it is considering revisiting crowdfunding as a way of raising the funds needed for a 2027 Penrith event.
That has created an obvious question over what would need to change for the event to become financially viable again.
Eden Arts says a reliable crowdfunding or wristband system may form part of the future funding model, although it believes any contribution would need to remain voluntary because some people simply cannot afford an enforced cost.
The organisation also accepts that its previous attempts to raise money in this way produced only modest amounts, meaning a substantial funding gap would still need to be addressed through councils, sponsorship, business support, grants or other sources.
Eden Arts says it has been attempting to solve the problem for months and admits that it may have “conceded defeat perhaps too late”, which it says contributed to the late announcement that the event would not take place in Penrith.
It remains adamant that it did not want to lose Winter Droving from Penrith and says it is “immensely proud” of what was created in the town.
The organisation says it is genuinely sorry that it has not been able to make the event work in Penrith this year and insists that if the local funding and sponsorship had been available, Winter Droving would still be taking place in the town.
But for many in Penrith, the latest statement is unlikely to bring the controversy to an end. The town has now lost Winter Droving for a second consecutive year, while the Arts Council funding associated with the event is being used to stage Carlisle Carnivale just weeks from now.
At the same time, Eden Arts is asking Penrith to look towards 2027 and the possibility of bringing Winter Droving back, potentially alongside the new Carlisle event.
The question now is whether the local funding and sponsorship partnership needed to make that happen can actually be rebuilt, and whether councils, Penrith BID, local businesses and the public will be prepared to provide the level of support required.
For a town already angry about losing an event which has become a major part of Penrith's annual calendar, the latest statement provides plenty of explanation about why Eden Arts says the decision was made – but also leaves the future of Winter Droving considerably less clear than it appeared only a few days ago.
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