THE ORGANISERS OF a children’s festival have issued an apology after concerns were raised over the issue of garda vetting of volunteers at the event.

Playstival with The Happy Pear is a two-day summer festival for children and their parents, set to take place next month in Dundrum in Dublin.

It features a range of activities for children, including a construction site for kids, an animal farm and a wild west zone, with tickets costing €12 each.

Following a backlash on social media over the issues surrounding the vetting of volunteers, the event said that all staff working directly with children would be garda vetted while those who had applied to be volunteers and had vetting would now be fully-paid.

‘Garda vetting’

In a post on the Facebook page for the event last week, it issued a call for people to take part in the festival, asking for “enthusiastic, reliable and child friendly” volunteers to come forward.
https://www.facebook.com/Playstivalfest/photos/a.204543296816015.1073741829.153217965281882/240824323187912/?type=3

In a response to the original post, one user asked: “Presumably all volunteers will be garda vetted too?”

The festival responded: “Volunteers will not need to be garda vetted as the law states you only need to vet where a person is placed with a vulnerable adult or child on two or more occasions, and hence can be in a position to build up a relationship of trust.”

This was met with a backlash, with some commenting on the lack of vetting required and others referencing how a sponsored event was seeking volunteers.

One user, who expressed enthusiasm for bringing their children to the event, wrote: “But the fact that you’re not garda vetting your volunteers is hugely disappointing and unfortunately isn’t safeguarding the best interests of children… whom this festival is geared towards.”

Another said: “All people working there should be garda vetted… what if someone buys tickets for more than one session?”

Garda vetting is a process essential for people who work with children in a variety of instances, such as in schools, hospitals, childcare services, and provision of leisure and physical activities to children.

Following this criticism, Playstival with The Happy Pear reversed its stance and apologised.

In a post on Facebook yesterday, the festival said: “We have worked on a plan over the last few days and from this point forward, thanks to your feedback we are not seeking volunteers for Playstival and instead the 25 volunteer positions that we had posted for will be filled by garda vetted paid staff with suitable experience with working with children.

To summarise, from this point on all our event team will be paid and there will be no unpaid volunteer positions at Playstival.

It clarified that there would not be any unpaid volunteers at the event, and added: “I would like to take the opportunity to apologise to you, as a new event we want to create an event that has a positive impact and no negative vibes associated with it.”

This apology and clarification was met with a positive reaction among Facebook users on the page.

‘Fully-paid staff’

This festival is a first of its kind, stretching over two days and pitching itself as an internet-free zone where children can enjoy themselves without a smartphone or games console.

The Happy Pear duo Stephen and David Flynn have grown their business from a vegetable shop in Greystones to three cafés, its own food range and a number of cookbooks.

In a statement to TheJournal.ie, a spokesperson from Playstival’s organisers said that volunteers were going to be offered a free lunch and a free family pass for the weekend, before they opted to go for fully-paid staff.

The spokesperson said: “Many large events attract volunteers of all ages and to supplement our Playstival fully-paid staff, including teachers and other fully-Garda vetted employees, a small number of occasional volunteers kindly came forward prepared to donate their time because they wanted to be involved in Playstival.”

They said that, partly because they hadn’t received a sufficient number of volunteers at this stage, that a decision had been made to seek further fully-paid staff to work that weekend rather than have volunteers.

“As you’d expect, we will offer fully-paid staff positions to any of the Garda vetted volunteers who have already come forward,” the spokesperson added.

Playstival’s statement also referenced an exception from garda vetting procedures where the act “does not apply to any work or activity undertaken in the course of a family relationship of persons who assist occasionally and on a voluntary basis in certain activities or events be they school, sport or community-related”.

Playstival takes place next month.

With reporting from Gráinne Ní Aodha