Angoulême toy festival could be gone for good

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Whilst a decision was made in August to cancel this years' Ludoland toy festival in Angoulême, hope had still remained that the 50,000€ shortfall in funding could be found in time to put on the event as planned in November.  On Monday those hopes had disappeared with the announcement of three staff redundancies, the director Joel Heraiz his assistant David Hervouet and secretary Emilie Vignaud all losing their jobs.

The toy festival which was conceived in 1986 by local students, celebrated its 20^th anniversary in 2007, with a hugely successful event.  With around 70,000 visitors and 5,500 square metres of exhibition space, staged across five sites in the centre of the town, the event became one of the largest and most popular events of its type in France. 

This is the second time that the event has been cancelled, with the 1995 edition also failing to acquire the necessary funding.  The long term future of the festival will become clearer in December, when the Mayor of Angoulême meets with Philippe Lavaud of Comaga (representing the communes of greater Angoulême) to discuss the 2009 budget and ultimately the fate of the event. 

In 2007 the event was subsidised to the tune of 465,000€, but that funding dropped to 350,000€ for 2008, with a bigger onus being put on the organisers to raise funding privately.  By cancelling the event, the town and the organisers have taken a risk that major commercial companies will look elsewhere for 2009, and that another town could step in and take the event away for good.  Yann Peidro, Ludoland President acknowledged the risk, but stressed that he is keen to see the event continue in some shape or form.  There is a suggestion that Ludoland could become a bi-annual event, alternating with a Ludosport event at the watersports facility at St-Yriex.