Two ventures are to benefit from a share of Totnes Town Council’s £15,000 arts grants pot, including a new arts and culture festival bonanza planned for the summer.

NDP Circus are behind the planned £125,000 two-week long event which will incorporate theatre, circus, dance, visual arts and music performances in venues across the town.

It is hoped the August extravaganza will foster community engagement and help put Totnes on the map as a place of creative excellence, daring and innovation – organisers say.

Town councillors agreed to give the event £10,000 from its 2022/23 arts budget, which will be match funded by another organisation, it is hoped.

The festival has also put in a £60,000 funding bid to Arts Council England and a £30,000 bid to South Hams Council’s Community Recovery Grant pot.

Councillors also sanctioned a £1,050 grant towards the Meadowbrook Community Day which is designed to raise awareness of the different activities, groups and facilities on offer at the 10-acre site and in Dartington as a whole.

With only £3,950 left in the town council’s arts grants pot, the newly formed Link Orchestra was unsuccessful in its bid for £10,000, but councillors are to invite the organiser to a future meeting to discuss the project with the possibility of granting it the remaining monies.

Speaking in favour of the proposed Totnes Arts and Culture Festival, Mayor Cllr Ben Piper

hailed it the “culmination” of an ongoing relationship with the town council and the community that would benefit an “awful lot of people from a very diverse background.”

He added: “This is a strategic moment, when it is really important to make sure that we resource initiative for the festival that everybody has been talking about for years and years.”

The Totnes-based Link Orchestra consists of “top professional string players” who aim to bring “top level” classical music performances to the town and further afield.

The total cost of the orchestra’s inaugural three concerts at the Totnes Arts and Culture Festival is £43,315.37.

More than £32,500 of this will be spent on fees for the orchestra leader, musicians and soloist. The organiser has yet to apply for any other funding but says orchestra membership revenue will generate £14,760.

In its application to the town council, Link Orchestra says it has already agreed to work with King Edward VI Community College students, and would also specialise in collaborations with a range of artists from paints, sculptors and photographers, and in the world of theatre, science, education and film.

Cllr Emily Price questioned paying musicians professional rates when youngsters from the town’s already established SAMM orchestra would perform at the festival for “a few quid.”

Cllr Piper said: “If there is no event for the orchestra to actually attend, then they don’t need the money.

“It strikes me that it’s really important to get the funding to the people who are organising and producing the large event.

“Cllr Price has made an important point and I’m really not sure that the arts climate in Totnes is ready to fund the creation of another orchestra in the town when we have already got SAMMS - and it should be borne in mind that we do have Dartington up the road providing a very good offering in terms of classical music etc.

“I wouldn’t say that that would preclude us giving support to this venture should it go further, and it might be appropriate to give them some money, but I think to come completely out of the blue with an ask of £10,000 for a project that doesn’t appear to have any roots doesn’t stand up.

“I would say give the orchestra some seed money to help them and get on to perhaps seek funding from other sources.”

Cllr Georgina Allen suggested splitting the council’s arts fund between the festival and the orchestra.

She said: “I know Meadowbrook is getting lots of 106 monies, they are in Dartington and not in Totnes, and I think they are pretty well funded.

“It’s an incredible thing to have somebody creating an orchestra.

“It’s a non-profit organisation for the youth in the town.

“It is going to need the money whether or not the festival takes place as they were being formed anyway.”

Cllr Louise Webberley vouched to give Meadowbrook the sum it requested: “It’s just such a small amount I think we should just grant it.”