Derry: Group behind Halloween parade to enter administration

An arts organisation known for staging the Halloween and St Patrick's Day parades in Londonderry is to be wound up. Councillors have been told that the North West Carnival Initiative (NWCI) is to enter administration and cease operating. It has been instrumental in delivering the carnival parade for Europe's largest Halloween festival in Derry, creating large-scale puppets and costumes with local community groups. In a statement, NWCI said it had informed the council it could not continue to provide its services. The NWCI board said a number of ongoing issues, including unresolved intellectual property concerns raised by artists over "props, costumes and set materials", had significantly affected its ability to plan future programmes. With "limited resources and capacity" as a small charitable organisation, NWCI said the pressures had become unsustainable ahead of the 40th anniversary Halloween programme. The board said it would enter administration in an "orderly" process. The news comes a year after celebrated 20 years of bringing creative projects to the north west. It is estimated that more than 100,000 people from all over the world were in Derry last year for the now world-fa