This year’s St Patrick’s Festival has got the biggest individual festival grant for 2014 from Failte Ireland with €1 million being made available to build on success of The Gathering, Minister of State for Tourism & Sport Michael Ring has confirmed.
“The St Patrick’s Festival is now one of Ireland’s leading events and a great showcase for Ireland,” Minister Ring said.
“In 2013 the Festival really proved its value as a tourism event, and as an Irish celebration. Despite difficult weather conditions almost 500,000 people turned out to watch the Festival Parade in 2013 which included 6,000 participants from 45 countries.
Festival 2014 runs from Friday 14th – Monday 17th March with festival flagship events such as Ceili, Treasure Hunt, Big Day Out and the Parade running each day of the programme. I Love My City, the festivals flagship cultural programme will include a series of high-quality, tailored cultural events in key cultural institutions across Dublin City through-out the festival. The cultural programme was devised to communicate the message that Dublin is ‘open’ on St Patrick�€ ™s weekend and to give, tourists and Irish audiences, an opportunity to attend unique cultural events in unique venues at the time of our National celebrations.
Using this commemorative era as inspiration St. Patrick’s Festival for the first time in its history has created a 3 year theme and narrative for the Festival Parade. The thematic journey of Past, Present and Future will be explored respectively in the period 2014, 2015 and 2016. People, places and passions from Ireland old and new, and in 2016 our aspirations for the next 100 years will be creatively explored and presented in the spectacular procession on the streets of the capital on the National Holiday. Visit the festival website and download the festival app for up to date information on all events through-out the festival.
Fáilte Ireland has also confirmed funding of €36,000 to support the Temple Bar TradFest from 22-26 January 2014. The festival is a firm favourite on the festival calendar. This year it will showcase Irish music and culture and get the 2014 Festival year off to a flying start.
The 2014 festivals application process opened on Friday 6th December and information is available on the Fáilte Ireland website including guidelines for both regional and national festivals for applicants.
“The special year of the Gathering 2013 was a wonderful opportunity to shine a spotlight on Ireland in our overseas markets. This funding will help the St Patrick’s Festival and the Temple Bar TradFest carry on the momentum generated in 2013 and provide a great experience for visitors,” Minister Ring added.
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Festival Details
The Temple Bar TradFest take place from 22-26 January 2014
The St Patrick’s Festival take place from 14-17 March 2014