Volvo Ocean Race

galwayrush

FeetMagic wrote: »

Who was the surprise guest?

Don't say you missed U2 as well.:eek:

Panda

I've just been told that theres been an explosion in the area of the team tents which is at the rear of the Harbour Hotel / Ce Na Mara Building.

The fire brigade, police and ambulances are already at the scene

The source of the blast is not yet known, but im guessing that there was some sort of cooking facilities there so it could have been a gas leak that lead to the explosion...

Hopefully nobody was hurt!

dr.bollocko

Panda wrote: »

I've just been told that theres been an explosion in the area of the team tents which is at the rear of the Harbour Hotel / Ce Na Mara Building.

The fire brigade, police and ambulances are already at the scene

The source of the blast is not yet known, but im guessing that there was some sort of cooking facilities there so it could have been a gas leak that lead to the explosion...

Hopefully nobody was hurt!

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055579893 has a thread on it here already.

ronnie3585

http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/eykfmhkfmhsn/rss2/

Over 238,000 people have packed Galway City since the Volvo Ocean Race opened on May 23.

The two-week festival of events includes sailing, music and entertainment.

Last night there was a special prize-giving ceremony for the winners of Leg 7 from Boston to Galway which included Ireland's Green Dragon, who received their trophy for third place.

Chief executive of the Volvo Ocean Race Knut Frostad said: "The stopover in Galway has by far exceeded all other stopover ports and is a model to be followed for the future".

Read more: http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/eykfmhkfmhsn/rss2/#ixzz0HDSy5pE8&B

No surprise the numbers are so big. Great to see though - well done to all involved.

Knut - ha ha

KevR

Red Arrows were awesome on Saturday! And the weather we've had this weekend has been amazing.

Town was so packed on Saturday night. I've never seen it so busy, not even on New Year's!

tracker-man

m83 wrote: »

The Saw Doctors. They played Galway Girl and N17... think that was it, i was a tad drunk at the time.

I was talkin to Leo on the Friday askin when they are playin in galway again that I couldn't wait.... He said nothin about this surprise appearance!! Guess it would of ruined the surprise:o or it hadn't been organised that time, or... he just didn't want to tell me! :pac:

I have the CD's but SawDocs live is something else altogether, great buzz.

LadyMayBelle

Didn't think the Sawdocs was that much of a surprise, sure was a toss up between them and Mundy. To be fair it was highly unlikely they wouldn't play at some stage. Just sang N17 and hung about for Galway girl right?


Prob turn up again.

Mars Bar

tracker-man wrote: »

I was talkin to Leo on the Friday askin when they are playin in galway again that I couldn't wait.... He said nothin about this surprise appearance!! Guess it would of ruined the surprise:o or it hadn't been organised that time, or... he just didn't want to tell me! :pac:

I have the CD's but SawDocs live is something else altogether, great buzz.

Leo doesn't even tell his Dad what he is at never mind anyone else...and he doesn't know half of the time himself!

And you are right, I have all of their CD's plus more that can't be got anymore and they don't touch on their live performances. I have seen them 20 times...:o

holidayhere

The Saw Doctors are a one off.
When they made them they broke the mould.
Great to see local acts get worldwide exposure as part of the event.
I think Mairtin O'Connor is a class act also.

Mars Bar

holidayhere wrote: »

The Saw Doctors are a one off.
When they made them they broke the mould.
Great to see local acts get worldwide exposure as part of the event.
I think Mairtin O'Connor is a class act also.

Agreed. Mairtin, Seamus, Cathal and Jimmy are all great musicians and work really well together. All are very nice guys too...

biko

I hope this sets a precedence and it comes to Galway soon again.
We were sooooooooooooooooooo lucky with the weather!

gary82

Anyone know is Galway bidding to rehost the 2011/2012 race? The would have had to express their interest by 24 April 2009 (not a strict deadline though I don't think)...

Also does anyone know is it common for ports to host it twice or are we back of the queue again?

Zzippy

Magnus wrote: »

I hope this sets a precedence and it comes to Galway soon again.
We were sooooooooooooooooooo lucky with the weather!

Word is the organisers are already talking about bringing the race back to Galway in 3 years time, depending on sponsorship of course...
The event has been such a success that it would be pretty short-sighted of the govt not to support it again. Its also opened many people's eyes to the marine potential of Galway - the number of people I heard talking about what it would be like to have a proper marina there all the time was incredible.

cornbb

Zzippy wrote: »

Word is the organisers are already talking about bringing the race back to Galway in 3 years time, depending on sponsorship of course...
The event has been such a success that it would be pretty short-sighted of the govt not to support it again. Its also opened many people's eyes to the marine potential of Galway - the number of people I heard talking about what it would be like to have a proper marina there all the time was incredible.

Yeah I have to say, I've never seen so much maritime activity around Galway (well no one has, I suppose). Its great watching loads of boats pass my window every day (including one of the Ericsson boats just now) and watching all the Galway Hookers in the bay yesterday was great, i counted at least 16 of them.

schoolbag2

does anyone know when the drinking outdoors is due to come to an end?

I hear it was good fun last weekend

I see the boats are going out on Sat morn and there is no concert lined up for sat night

Sponge Bob

Much nicer vibe than the oompa loopas who show up for Race Week

civis_liberalis

Zzippy wrote: »

Word is the organisers are already talking about bringing the race back to Galway in 3 years time, depending on sponsorship of course...

Are you referring to the Galway side of things or the Ocean race crowd?

cornbb

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Much nicer vibe than the oompa loopas who show up for Race Week

Thanks, now I can't get the Oompa Loompa tune out of my head...

"Oompa, Loompa, doopadee-doo..."

civis_liberalis

Other places in Europe have held a race stopover a few times, such as La Rochelle and Gothenburg. It used to start and finish in Southampton every year as well, but that doesn't really count.

If the organisers of the race like the Galway stopover so much, as much support as is needed should be given to the people behind bringing it here in the first place.

I'm sure that the organisers do like Galway as a venue, but in all honesty, they aren't going to say that they preferred somewhere else... :rolleyes:

mel.b

Has anyone heard anymore about the mega fireworks display that is meant to be happening this weekend? I assume it will be Sat night?? I asked at the info tent on Saturday but one person couldn't speak English and the other didn't know anything about them.

Cheers,
Mel.b

Zzippy

civis_liberalis wrote: »

Are you referring to the Galway side of things or the Ocean race crowd?

I was told it was the Volvo crowd so that would be the race sponsors/organisers I guess, not the Galway "lets do it" guys... apparently Volvo have already committed to sponsoring the next running of the race, so they would have some influence over where the stopovers are.

m83

I think that if we do get another stopover down the line it'll never top this one. There's not a hope in hell we'll have the weather again and that is something people will miss. You have to admit, the festival wouldn't be half as good if it was pissing rain all the time.

cornbb

I think rain certainly wouldn't help but it wouldn't necessarily stop the whole thing from being a success.

I agree with everyone that its been a fantastic week and a huge success. I'd love if Galway could put something like this on every year - the VOR was one excuse to have a huge party, and it would be nice to have such an excuse regularly every year. But I have a feeling that the co-operation, sponsorship, generosity, goodwill and volunteerism that made the whole thing possible is not the sort of thing that could be sustained every year.

I do think that this is a perfect opportunity to promote leisure boating/sailing and associated activities though, it would be wrong not to sieze the chance to reap some long-term benefits from this.

Sponge Bob

Actually the June Bank Holiday Weekend in Galway was SCORCHIO precisely 3 years ago , geddon ourra dah willya .

remember ??

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/heatwave-to-continue-all-week-91263.html

LadyMayBelle

schoolbag2 wrote: »

does anyone know when the drinking outdoors is due to come to an end?

I hear it was good fun last weekend

I didn't realise it had to come to an end!!

mel.b wrote: »

Has anyone heard anymore about the mega fireworks display that is meant to be happening this weekend? I assume it will be Sat night?? I asked at the info tent on Saturday but one person couldn't speak English and the other didn't know anything about them.

Cheers,
Mel.b

There is no gig lined up for Saturday as according to the pdf schedule, the boats leave at 14:30 in the afternoon. So would I be right in assuming it could be after the Stunning gig on Friday?

gary82

We'll be able to tell on the day as they'll close off the end of nimmo's pier like they did when the boats arrived! No better place to let them off. I'll keep an eye....

Asmodean

Wandered in around the village today with my GF. Was blown away by it all. I have to say the organisers did themselves proud. Was like walking around Monte Carlo down there! Fair play!!

randylonghorn

Zzippy wrote: »

Word is the organisers are already talking about bringing the race back to Galway in 3 years time, depending on sponsorship of course...
The event has been such a success that it would be pretty short-sighted of the govt not to support it again. Its also opened many people's eyes to the marine potential of Galway - the number of people I heard talking about what it would be like to have a proper marina there all the time was incredible.

I have heard a couple of people saying that it will be back in Galway again next time round, but tbh I have no idea how reliable that info is.

That said, various people had (roughly) the same story ... that the race organisers try not to change the venue for each stopover each time (which makes sense, from an organisational point of view) so if they're happy with a venue, they might come back a couple of times and change other venues that time round, then move on again to keep things fresh. As I say, I can see the logic, it must have taken a huge amount of work this time, especially locally, but it's always easier to do something a second time round, and the race organisers must know that too. That said, I'm not involved in any way, so I'm not sure how accurate the info is, or are people just shooting in the dark.

And speaking of work, really, a big congratulations to everyone involved, they have every right to be proud. I know the weather has been the icing on the cake, but certainly from what I have seen, it has been very well organised, and a great success.

And yes, I too have heard loads of convos re: marinas, and what other similar, albeit smaller, events could be hosted ...

Dead right too, Galway has a very long maritime tradition, and it would be great to see it get a new lease of life.

I have to say I was amazed how well the area looked, and how much space has been opened up, esp. since those tin cans were removed! :rolleyes:

Hell, I often walk down the Long Walk and around by the docks to Eyre Square on a summer's evening, and even at that I hadn't realised how much it had improved, and how much potential there is there now.

galvianlord

mel.b wrote: »

Has anyone heard anymore about the mega fireworks display that is meant to be happening this weekend? I assume it will be Sat night?? I asked at the info tent on Saturday but one person couldn't speak English and the other didn't know anything about them.

Cheers,
Mel.b

dont think there is one! as far as i know the whole thing is going to end when the last of the boats leave the docks at about 13h00. then all the volvo people move in take down their banners and poles and all that other stuff and get it ready to ship off to Sweden in time to meet the boats there. it kind of ends in a whimper as far as i know...

dinneenp

this is all I know of:
Then on weekend of 5th June to 6th June 2009, the farewell spectacular with a fireworks display and the departure of race yachts and the 'Parade of Sail'. Farewell celebration in the Race Village on Saturday 6th June and free live concerts.