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Riverfest worth ‘up to €20m’ to Limerick city

Mayor Maria Byrne pictured with Lorraine Turner & Chef John Flynn at the launch of Riverfest 2011
By Alan Owens
Published on Monday 18 April 2011 14:27

SHANNON Development has estimated that the upcoming Riverfest weekend could generate as much as €20 million in a visitor spend for the local economy on the May Bank Holiday weekend.

Riverfest will be bolstered by Munster playing at home to Harlequins in the Amlin Cup semi-final on Saturday and the Great Limerick Run on Sunday, which will both bring thousands of people into the city.

Eoghan Prendergast, Limerick Development Manager with Shannon Development, told the Limerick Leader he believed the economic impact for the city from Riverfest and the various events would be “on the upper side of €15-20 million”.

“It is a massive boost, particularly this year and as it happened, thanks to Munster, with the addition of the Amlin Cup match, that has meant a rejigging of a few of the events, but when you add that into an already busy weekend we reckon that it is on the upper side of €15-20 million,” he explained.

Riverfest was launched officially last week and the programme for the by-now well established event is well stocked, with Ireland’s largest BBQ, a free live open air rock concert, a water sports extravaganza and a huge fireworks display over the Shannon just some of the highlights pointed to by Mayor Maria Byrne, who launched the event.

“The Great Limerick Run along with the BBQ, the big match between Munster and Harlequins and all the other events taking place means that Limerick will be alive and buzzing and a fantastic place to be over the May Bank Holiday weekend,” she said.

The popular Continental Market will return again this year, running over the four days of the event. The Milk Market will play host to several events over the weekend, with a ‘Fashion Friday’ event transforming the multi-purpose venue into a ‘shopper’s heaven’ with flea markets and live shows, while top Irish rock band The Coronas will play a gig under the ‘Big Top’ on the Saturday night.



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The Coronas set to rock Limerick’s Milk Market

The Coronas - November 2010. Photo: Dara Munnis
By Alan Owens
Published on Tuesday 12 April 2011 14:00

TOP Irish rock band The Coronas are to be the first act to play in Limerick’s newest outdoor, multi-use venue, with a gig in the ‘Big Top’ at the newly redeveloped Milk Market facility.

The high-profile Irish rock band will perform to a huge crowd in the 200-year old market on Saturday, April 30, marking the high point of the Riverfest celebrations on the May Bank Holiday weekend.

The announcement had been mooted for some time, with various bodies looking at the market, redeveloped to the tune of €2 million, since it opened last summer. Music venue Dolan’s are to put on this large-scale gig in the modern, all-weather facility under the 1.8 tonne, half acre canopy, or “Ireland’s largest tent” as architect Michael Healy has described it.

The venue are delighted to be able to put on this large, outdoor, high-profile show, their first since the Warehouse’s 10th anniversary celebrations on Limerick Docks in 2008, and are said to be gearing up to announce more gigs in the ‘Big Top’, pending the successful running of this upcoming gig.

The Coronas are extremely popular in their home country, selling out three nights in a row at The Olympia at Christmas, as well as being special guests on The Script’s European Tour and they have just returned from a US Tour that included sell out shows in New York, Vancouver and San Francisco. Sir Paul McCartney personally requested that they open his Dublin show at the RDS last summer, while their debut album ‘Heroes or Ghosts’ has exceeded double platinum sales in Ireland. The likeable pop-rock band are particularly fond of playing in Limerick.

“Whenever we play Dolan’s the reaction of the Limerick crowd is always electric, so we are looking forward to recreating the intimate atmosphere of the Warehouse on a larger scale,” explained Danny O’Reilly, frontman with the band.

Local man Ivan St John will play support at the gig, which will be an early one, with doors open at 7.30pm, and the Coronas expected to finish around 10.30pm. Tickets for The Coronas are €20 and available from www.dolanspub.com.

A large open-air concert will also take place in Arthurs Quay Park that Saturday, organised by HMV Cruises Street as part of the Riverfest weekend. The line-up has not been announced yet, but the Leader understands that The Flaws, Royseven, Windings and the High Kings will all perform, while a special guest is to be announced this Thursday at the festival’s launch.

Amazotheamazing

I'll yet again link the report that outlines the economic impact of a big Munster match to Limerick. http://www.munsterrugby.ie/news/578.php

Now that that's out of the way, let's hope this year's Riverfest can build on last year's successes and reverse the somewhat decline in festivals since Eightball's one ages and ages back.

CCSL

Lots of info up on Limerick.ie about times and events etc.

Was at the launch event for "Fashion Friday" which will be fun with catwalk through the milk market.

zuroph

ugh. fashion show. "how can we give more money to celia?"

someone please think outside the box and let me do my fupping Zombie Festival already!

Amazotheamazing

zuroph wrote: »

ugh. fashion show. "how can we give more money to celia?"

someone please think outside the box and let me do my fupping Zombie Festival already!

Don't think the fashion show is aimed at men, Zuroph, afaik they are even showing the royal wedding so people can gawk at Kate Midleton's outfit. (now if i could gawk at Kate without the outfit...). I personally can't wait until BigPink and TalkingClock file their reports of the fashion show (I can't be alone in assuming they are women?).

County Limerick is associated with Donn, the Celtic God of the Dead. Maybe work that angle for Zombiefest? We need to work any damn angle we can to get things going in this town.

jmch81

zuroph wrote: »

ugh. fashion show. "how can we give more money to celia?"

someone please think outside the box and let me do my fupping Zombie Festival already!

All for your zombie get together, as long as I'm allowed to wear my new t shirt
http://qwertee.com/product/zombie-pooh/

CiaranMT

F**kin Coronas.

Kess73

zuroph wrote: »

ugh. fashion show. "how can we give more money to celia?"

someone please think outside the box and let me do my fupping Zombie Festival already!

You could also go to any of the number of zombie walks that get held in other spots in Ireland each year.

Would be great to see one in Limerick city as they tend to attract loads of attention and are great fun for those involved and watching.

krudler

is the milk market big enough to fit Celia's ego? might be a tight squeeze

Icky Thump

zuroph wrote: »

ugh. fashion show. "how can we give more money to celia?"

someone please think outside the box and let me do my fupping Zombie Festival already!

there are enough nerd festivals around

DarkJager

Jesus, €20 million euros now??? After all the events that generated 10 mil a pop for the city, we should nearly be living in a replica Dubai at this stage. Who makes these calculations up?

Also....The Coronas are ****.

Kess73

DarkJager wrote: »

Jesus, €20 million euros now??? After all the events that generated 10 mil a pop for the city, we should nearly be living in a replica Dubai at this stage. Who makes these calculations up?

Also....The Coronas are ****.

Well don't forget that there was talk of how the races last weekend were bringing millions into the city, yet many city centre retailers on Monday and Tuesday reported their worst weekend for 15 to 20 years in terms of takings. Was an article in the Leader/Chronicle about it as well.


Although Riverfest, if done right, is a different kettle of fish as it is a genuine chance to get some extra cash spent in the city centre.

Kess73

Icky Thump wrote: »

there are enough nerd festivals around

At least it would be something new and different in the city. How many weeks has it been since the last public fashion show with catwalk that Holman Lee was involved in? She is involved in one or two of them each year in the Crescent, and the city centre one will be more of the same.

Fair enough have it as it will get some people stopping for a look, but Zuroph's idea is no less good, and would be a seperate attraction to something that gets done a few times a year by the same faces.

The more things that could bring extra folk in the better.

Crea

Can someone please explain the logic of the barbeque competition?
Any year we've gone in to it we've seen all the gorgeous food being cooked but never go anything to eat there. Are they supposed to give food out to people? If not, what is the point of it?

zuroph

the competition is €100 to enter, and for that they're given 1 chicken breast, one steak, and one lamb chop or something. there's judges who get to taste it. any extra food they have is paid for by themselves to give out to people, so a lot of teams dont/can't afford to do that.

Crea

Hardly a spectator event so unless you like being driven crazy by the gorgeous smells. Will give it a miss then.

fl4pj4ck

not a **** - a genius business model

pappyodaniel

Not strictly part of Riverfest but a good night of comedy and music can be found in Dolans Warehouse tomorrow night 28/04/2011. Nostril Shorts (Dryadssaddle) or known to his mother as Garry Carroll brings his smutty but hilarious show to the Warehouse along with Tralee's 066 Crew, Limerick Guidette 'Haunty Beor' and RTE's Storyland entrant 'The Outlaw Concy Ryan'. €5 ain't bad for a night of good alternative comedy talent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6alvr6XpBx8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGlEX8haV7I

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2O0Ffghcs3Y

DaraDali

hey guys... if anyone knws someone selling tickets for the Coroans on sat night...

can ye please pm me ... a mate had promised but he let me down... any help would be great...

bigpink

Is it sold out?I was going to get a ticket today

Itsdacraic

Can't wait to get fleeced at the "French" market today

phog

The Fireworks Display are due to start at 21:00 hrs tomorrow night.

http://limerick.ie/riverfest/whatson/name,30934,en.html

zuroph

Taking part in the BBQ tomorrow as zombies

Clareman

Added poll

bigpink

Maybe im wrong but neither the Limerick Post or Chronicle seem to have offical Riverfest adverts with all the information/line ups

thesimpsons

just to make things confusing, the Limerick Post has the fireworks as being on SUNDAY and the run being on Monday 01 May.

Kess73

thesimpsons wrote: »

just to make things confusing, the Limerick Post has the fireworks as being on SUNDAY and the run being on Monday 01 May.

Hehe one of the papers had the date and day wrong last year for the run as well. I remember getting a phonecall from a friend telling me I was getting ready for the wrong day.:D

Was delighted to run in it last year as the first Limerick run was my 10th marathon, and this year's run will be my 15th.

So will be hoping that come next year I can make the Limerick run my 20th and try to keep the Limerick run as my landmark run each year.

bigpink

Theres not even a full page advert or flyer/map thing in the papers

zuroph

Theres posters up for it in Dublin apparently, maybe the budget is gone into advertising it nationally. the flyer for timetable is available on the website.

bigpink

Yes it is but what would 20 or 30,000 flyers cost for such a big event,get the Local papers print a page for free im sure they would
Flyers could be dropped at the hotels

Id be interested to see what advertising is at the airport/train station

Check out this free music weekend in Galway

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=195035293865235

And where did i get the link?Here on Boards:)

zuroph

bigpink wrote: »

Yes it is but what would 20 or 30,000 flyers cost for such a big event,get the Local papers print a page for free im sure they would
Flyers could be dropped at the hotels

Id be interested to see what advertising is at the airport/train station

Check out this free music weekend in Galway

http://www.facebook.com/pages/SIDie/126160657400960

And where did i get the link?Here on Boards:)

thats the SID link again pink....

point taken though. You should send an email to shannon Development, see what their stance on it is..

bigpink

Just fixed it

Should be a link for the May weekend in Galway

tommy249

bigpink wrote: »

Yes it is but what would 20 or 30,000 flyers cost for such a big event,get the Local papers print a page for free im sure they would
Flyers could be dropped at the hotels

Id be interested to see what advertising is at the airport/train station

Check out this free music weekend in Galway

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=195035293865235

And where did i get the link?Here on Boards:)

Wouldn't say that the Galway gig is very well advertised as I never heard of it and live with a few Galway people who have never heard of it.

Plus, even if it was very well advertised, its a lot easier when there is a big Multi-national beer company spending the money advertising it.

To be fair, I think everyone in Limerick knows about riverfest, however negative big pink is. None stop talking about it on 95fm. They have a very good facebook page which is updated nearly every hour, Ray D'Aarcy plus Will Leahy talking about it on radio (to be fair to Will Leahy he gave it a huge plug today) Posters up around Dublin...........and to be honest Riverfest can't have a huge budget. Its not a sponsored event ir anything.

Why do we have to be so negative in Limerick about Everything in the City. Was around town earlier and there was a good atmosphere. Over 7000 people signed up for the Great Limerick Run from all over the country, free concerts, water sports etc. Big Pink - just enjoy yourself and stop giving out as usual................

Amazotheamazing

bigpink wrote: »

Just fixed it

Should be a link for the May weekend in Galway

were you not giving out about Arthur's Day and some other beer sponsored thingy before?

tommy249

Amazotheamazing wrote: »

were you not giving out about Arthur's Day and some other beer sponsored thingy before?

Plus she was giving out about the Heineken event which was held in the Market Quarter a couple of months ago. But when a beer Company holds someting in Galway Big Pink is full of praise.............

bigpink

I gave out about the Heineken Greenzone thing which was a nothing event at least this gig by Coors is a free music thing i,e a night time event
Riverfest doesnt seem to have a free music events at night but hopfully they can build on this

Heineken was only advertising boards no events

tommy249

bigpink wrote: »

I gave out about the Heineken Greenzone thing which was a nothing event at least this gig by Coors is a free music thing i,e a night time event
Riverfest doesnt seem to have a free music events at night but hopfully they can build on this

Heineken was only advertising boards no events

Heineken Greenzone, yes was a promotional event for Heineken, the same way this Galway thing is a promotional event for Coors (by the way Coors did the same thing in Limerick on the docks http://limerickleader-onthebeat.blogspot.com/2009/09/coors-light-peak-gig-on-limerick-docks.html) but the Heineken event got people out to the streets and pubs of Limerick, created a party atmosphere, had people spending money, had bars having extra staff on duty paying extra wages, had taxi drivers and local chipper busier. Coors event in Galway is in one venue and benefits one venue only...........

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNmRdCZYSLw

Insect Overlord

I remember that Coors gig in Limerick. Down by the Docks it was. Rarely Seen Above Ground, Dark Room Notes, couple of other acts. Would love them to do another one sometime.

Maybe as Riverfest continues to grow it will start attracting sponsorship for bigger acts.

Amazotheamazing

Insect Overlord wrote: »

Maybe as Riverfest continues to grow it will start attracting sponsorship for bigger acts.

This is a big problem. 5 or 6 years ago there was a class Riverfest, the one Eightball ran. Instead of building on it, the next few years were crap. This year is probably the best one in terms of events since.

There's no point having one good year and another bad year, Riverfest needs consistency.

Hopefully the Great Limerick Run will catch on, big crowds doing it this year but they can't afford to make the rookie mistakes they made last year.

Poxyshamrock

Amazotheamazing wrote: »

This is a big problem. 5 or 6 years ago there was a class Riverfest, the one Eightball ran. Instead of building on it, the next few years were crap. This year is probably the best one in terms of events since.

There's no point having one good year and another bad year, Riverfest needs consistency.

Hopefully the Great Limerick Run will catch on, big crowds doing it this year but they can't afford to make the rookie mistakes they made last year.

I agree with you....however, the following years it was run by futureama.
2007, I think it was. It even had a really well designed banner image on all leaflets and the website with the statue on Cruises Street in the middle and a stream of water circulating around her and a number of city landmarks in the image too.
Hard to explain, but it looked well. :P

Edit: found the image courtesy of limerickblogger

zuroph

the twitter account for riverfest is a nice touch too @riverfestLmk

Bigpink, hopefully you'll appreciate what we're trying to line up for outbreak.

Amazotheamazing

Poxyshamrock wrote: »

I agree with you....however, the following years it was run by futureama.
2007, I think it was. It even had a really well designed banner image on all leaflets and the website with the statue on Cruises Street in the middle and a stream of water circulating around her and a number of city landmarks in the image too.
Hard to explain, but it looked well. :P

Edit: found the image courtesy of limerickblogger

Looks great but there wasn't much actually happening, iirc.

Kess73

Amazotheamazing wrote: »

This is a big problem. 5 or 6 years ago there was a class Riverfest, the one Eightball ran. Instead of building on it, the next few years were crap. This year is probably the best one in terms of events since.

There's no point having one good year and another bad year, Riverfest needs consistency.

Hopefully the Great Limerick Run will catch on, big crowds doing it this year but they can't afford to make the rookie mistakes they made last year.

Spot on. That good Riverfest should have been the foundation to improve year on tear, but the very next year they went very cheap and it was an awful Riverfest.

It is almost like it cannot be decided if it is to be a full on festival or just a tiny event.

I agree on the run as well. There were some really poor organisational mistakes made for that last year, and as someone who is a regular marathon runner I could not believe some of the stuff I was seeing and hearing. Plenty of the so called experts and organisers had no idea what they were doing except when I saw them in the papers with direct quotes from them about how good they were, how experienced they were, and about how smooth they had things running.

They really need to take this year's Riverfest as a starting point, and literally start planning the next one as soon as it ends and really push out the boat to make the next one better again.

acalmenvoy

Fire works from last night,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2xpEhB2-sw

Anyone know if the water speed thing on today at 3pm on the river would be worth moseying down to?

Edit: Sorry, don't know how to do the youtube thingy...
Edit2: got it..

Itsdacraic

What were the crowds like the gigs during the day and last night?

RonMexico

Had a great day yesterday at Riverfest. Bands were great in the park, thought there would be a much bigger crowd though. Great atmosphere down at the Locke though the BBQ thing still puzzles me a bit. It doesn't appear to interact much with the crowd. The only bad thing that I really have to say about yesterday was the Locke charging €4.50 for a pint of bud in a plastic cup. Bad form and a rip-off.

zuroph

RonMexico wrote: »

Had a great day yesterday at Riverfest. Bands were great in the park, thought there would be a much bigger crowd though. Great atmosphere down at the Locke though the BBQ thing still puzzles me a bit. It doesn't appear to interact much with the crowd. The only bad thing that I really have to say about yesterday was the Locke charging €4.50 for a pint of bud in a plastic cup. Bad form and a rip-off.

for the BBQ, it was mad to see it from the other side of the fence, we gave out SO much food yesterday, including Quality Venison burgers. Literally get stuck in and ask for grub, i was always too polite, but was taken aback by how forward some people were yesterday.

RonMexico

Thats the thing about the BBQ, I wasn't sure whether it was free or what, it was all a bit chaotic.

Got a lovely free hotdog in Mickey Martins though :cool:

Also the fireworks were brilliant last night.

Kess73

Finished the marathon in a decent enough time today, and would just like to say thanks to those on here who are involved with the charity I ran for, you know who you are.


Well done to everyone who took part today, and a very big well down to a Tony Murphy (hope I got the name right) for his finish today.

Well done to the pacers out there today as well. Passed quite a few that were doing sterling work keeping people motivated.


As for the run, some of the problems from last year were sorted, but the mile markers were not right again this year. Some of them were way off like they were last year.


The layout of traffic cones was quite bad in places again this year as I noticed quite a few having to weave between cones, not an ideal thing for a runner.

There were also some congestion issues again this year when the races merged.

But the worst thing I saw, and I know it happened last year, was poor traffic management which saw a few runners literally get squeezed against slow moving traffic where there was traffic in the lane beside the runners, which is a shocking thing to be happening in a run that has so many of the organisers slapping their own backs at how "great" they are.

I think the organisers still have not figured out who they are trying to appeal to with the races. Be it serious runners, fun runners, casual runners or whatever. They seem to miss the mark totally for the competitive runners in terms of safety, mile markers and so on.

It was an improvement on last year's set up, but still a long long way off the level of organisation in the marathons in the likes of Cork and Dublin.

I think first timers or those with only one or two under their belt may not notice some of the problems, but experienced runners defo did again today.


Safety and mile markers have to be vastly improved upon for next year if they want to keep the competitive runners coming back, imho of course.


But I got marathon number 15 under my belt today, the charity made money, and now I can work on getting to marathon number 19 before this time next year so that number 20 can be ran in Limerick. But a third year of basics being got wrong won't see me trying for number 25 in Limerick I'm afraid.

Amazotheamazing

Kess73 wrote: »

Finished the marathon in a decent enough time today, and would just like to say thanks to those on here who are involved with the charity I ran for, you know who you are.


Well done to everyone who took part today, and a very big well down to a Tony Murphy (hope I got the name right) for his finish today.

Well done to the pacers out there today as well. Passed quite a few that were doing sterling work keeping people motivated.


As for the run, some of the problems from last year were sorted, but the mile markers were not right again this year. Some of them were way off like they were last year.


The layout of traffic cones was quite bad in places again this year as I noticed quite a few having to weave between cones, not an ideal thing for a runner.

There were also some congestion issues again this year when the races merged.

But the worst thing I saw, and I know it happened last year, was poor traffic management which saw a few runners literally get squeezed against slow moving traffic where there was traffic in the lane beside the runners, which is a shocking thing to be happening in a run that has so many of the organisers slapping their own backs at how "great" they are.

I think the organisers still have not figured out who they are trying to appeal to with the races. Be it serious runners, fun runners, casual runners or whatever. They seem to miss the mark totally for the competitive runners in terms of safety, mile markers and so on.

It was an improvement on last year's set up, but still a long long way off the level of organisation in the marathons in the likes of Cork and Dublin.

I think first timers or those with only one or two under their belt may not notice some of the problems, but experienced runners defo did again today.


Safety and mile markers have to be vastly improved upon for next year if they want to keep the competitive runners coming back, imho of course.


But I got marathon number 15 under my belt today, the charity made money, and now I can work on getting to marathon number 19 before this time next year so that number 20 can be ran in Limerick. But a third year of basics being got wrong won't see me trying for number 25 in Limerick I'm afraid.

I was only doing the 6 miles today so I was happy out with the set up but you should bring these concerns to the organisers. Afaik, some of the guys on this thread http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=71979351#post71979351 are in touch with them, as well as emailing your concerns to the organisers directly. I wasn't around last year so i can't compare but today's short run was as good as you're going to get with the constraints imposed by numbers and streets.

Kess73

Amazotheamazing wrote: »

I was only doing the 6 miles today so I was happy out with the set up but you should bring these concerns to the organisers. Afaik, some of the guys on this thread http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=71979351#post71979351 are in touch with them, as well as emailing your concerns to the organisers directly. I wasn't around last year so i can't compare but today's short run was as good as you're going to get with the constraints imposed by numbers and streets.

Have already emailed the organisers on it, but thanks for putting up the link to that thread. Looking through it I can see that others in it saw the same problems last year, and some of what I mentioned about today is touched on in that thread as well.

To be honest I know that I and a number of others contacted the organisers last year as well about some of the problems. It would not affect the Half marathon and 10K runners as much as the marathon runners, especially the competitive runners involved.

I can see a big reduction in the amount of competitve runners who will travel to Limerick next year for it after two years of repeat problems.

The casual runners and local competitive runners will always be there for it (I hope) but the reputation of the Limerick marathon for the competive runner is already in need of repair, and I think the organisers just don't grasp that there is a large number of competive runners, both Irish and from
other countries, that come to Ireland to compete in the various marathons. Lessons could be learned from observing the organisers of the Cork marathon in how they can cater equally well for both the casual and competive runners in one event.


Congrats on finishing your own run. Were you doing it for yourself or were you attached to a charity?