Limerick 4th of July Celebrations

Kess73

I think the Limerick 4th of July festival needed to be bigger this year given that Limerick was not the only town having one and given that Limerick is not the only town that intends on having it each year so there is going to be a fair bit of competition and the first of the July 4th festivals that makes a big impact will be seen as the "real" one regardless of who actually decided to have one first.

I also think that it is made that bit more difficult by the fact that Galway, Kerry , and Cork all have a number of big and very well run festivals at this time every year.

I think the Limerick festival would be better served being a two day thing, three at most (one day being July 4th obv, and the other day/two days being the weekend that falls closest to the 4th July assuming the 4th is not on a weekend.

A big firework display in the actual 4th July would make a lot of sense and I would have a reinactment of the ringing of the Liberty bell (fantastic idea by Kilburn) happen just before the fireworks. Maybe have an actor in a period costume do a short sketch that gives a little of the history behind the Liberty bell or if money was available try to get someone from The Whitechapel Foundry involved as the company still exists today. Tie in the city of Philadelphia in some way as well. Maybe have projected images of the actual liberty bell etc on a screen as the actor talks about the history of it.


Another option would be to try and think big and look for a celebrity to ring the bell. I don't mean what passes for local "celebs", but try for someone who has an American link or who may be based in America. Andy Lee might be a good choice or maybe even try for Jared Harris. If you don't try big, then you will never know how far you can actually go.


A charity basketball game would be a good idea as well and use the UL basketball team and pit them against another Irish team as the back up match, but maybe try to see if an American pro or semi pro team would like to be involved in a charity match first.


Try to get a local cinema or the belltable involved in a weekend of American cinema or try to organise for a stage version of one of the American classics (The Grapes of Wrath, 12 Angry Men, Of Mice And Men, To Kill A Mockingbird) to be held.

Or maybe a reading of one of the classic American novels that could be held somewhere like Marys cathedral. Could get one guest reader in for it, or maybe have three or four readers.


The Limerick 4th of July organisers would not have to pay for all those things, but if they were clever they would discuss the ideas with other organisations and all try to tie in together to take advantage of each other's events.

Kess73

DaveNoCheese wrote: »

Fair play to you Cillian and the rest of the organisers. The schedule looks good, hopefully it'll work out.

Spotted the flyer in centra this morning, tis a pity ye couldn't get them out earlier. Could've been well advertised. As for the flyer itself, well done. Map is a bit confusing if you don't know Limerick but it does look good.

I'm a bit worried about the giant spider that is crossing the Shannon. We need either Superman (some might get the reference) or Will Smith to stop it.

zulutango

Kess, I think you should go on the organising committee. You've obviously got a lot of expertise and understanding of how this should be rolled out, and they would be only too happy to have someone like you helping them.

Kess73

zulutango wrote: »

Kess, I think you should go on the organising committee. You've obviously got a lot of expertise and understanding of how this should be rolled out, and they would be only too happy to have someone like you helping them.

The Snipe

Honestly I agree with him, You should try the committee next year. I'll go through your post in a while too point by point :P

Kess73

The Snipe wrote: »

Honestly I agree with him, You should try the committee next year. I'll go through your post in a while too point by point :P

Have a fair bit of my time committed to two Irish projects that I have invested in, as well as being involved with the organisation of the Run Liverpool marathon each year.


My post was just a few ideas that I spent literally four or five minutes mulling over. With proper planing and proper resource allocation a good festivel of medium scale could easily be put in place in Limerick. The problem with a lot of brand new events is that they get stretched too thin when they first try to start through a combination of enthusiasm and lack of experience/expertise.

The 4th of July festival for this year is (looking from the outside) too long in terms of duration, lacking in any kind of Wow factor, looks thrown together rather than planned by professionals, and lacking badly in terms of quality events. The advertising was weak, and I have to say that the radio interview sounded very unprofessional, and came across as having great enthusiasm but lacking experience/expertise.

But these are all things that would be easy enough to avoid next year and it is now that you need to be planning next year's event and not three to six months beforehand.


As an example of obvious. Something like an American marching band playing outdoors for free or an Irish marching band dressed in American garb and playing music that is unmistakenly American/American influenced would be a no brainer as a way to create atmosphere. Could even do a flash mob variation where band members are all hidden somewhere and all come out and start playing for a song or two and then vanish to go to their next location.

I know there is a marching band that was playing in Dolans, but that was €15 a head and as it was behind closed door and down on the Dock road it would not be creating atmosphere in the city.

I would have approached one of the MCs and tried to have organised a drive by and maybe get a few local artists to do do work on the biker's helmets etc if the bikers were agreeable.

Maybe approach the council about getting American flags in the windows of unused council property or approach Limerick landlords about doing something with the windows of unused units.

The art venue on Patrick street I would have tried to use for an Americano art exbo.

Maybe even try to get the Market quarter guys to see if they could try another outdoor event in their area.

I would also have tried to tap into the colleges and the University for ideas and manpower. Many hands make light work and there are some very talented students in terms of musical ability, costume design etc that could come in useful.

Lots of people in bright loud costumes just walking about handing out leaflets and promoting the event.

Of course permission would have to be gotten from City council etc for many things, but if the right channels were followed who knows how many unexpected doors might open.


And don't be afraid to look outside Limerick for attractions/people. If there is someone in another city or whatever that has a talent or is in a band etc and could be an attraction, then make contact and ask. The worst that can happen is the word no.

Make the event attractive enough for businesses to want to attach their names to it and suddenly you have funding or resources through that advertising and make sure to see if any grants can be gotten for certain events.


Shorter timescale, more professionalism, think big, and think obvious.

NinjaK

There is more celebration for this foreign Independence day then our own, what a farce of a country.

The Snipe

Kess73 wrote: »

I think the Limerick 4th of July festival needed to be bigger this year given that Limerick was not the only town having one and given that Limerick is not the only town that intends on having it each year so there is going to be a fair bit of competition and the first of the July 4th festivals that makes a big impact will be seen as the "real" one regardless of who actually decided to have one first.

It was origionally bigger, but we had to scale it back due to people being unavilable etc. and certain things just being impractical. This is all just a learning curve for all of us, and we have to learn to walk before we run, and we can't get ahead of ourselves. We need to know what we can and can't do.

I think the Limerick festival would be better served being a two day thing, three at most (one day being July 4th obv, and the other day/two days being the weekend that falls closest to the 4th July assuming the 4th is not on a weekend.

This was the origional plan, however having the 4th of July on a wednesday makes it impractical, we were still hoping for a 2 Day event, but with the hassle with the Ambassador, it ended up stretched out.

A big firework display in the actual 4th July would make a lot of sense and I would have a reinactment of the ringing of the Liberty bell (fantastic idea by Kilburn) happen just before the fireworks. Maybe have an actor in a period costume do a short sketch that gives a little of the history behind the Liberty bell or if money was available try to get someone from The Whitechapel Foundry involved as the company still exists today. Tie in the city of Philadelphia in some way as well. Maybe have projected images of the actual liberty bell etc on a screen as the actor talks about the history of it.

Firework displays are very hard to organize and cost an awful lot. We had a lot of trouble in getting them. As for the Liberty bell, thats a great idea - And I've mentioned it, and we'll more then likely look into it next year.

Another option would be to try and think big and look for a celebrity to ring the bell. I don't mean what passes for local "celebs", but try for someone who has an American link or who may be based in America. Andy Lee might be a good choice or maybe even try for Jared Harris. If you don't try big, then you will never know how far you can actually go.

As was menioned, there was plans of this with the American Ambassador, however we do have the Deputy Ambassador coming along. However, for ringing the bell, we'll sort that next year if we go with it.

A charity basketball game would be a good idea as well and use the UL basketball team and pit them against another Irish team as the back up match, but maybe try to see if an American pro or semi pro team would like to be involved in a charity match first.

We had plans to do an American Football game, with an American team however, the Vikings couldn't make it anymore, due to a change in dates.

Try to get a local cinema or the belltable involved in a weekend of American cinema or try to organise for a stage version of one of the American classics (The Grapes of Wrath, 12 Angry Men, Of Mice And Men, To Kill A Mockingbird) to be held.

We had an American Poetry night last night, but I don't think we could do a video screening due to copyright issues.

Or maybe a reading of one of the classic American novels that could be held somewhere like Marys cathedral. Could get one guest reader in for it, or maybe have three or four readers.

As said above, we had the Poetry night, however, a novel reading wouldn't be a bad idea either.

The Limerick 4th of July organisers would not have to pay for all those things, but if they were clever they would discuss the ideas with other organisations and all try to tie in together to take advantage of each other's events.

Thats what we have done, for example the Hip hop festival, and 4th of July.

Kess73 wrote: »

Have a fair bit of my time committed to two Irish projects that I have invested in, as well as being involved with the organisation of the Run Liverpool marathon each year.

Fair play to you, great to see people getting involved in projects!

My post was just a few ideas that I spent literally four or five minutes mulling over. With proper planing and proper resource allocation a good festivel of medium scale could easily be put in place in Limerick. The problem with a lot of brand new events is that they get stretched too thin when they first try to start through a combination of enthusiasm and lack of experience/expertise.

At first we were lacking experience, but have since near the end got others who are experienced in the field.

The 4th of July festival for this year is (looking from the outside) too long in terms of duration, lacking in any kind of Wow factor, looks thrown together rather than planned by professionals, and lacking badly in terms of quality events. The advertising was weak, and I have to say that the radio interview sounded very unprofessional, and came across as having great enthusiasm but lacking experience/expertise.

Well, as we said, trying to get everything done right, when you are doing it all for free and for the very first time is quite difficult and we can't always get it right in the beginning.

But these are all things that would be easy enough to avoid next year and it is now that you need to be planning next year's event and not three to six months beforehand.

We've learned this from our experience this year, and that is what the plan is.

As an example of obvious. Something like an American marching band playing outdoors for free or an Irish marching band dressed in American garb and playing music that is unmistakenly American/American influenced would be a no brainer as a way to create atmosphere. Could even do a flash mob variation where band members are all hidden somewhere and all come out and start playing for a song or two and then vanish to go to their next location.

We were researching getting marching bands over but it never came to fruition this year.

I know there is a marching band that was playing in Dolans, but that was €15 a head and as it was behind closed door and down on the Dock road it would not be creating atmosphere in the city.

Dolans are organizing that on their own and is nothing to do with us.

Maybe approach the council about getting American flags in the windows of unused council property or approach Limerick landlords about doing something with the windows of unused units.

Getting them to put flags on the bridges was hard enough. As for the windows, there is already a plan in place for that within LLH as far as I know. If there is I'm not involved in it. Which is for more then just the 4J Fest, but rather to make them look not so desolate overall.

Maybe even try to get the Market quarter guys to see if they could try another outdoor event in their area.

They are onboard under Route 66 alright, but it wouldn't be fair to let all the other bars out of it aswell, when they are all involved.

I would also have tried to tap into the colleges and the University for ideas and manpower. Many hands make light work and there are some very talented students in terms of musical ability, costume design etc that could come in useful.

That is what we had done and we are getting great help from a large American company in Limerick.

Lots of people in bright loud costumes just walking about handing out leaflets and promoting the event.

As we said, funding, and nothing was finalized until last minute due to a few problems.

Of course permission would have to be gotten from City council etc for many things, but if the right channels were followed who knows how many unexpected doors might open.

That was a problem we had this year, in that we hadn't already researched cut off dates for permissions for a lot of things, and although we posed an exemplary case and received some licenses. We now know what we need to do for next year.

And don't be afraid to look outside Limerick for attractions/people. If there is someone in another city or whatever that has a talent or is in a band etc and could be an attraction, then make contact and ask. The worst that can happen is the word no.

Don't worry we wont, but we are also aiming to get Limerick talent to show what Limerick has.

Make the event attractive enough for businesses to want to attach their names to it and suddenly you have funding or resources through that advertising and make sure to see if any grants can be gotten for certain events.

Thats exactly what we are doing. :P

Shorter timescale, more professionalism, think big, and think obvious.

Thats the plan!

kilburn

Some good ideas and planning for next year would make it bigger and better, thing is and I totally agree with Kess, this year you had to really aim big and push the bar as for some reason everyone has decided that this year they are going down this route.

Festivals only work if you give the people what they want, on any given day how many yanks are in Ireland? Make it the place they want to be in Ireland on this day.

By the way I am copyrighting the Liberty Bell idea, but I can have that organised for you guys next year if you wish.

Sar_Bear

I think it's a fantastic idea. The Americans go all out for paddys day, so why shouldn't we do it for the 4th of July? I'm just disappointed that I'm working through it all

The Snipe

There are actually quite a few Americans in Ireland.

As for the festivle it's about celebrating for them, and for celebrating what we gave to the American culture. Ireland has a lot of history with America and a lot of our families would have had some members emmingrate to there in the last few hounded years.

Poxyshamrock

Sar_Bear wrote: »

I think it's a fantastic idea. The Americans go all out for paddys day, so why shouldn't we do it for the 4th of July? I'm just disappointed that I'm working through it all

The funny thing about St. Patrick's Day though is that the Americans pretty much invented it.

Kess73

The Snipe wrote: »

It was origionally bigger, but we had to scale it back due to people being unavilable etc. and certain things just being impractical. This is all just a learning curve for all of us, and we have to learn to walk before we run, and we can't get ahead of ourselves. We need to know what we can and can't do.


This was the origional plan, however having the 4th of July on a wednesday makes it impractical, we were still hoping for a 2 Day event, but with the hassle with the Ambassador, it ended up stretched out.


Firework displays are very hard to organize and cost an awful lot. We had a lot of trouble in getting them. As for the Liberty bell, thats a great idea - And I've mentioned it, and we'll more then likely look into it next year.


As was menioned, there was plans of this with the American Ambassador, however we do have the Deputy Ambassador coming along. However, for ringing the bell, we'll sort that next year if we go with it.


We had plans to do an American Football game, with an American team however, the Vikings couldn't make it anymore, due to a change in dates.


We had an American Poetry night last night, but I don't think we could do a video screening due to copyright issues.


As said above, we had the Poetry night, however, a novel reading wouldn't be a bad idea either.

Thats what we have done, for example the Hip hop festival, and 4th of July.



Fair play to you, great to see people getting involved in projects!

At first we were lacking experience, but have since near the end got others who are experienced in the field.



Well, as we said, trying to get everything done right, when you are doing it all for free and for the very first time is quite difficult and we can't always get it right in the beginning.



We've learned this from our experience this year, and that is what the plan is.




We were researching getting marching bands over but it never came to fruition this year.



Dolans are organizing that on their own and is nothing to do with us.



Getting them to put flags on the bridges was hard enough. As for the windows, there is already a plan in place for that within LLH as far as I know. If there is I'm not involved in it. Which is for more then just the 4J Fest, but rather to make them look not so desolate overall.




They are onboard under Route 66 alright, but it wouldn't be fair to let all the other bars out of it aswell, when they are all involved.




That is what we had done and we are getting great help from a large American company in Limerick.



As we said, funding, and nothing was finalized until last minute due to a few problems.



That was a problem we had this year, in that we hadn't already researched cut off dates for permissions for a lot of things, and although we posed an exemplary case and received some licenses. We now know what we need to do for next year.




Don't worry we wont, but we are also aiming to get Limerick talent to show what Limerick has.





Thats exactly what we are doing. :P



Thats the plan!

Just one thing about your comment about copyright issues regarding screening a film. There are a number of cult American films that had their copyright status enter the public domain. Do a bit of searching and you will find a number of American films that can be shown legally without any copyright hassles. George Romero's Night Of The Living Dead (1968 version) is one such film.

That film would also be a good one for anyone who wants to do a theme night around Halloween. Consider it another freebie idea.

On the subject of Night Of The Living Dead, The Devious Theatre Company will be putting on the first ever stage version of that film to be done in Ireland in Kilkenny later this month. Their version will be set in 2012 Ireland rather than 1968 America and from what I have seen of them in practise it will be ace. If anyone reading this has the ability to get them to come to Limerick to perform, you will not be disappointed.


Also people should look at the really clever way The Devious Theatre Company got funding for their project. Limerick 4th of July folk take heed and discover www.fundit.ie.


You say you were researching the idea of bringing over a marching band. Look again at what I said. Get an Irish marching band and dress them in American garb and get them to play American tunes. That way you get the same look, the sdame sound, the same atmosphere, but don't have the same logistics.

Sar_Bear

The fireworks started very late and finished very quickly

The actual fireworks were alot better than the ones used for the riverfest though.

Watched em from work

phog

Decent enough display but I was disappointed with most of my photos.


Here's one.

The Snipe

Sarah, the fireworks was actually a full 10 minute display which is quite long in terms of pyrotechnics!

Sar_Bear

Ah okay, I wouldn't know much about that side of things. My fireworks knowledge goes as far as "they're bright & they go bang" :pac:

mathepac

Sure why not?

Quite a few posters here type & spell American, they like even speak American dude, eat American Big Mac & a side, they drive on the hi-way (maybe even eat there), they like their cars stock, if they steal a car they believe sincerely they'll get charged with GTA, they don't understand why we don't have Labor Day and Independence Day celebrations and their fathers & grandfathers probably worked for some US multination tax-free Corp in Shannon, Raheen, Parteen or Gillogue.

Sure why not sell the Mid-west to Obama - he can add it to his own Mid-west and gain a few votes and we won't miss it.

Johnny_BravoIII

The Americans go all out for paddys day, so why shouldn't we do it for the 4th of July?

The difference is there are millions of Irish descended Americans living in the states. St Paddys is a celebration of their their history & culture.

We have about 4 Americans living in Limerick. It would of been cheaper to buy them a cake.

I'm just a little unenthused. It's hard to get excited for something which tastes like nothing more than a cynical marketing exercise designed to grab the yankee dollar.

Actually, IMO the hip-hop element of the festival has the potential to become something.

The Snipe

Johnny_BravoIII wrote: »

The Americans go all out for paddys day, so why shouldn't we do it for the 4th of July?

The difference is there are millions of Irish descended Americans living in the states. St Paddys is a celebration of their their history & culture.

We have about 4 Americans living in Limerick. It would of been cheaper to buy them a cake.

I'm just a little unenthused. It's hard to get excited for something which tastes like nothing more than a cynical marketing exercise designed to grab the yankee dollar.

Actually, IMO the hip-hop element of the festival has the potential to become something.

You sir, need to do your research. There are countless Americans living in Limerick and the Midwest region, nevermind the countless tourists.

I've met so many of these in the last few weeks with my involvement so I know this for a fact. For example I was photographing from the strand, and the place was full of Americans who loved the idea of the festival.


As for your statement about a cynical marketing plan. I am truely bloody insulted. Myself and the others have put in countless man hours to see this true all to see a bit of life getting back into the city. Which in my opinion worked as there was a great buzz the last few days and everyone seemed to love it. Its about time to start putting Limerick on the map again, and this is going to be the start of how its done!

Kess73

The Snipe wrote: »

You sir, need to do your research. There are countless Americans living in Limerick and the Midwest region, nevermind the countless tourists.

I've met so many of these in the last few weeks with my involvement so I know this for a fact. For example I was photographing from the strand, and the place was full of Americans who loved the idea of the festival.


As for your statement about a cynical marketing plan. I am truely bloody insulted. Myself and the others have put in countless man hours to see this true all to see a bit of life getting back into the city. Which in my opinion worked as there was a great buzz the last few days and everyone seemed to love it. Its about time to start putting Limerick on the map again, and this is going to be the start of how its done!

Slight exaggeration there given that the tourism figures for the region have shown a sharp decline in numbers over the past 6 years as well as a decline in American flights coming into Shannon airport.


Also the American population in Limerick (city and county combined) is lower than that of the Chinese, Polish, or German populations if you want to throw the research line out there. Am open to correction but I think the Nigerian population in Limerick also beats the American population and the African population taken as a whole is far higher than the American population.

If you then want to take the wider mid western region into consideration, then populations like the German one actually get a lot bigger.

I am not saying that there is no resident American population in Limerick, nor am I saying there is no transient American population, but it is not so large that it deserves superlatives like "countless"


A proper 4th of July festivel is a very good idea in my eyes, but convincing the Limerick population as a whole that it is an attraction worth attending is more important than convincing a very small minority.

Whilst I have mentioned some of the other populations in the Limerick area, they also would have celebrations that could be incorporated into events/small festivals.

Germany has October 3rd (Unity day) and what came to mind as a very good finale to a day long event or a weekend event based around Unity Day would be a reinactment of the bringing down of the wall. And what would be an easy way to do that? By having a Pink Floyd cover band complete with Light show/projectors. Hell if a promoter wanted to go the full hog (pun intended) then they could bring in the Austrailian Pink Floyd with their fantastic stage show. A Unity day event would be the most difficult event to stage in Limerick though imho.

China has it's Spring festival (Chinese New Year) and the Lantern festival offers many many possibilities for something colourful to be done in Limerick.


I think booking time to ask for advice from the Organisers of some of the Galway festivals would be a clever move. Just look at the amazing festivel that ended yesterday up there. It was a once of thing, in the sense that it was not held last year and won't be on agains next year, but they had tens of thousands of people in the city each and every day of the festival and people came from all over Iriand and from other countries for it, much as they do for the Winter Market up there. It was a fantastic example of how a once off thing could be massive in ambition, scale and result.

A great festival/event does not have to be original in terms of ideas, it just has to give people a reason to want to attend. If there are things that Galway and Cork do that bring in lots of people over and over and over, well it stands to reason that something similar would do the same in Limerick if it was done right.

zulutango

well done, Snipe, for organising the event at quite short notice and with limited funds. I think ye did very well. Thought the fireworks last night were great. I was with quite a few friends from overseas and we watched them from the boardwalk on Clancy Strand. Everybody thought they were fantastic. On last nights showing it would be hard to leave Limerick with a bad impression, so kudos to you guys. This kind of event does a lot to change perceptions of the city and make people realise that it is actually quite a nice place to live, and that's what will lead to a true 'regeneration' of Limerick.

On a general note, I think the 4th July theme for the festival could be looked at again. Some posters and others I've chatted with felt that perhaps it was a cynical exercise to attract American tourists with their money. I think ye would admit that that is at least part of the thinking, and fair enough given the situtation our city and country finds itself in. But, while many Irish people left via Limerick docks to begin new lives in the USA, the connection with that country is fairly tenuous. Or, perhaps to put it another way, our connection with the US isn't a whole lot greater than anywhere elses.

One idea I had (and feel free to dismiss it, but I think it has merit) is to broaden the theme a bit. Instead of having a 4th July festival, why not build towards having a truly international festival. Start with 4th July and finish with Bastille Day on the 14th! I mention Bastille Day because it's a huge event in France and it's in July too. We know that french people adore Ireland so let's give them a reason to come to Limerick! Also, Limerick City has a very strong historical connection with France. It was from here that the Wild Geese, an army of 10,000 and their families left to find refuge in France following the Treaty of Limerick in October 1691. Feel free to pm me to discuss if you wish.

Once again, well done for your efforts. It's easy for some of us to be wise from the sidelines, but ye guys carried off a great festival through no small amount of hard work I am sure. Here's to the Limerick International Festival of 2013!

Johnny_BravoIII

You sir, need to do your research

Tourism.
http://www.failteireland.ie/FailteIreland/media/WebsiteStructure/Documents/3_Research_Insights/1_Sectoral_SurveysReports/Preliminary-Market-Estimates-Jan-March-2012.pdf?ext=.pdf

http://www.cso.ie/en/statistics/population/

An email to both the above organisations should return pretty good data.

If it's travelling tourists you are after…. then a golden jubilee flotilla would of been interesting!

As for your statement about a cynical marketing plan. I am truely bloody insulted.

Let's separate the effort from the concept.

I applaud the effort put in by the organisers. I appreciate the amount of hard work these things take to organise. The fireworks in particular created a wonderful family atmosphere around the river last night. People's park was fantastic over the weekend.

The concept on the whole.....leaves me flat. I don't quite "get" the connection with the city. It's as though the festival is super-imposed on the city for the week. It's the 4th of July........eh wtf? In that regard it could be worth considering previous posters comments in terms of broadening the scope a little.

Myself and the others have put in countless man hours to see this true all to see a bit of life getting back into the city

It's a really solid foundation on which to build. Ye have now got the skills, logistics, and networks, to deliver festivals in the city.
The festival model is certainly something that works & could be massive for the city into the coming years.


I'd 2nd Kess's advice that you contact various organisers of successful festivals throughout the country to develop a knowledge of best practice.

Itsdacraic

Johnny_BravoIII wrote: »

Tourism.
http://www.failteireland.ie/FailteIreland/media/WebsiteStructure/Documents/3_Research_Insights/1_Sectoral_SurveysReports/Preliminary-Market-Estimates-Jan-March-2012.pdf?ext=.pdf

http://www.cso.ie/en/statistics/population/

An email to both the above organisations should return pretty good data.

If it's travelling tourists you are after…. then a golden jubilee flotilla would of been interesting!



Let's separate the effort from the concept.

I applaud the effort put in by the organisers. I appreciate the amount of hard work these things take to organise. The fireworks in particular created a wonderful family atmosphere around the river last night. People's park was fantastic over the weekend.

The concept on the whole.....leaves me flat. I don't quite "get" the connection with the city. It's as though the festival is super-imposed on the city for the week. It's the 4th of July........eh wtf? In that regard it could be worth considering previous posters comments in terms of broadening the scope a little.

+1 to all that.

It's a concept that does nothing for me and anyone I mentioned it to thought the idea of a week long festival for the 4th of July was frankly a bit dumb.

Fair play to the lads for organising it and putting in the effort but I don't think the 4th of July is a great concept to work with, and while a couple of hundred tourists might appreciate it, it will be down to capturing the local audience if you want to make a success of it.

The Snipe

What you all need to realize as well is, none of us had any experience in organizing these things for the most part of the planning. It wasn't until late that we got support from people with experience in the field, which having them on board from the beginning of the festival next year which will make it a lot bigger a lot better organized and a lot better overall.

As for running multiple festivals, honestly, we were stressed enough running the one festival. I doubt anyone involved had anticipated the amount of work it would have taken, and on that note, I doubt that I personally will be getting involved in other festivals besides this anytime soon, and I doubt we'd be stretching the festival more then the week.

zulutango

The Snipe wrote: »

As for running multiple festivals, honestly, we were stressed enough running the one festival. I doubt anyone involved had anticipated the amount of work it would have taken, and on that note, I doubt that I personally will be getting involved in other festivals besides this anytime soon, and I doubt we'd be stretching the festival more then the week.

Perhaps you could have a look at changing or broadening the theme though?

Kess73

The Snipe wrote: »

What you all need to realize as well is, none of us had any experience in organizing these things for the most part of the planning. It wasn't until late that we got support from people with experience in the field, which having them on board from the beginning of the festival next year which will make it a lot bigger a lot better organized and a lot better overall.

As for running multiple festivals, honestly, we were stressed enough running the one festival. I doubt anyone involved had anticipated the amount of work it would have taken, and on that note, I doubt that I personally will be getting involved in other festivals besides this anytime soon, and I doubt we'd be stretching the festival more then the week.

I don't think anyone is doubting the effort, just the execution in places.

I still think a week is far too long let alone 10 days.

The 4th July falls on a Thursday next year. Make it a four day event (although my own preference is a three day but the way the days fall next year would make a three day look silly)in that case. A massive opening Thursday and a massive Sunday with the Friday and Saturday packed with noise, and colour.

Pack the days with stuff rather than spreading the stuff over more days.


Most important of all, get people with genuine experience involved not people who will tell you they have it or who have only been involved in small local stuff. Go after people with a proven track record with successful events or at the very least try to get to meet people like that and get advice/pointers.

Small local experience will get you an event that looks cheap, no matter how much hard work goes into it, and I get the impression that the ambition for the 4th of July festival is to be something of substance and not a small local parody of what happens in America.

Get professionals on board and you will be worked harder than you thought possible, you will want to kill them, you will think that they are too detail orientated, and then suddenly you will see an amazing project come about. Also don't be afraid to try and create an event that wants to make a profit. It may be cliched but money can make money.



Stay small time and it will just be about back slapping (not saying that about you or anyone else involved with this year's attempts) and shoulda couldas.

The more I think about it though, it has one major disadvantage in terms of attendence and that is the college and University populations are really reduced in Limerick in July. Makes one wonder if a big event in September could reap larger numbers.



Hmmmm maybe it is time for me to plan a Kess fest for 2014. :P

hightower1

The Snipe wrote: »

As for your statement about a cynical marketing plan. I am truely bloody insulted. Myself and the others have put in countless man hours to see this true all to see a bit of life getting back into the city. Which in my opinion worked as there was a great buzz the last few days and everyone seemed to love it. Its about time to start putting Limerick on the map again, and this is going to be the start of how its done!

My missus is American. Moved from Ohio over 4 years ago now and I personally just wanted to say thank you Snipe from the both of us. She doesnt get back home as much as she would like but seeing the city celebrate something close to her heart and home really brought a smile to her face. Thank you and thanks to the team also.

ZombieBride

Here another view of the fireworks, pretty awesome I must say.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yk4TtoDtGng

On the "how many Americans in Limerick" question, I personally know lots perhaps I'm just hanging around the wrong people

Well done all involved, there was a great buzz around the city over the weekend especially.

I still stand by the "why have a 4th of July?".... why not?! :cool:

Here's to next year.