Riverfest 2014

bigpink

Not much hype about it this year
Just in from the soap box race the nephews loved it.they could nearly run it on the monday

ZomB13 F1Sh

I heard its bringing in €500 million to the local economy

Poxyshamrock

€5.5million, actually!

http://www.limerick.ie/living/whatsnew/2014-04-15-5.5m-limerick-riverfest-to-kick-start-irelands-summer-of-festivals-this-may-bank-holiday-weekend


Riverfest hasn't changed much in the ten years which is disappointing! It lacks an awful lot of "river" as well! :rolleyes:

vkid

Was talking about in work in shannon today, and was blown away by how many people didn't even know what it was.
it has great potential but the marketing and development of it as a festival is woeful imo

bigpink

Just saw the ad in the post for it and the poster looks the exact same the last 4 years lol

moby2101

Appalling lack of advertising and marketing...

I'm down in kinsale for the 7's tournament and it's wedged...massive sponsorship and "brand" awareness...before I read this thread I was talking to a few people in the pub, some from Clare Limerick Tipperary Cork..no clue about the Rivwerfest or the Marathon on Sunday...
We really need to give a massive kick in the hole to organisations who run our so called events, it's laughable..

moby2101

Sooo mad...so proud of Limerick...soo pissed off that what has happened at the start of the year with "city Of Culture "

bigpink

Futrerama I believe still and suppose limerick marketing company local heroes chamber of commerce and council run it

mossym

moby2101 wrote: »

Appalling lack of advertising and marketing...

I'm down in kinsale for the 7's tournament and it's wedged...massive sponsorship and "brand" awareness...before I read this thread I was talking to a few people in the pub, some from Clare Limerick Tipperary Cork..no clue about the Rivwerfest or the Marathon on Sunday...
We really need to give a massive kick in the hole to organisations who run our so called events, it's laughable..

What 7's tournament? Not joking but never heard anything about it till you mentioned it now, so I wouldn't use it as an example of good marketing.

Local papers and radio have been talking about nothing else for weeks now. The main issue is trying to reach people who use national or no media only

Toffeeboy

I work in Limerick and very few people in the office were aware that Riverfest is on. They only "launched" it about two weeks ago.
I think they needed to promote this months in advance. Like yee have said nothing has changed. People usually make plans for a bank holiday well in advance.

Like what was said in prior Riverpost talks. Why don't they have the local rowing clubs competing on the river or have an open swimming competition..

myshirt

mossym wrote: »

What 7's tournament? Not joking but never heard anything about it till you mentioned it now, so I wouldn't use it as an example of good marketing.

You would be in a very small minority if you don't know what the 7's tournament is. A very small minority. It's almost embarassing.

phill106

myshirt wrote: »

You would be in a very small minority if you don't know what the 7's tournament is. A very small minority. It's almost embarassing.

I dont know about it either!

seoise

Me neither...

vkid

Nor me. It doesn't change the fact that Riverfest is very poorly promoted if people in the general mid west area don't even know what it is, never mind that its on this weekend.

Would have thought it would have been expanded this year..it being city of culture. But it seems to be the same as every other year for the most part.

Whats that saying... the definition of stupidity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results..

betonit

myshirt wrote: »

You would be in a very small minority if you don't know what the 7's tournament is. A very small minority. It's almost embarassing.

ridiculous comment, to use the word embarrasing just because you're obviously into it. Rugby wannabes think ye're playing heineken cup, the carry on of people at these 7s things.

campo

betonit wrote: »

ridiculous comment, to use the word embarrasing just because you're obviously into it. Rugby wannabes think ye're playing heineken cup, the carry on of people at these 7s things.

I also didn't know about it and the use of the word embarrasing well that is just embarrasing, I'm scarlet for you

mossym

myshirt wrote: »

You would be in a very small minority if you don't know what the 7's tournament is. A very small minority. It's almost embarassing.

lol there is only one thing embarassing about that comment. seems lots have no idea it was on. which is what i thought. I'm a munster season ticket holder.you know how many times i saw anything about this 7's tournament? none. nada. That's not even hitting a target audience. someone seriously needs to adjust their frame of reference here.

that said, i hope you enjoy the tournament.

bigpink

Kinsale is a well kown weekend on the social rubgy scene
Teams book in advance so maybe they don't need as much promotion.i know it got messy there so they had to scale it back abit

mossym

bigpink wrote: »

Kinsale is a well kown weekend on the social rubgy scene
Teams book in advance so maybe they don't need as much promotion.i know it got messy there so they had to scale it back abit

i don't doubt that. the same concept applies to the 12,000 people running the GLR tomorrow, they all knew this was coming. easy reach those directly involved, it's the others that are the bigger issue. That's the bit myshirt seems to be struggling to grasp

bigpink

In fairness to the limerick run it made riverfest a crowd on the Sunday and the run made it better known but it hasn't pushed on.the line up poster looks the same the last 4 years

mossym

Toffeeboy wrote: »

have an open swimming competition..

any idea how cold the water is right now?:)

mossym

bigpink wrote: »

In fairness to the limerick run it made riverfest a crowd on the Sunday and the run made it better known but it hasn't pushed on.the line up poster looks the same the last 4 years

that's a fair comment. i think it needs to aim bigger. posting pictures of "fashion shows" on twitter held in the city center in the afternoon, with a half dozen passer bys stopping for a look and calling it an event is stretching things. need to focus on the items that work. the run, the bbq competition, the markets. agree totally with the comments on the rowing competition

Pumpkinseeds

It is very badly promoted. If it weren't for boards I wouldn't even know it existed and I'm in and out of the city centre 2 or 3 times a month. As for the city of culture business, there is nothing at all to suggest that it is the city of culture.

iguana

Riverfest is badly promoted as is almost everything to do with the City of Culture. I make a huge effort to find out what's going on every week but I have to trawl through several badly designed websites, where it's really hard to find out what's happening, the CoC one is dreadful as instead of being able to check what's happening on a particular week, I have to go through several bs categories, like music, street and my favourite Na Leanaí (how inclusive is that to foreign tourists looking for something to take their kids to?). The types of events I enjoy most fall under any of those three categories but I have to guess which one it might be under. Then when I do find the relevant listing the information about it is generally scant.

I've missed out on lots of stuff that sounds great and often when I do find out about an event that sounds good I go along with my little boy and the two of us make up about 20% of the audience as nobody else knows about it. I'm in town two or three times a week and information about events is nowhere to be seen. For example, how hard would it be to put up a notice board in the playground of the People's Park and Clare St Park and keep it updated about events happening that children would enjoy?

Or on the Riverfest site, just look at this listing about the Choral Concerts; http://www.limerick.ie/festivals/riverfest/whatson/saturday/2014-05-03-riverfest-choral-concerts

In the information it says it's on Thomas St but in the description it says Limerick 'streets.' Which is it? Presumably it will be only on Thomas St but why can't the website be clear? And which choir will play when? Do they get half an hour each in the order they are listed? will they be singing at the same time in different areas? What if I really want to hear 1 of the choirs but don't much like the other 2. Wouldn't it make sense to know that I could hear my chosen choir at 3.30, for example, and be able to plan when I could see the Mad Hatters or go find out what it's like to be a jelly? I also saw an ad in the Post saying there would be music all day at the Milk Market and an article about a dog show in Arthurs Quay park but I can't find any information about either on the website.

The promotion is just crap! I really want to enjoy the weekend and got my son up early this morning, so he would nap early today and we could be free to enjoy this afternoon. But I suspect we're going to miss a lot because of poor promotion and not having the ability to plan out what we want to do, so we can make the most of events.

iguana

And another cock up. The Riverfest page says entry to the mobile planetarium is free but it's actually €3. http://www.explorationdome.ie/xploration-dome-mobile-planetarium-limerick-riverfest-2014/

Great for a family that's really low on cash but promised their kids a visit.

rcarter15

hard to find on the websites, but here's a program for events:

http: // www. limerick. ie/sites/default/files/atoms/files/riverfest_programme_web.pdf

bblueblood

Yes the whole thing seems really amateurish unfortunately, even the RIVERFEST logo is completely different on website than posters! ! Maybe the posters/signs are old. Very hard to find out event times and location

bigpink

Nice streetdrinkers party at the entrance to arthurs quay park right beside the tourist office.they had a trolley on its side for a table and bag of cans.saw the guy that runs futurama events walking round,guards should have be called to move them off but no sign while we were waiting for the dog show

seachto7

betonit wrote: »

ridiculous comment, to use the word embarrasing just because you're obviously into it. Rugby wannabes think ye're playing heineken cup, the carry on of people at these 7s things.

Correct. Puke inducing. I had a season of tag rugby, and you had lads arguing with other during the games.

Really lads? Seriously?

Toffeeboy

I see the 9pm fireworks started at 10pm.

nice though.

MarkR

Fireworks were nice, being an hour late without a peep was a bit ****.

Anyone know was that a mini-copter floating around the fireworks? Did it have a camera?

angeldaisy

MarkR wrote: »

Fireworks were nice, being an hour late without a peep was a bit ****.

Anyone know was that a mini-copter floating around the fireworks? Did it have a camera?

Just seen some aerial photos go up on Facebook, check out Tony Grehan photography. Think it was his that was there.

h3000

Toffeeboy wrote: »

I see the 9pm fireworks started at 10pm.

nice though.

MarkR wrote: »

Fireworks were nice, being an hour late without a peep was a bit ****.

Anyone know was that a mini-copter floating around the fireworks? Did it have a camera?

In fairness I think it would have been worse if it did start at 9, it was far too bright then. The should have made an announcement though.

Poxyshamrock

Fidget Feet in Arthur's Quay Park looks pretty good!

martyc5674

MarkR wrote: »

Fireworks were nice, being an hour late without a peep was a bit ****.

Same every time there's fireworks on the river.. Always advertise ann hour earlier, hardwork keeping small kids entertained by a cold river bank for an hour.
Marty.

iguana

I was in all afternoon yesterday and I have to say that Riverfest is like the English soccer team; less than the sum of it's parts. There is a lot of good stuff going on but it's all so badly organised that it lacks any real cohesion and is much less enjoyable than it should be. It's a pity, a lot of money clearly goes into it. A lot of effort is made by each of the different acts and events. But as a whole, it just just doesn't really work. It's a pity but it's down to very bad management and it's time that the council takes a hard, honest look at what Riverfest is, what it should be and how to bridge that gap.

SuperWoody101

angeldaisy wrote: »

Just seen some aerial photos go up on Facebook, check out Tony Grehan photography. Think it was his that was there.

Yeah that was Tony's mini-copter with a go pro camera in it, he was taking video of the event and put some images from the video on his page, the video will be up there soon. He has some other great videos of Limerick up on his page - https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tony-Grehan-Photography-and-Video/1414649522117180?fref=ts

juneg

iguana wrote: »

And another cock up. The Riverfest page says entry to the mobile planetarium is free but it's actually €3. http://www.explorationdome.ie/xploration-dome-mobile-planetarium-limerick-riverfest-2014/

Great for a family that's really low on cash but promised their kids a visit.

Went to have a look around with kids. Surprised to see the planetarium charging €3 per person, we didn't go in too expensive for a family. I am not sure but I think the "haribo experience" may have been charging too?

€3 for a candy floss or a basic crepe or any thing on the French patisserie stall.
Hot dogs and burgers €5 and €6 minimum along the street. Unfortunately That all mounts up if you bring in kids. Absolutely nothing free from what I could see. Rows of sweet stands too.

I've just found out that there was a soap box derby from an earlier post here. If you click on the programme for what's on there is no mention of a soap box derby being on, and was there some funfair in Arthurs Quay park? Only saw it from the car.

Toffeeboy

juneg wrote: »

Went to have a look around with kids. Surprised to see the planetarium charging €3 per person, we didn't go in too expensive for a family. I am not sure but I think the "haribo experience" may have been charging too?

€3 for a candy floss or a basic crepe or any thing on the French patisserie stall.
Hot dogs and burgers €5 and €6 minimum along the street. Unfortunately That all mounts up if you bring in kids. Absolutely nothing free from what I could see. Rows of sweet stands too.

I've just found out that there was a soap box derby from an earlier post here. If you click on the programme for what's on there is no mention of a soap box derby being on, and was there some funfair in Arthurs Quay park? Only saw it from the car.

Haribo was free. Child got free sweets from them. you could get free food from the bbq. there was free music on the streets. I think there is a trad concert in the park tomorrow??

h3000

A few pics from last night.

bigpink

Just heard Sharon Shannon playing a free gig in arthurs quay park where was this advertised

Buckeye

About two weeks ago, I picked up a pamphlet off of a table at a bar, and it listed all of the events people mentioned here plus more, including places, times, and free stuff.

Problem was, it was the only copy in the bar, and the bar owner had no clue where it had come from. Someone just left it behind and I happened by at the right moment.

Not that Limerick should be spending a fortune on full-color fold-out pamphlets for everyone in Ireland, but clearly the information was available & well-organized, if only someone had figured out the right platform to reach the general public.

bigpink

Caught Sharon Shannon with my mam we went in when I saw it on Facebook.how the hell was this gig not on the riverfest ad in the post