2010 Manchester Irish Festival Press Release

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2010 sees Manchester celebrating its fifteenth annual festival

Unlike other Irish Festivals around the world which just stage festivals on the 17 March which is the St Patrick - the patron saint of Ireland's birthday St Patrick, the Manchester festival stage a two week extravaganza. The festival which is now in its fifteenth year features two hundred events, staged at thirty two different venues throughout Greater Manchester. Established in 1996 it has played host to the likes of award winning dance shows such as Riverdance and Lord of the Dance, top comedy shows by the award winning Peter Kay and Ardal O'Hanlon, along with a host of Irish plays, special art exhibitions, Irish food markets and one of the biggest St Patrick's Day parades in Europe.

Lawrence Hennigan the marketing executive of the Manchester Irish Festival website said “This years festival will feature two weeks of Art, Culture, Comedy, Community, Dance, Music, Sport and Theatre events, making it one of Europe's biggest Irish Festivals. We have tried to include something for everyone to enjoy in the community and a warm Irish welcome awaits all our visitors.”

The official dates for this years celebration is Friday 5 March to Saturday 21 March, but there are also a number of pre and post festival events from February through to April.

Festival highlights include the award winning 'Young, Gifted & Green' show at the Manchester Town Hall on Saturday 6 March, the annual St Patrick’s festival parade and market on Sunday 14 March in the city centre and a whole host of St Patrick’s day celebrations leading up to the feast day on the 17 March.

Levenshulme which is home to the biggest Irish community outside of London will be staging its own two week Guinness sponsored Tradfest (5-21 March) to coincide with the festival and the 250th anniversary of Ireland's favourite black stout. Just over two hundred and fifty hours of Irish Culture, Film, Dance, Music, Theatre and fun will take over the village's pubs clubs and parks.

Highlights include a six day St Patrick's weekend Guinness tradfest party starting on Thursday 11 March with a Irish Comedy night and running through to St Patricks day itself on Wednesday 17 March with its own outdoor Funfair and traditional Irish Music tradfest.
Interesting facts about the Irish Festival

Manchester Irish Festival – 2010

Interesting Facts

• It’s the world’s longest Irish Festival lasting just over two weeks, Dublin itself just stages a weekend.
• It’s official website www.manchesteririshfestival.co.uk is the premier Irish Festival website in the world as ranked by google and other leading search engines.
• It’s a community based festival, run by volunteers from the city’s vibrant Irish community. It is not commercially led, but has the support of local businesses and the Manchester City council along with some corporate sponsors. One of the festivals biggest and longest running sponsor is not Guinness but the Levenshulme Pub company who sponsor the festival website and are still one of its biggest sponsors in the festival programme. They also self fund a two tradfest of Irish Music, Comedy and Dance in the village.
• Levenshulme village is one of the main areas of focus for the festival, it is home to the biggest Irish community outside of London. The village organises its own two week tradfest during the festival, which features two weeks of Irish music, Comedy & Dance.
• One of the highlights of the festival is the annual St Patrick’s Day Parade which has over 70 floats representing every county in Ireland is run by the Irish World Heritage Centre. The Parade is the biggest outside of New York and goes right through the city centre. It is solely a non commercial parade featuring different community groups and run by volunteers.
• It has its own very popular annual Irish market attracting traders and visitors from all over Ireland and the UK
• There is a large School based free cultural educational programme, which is run by volunteers during thw two weeks of the festival.
• The first festival was launched in 1996 by the then President of Ireland Mary Robinson.
• The festival has played host to the likes of Shane McGowan, Toss the Feathers, Riverdance, Lord of the Dance, Westlife, The Corrs, Van Morrison , Mary Black, Sharon Shannon, Hazel O'Connor, Stocktons Wing and The Oyster Band.
• Irish Comedians involved have included Peter Kay, Ardal O'Hanlon, Jason Manford, Tommy Tiernan, Jason Byrne and Dylan Moran.
• Festival takes place all over Manchester at over 70 venues featuring 200 events and involving just over 1,000 performers.
• It annually attracts close to 100,000 visitors to its parade day alone