Thousands Celebrate at Bray St Patrick’s Carnival

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Thousands Celebrate at Bray St Patrick’s Carnival

Tuesday, March 20 2007

 Over 15,000 spectators turnout for third year of Carnival Parade
 All-new Street Carnival Spectacular brings a riot of colour to Bray streets
 Thousands of visitors thrill at Five Day St Patrick’s Carnival Funfair – the biggest-ever St Patrick’s funfair in Ireland!
 2,000 rugby fans on Bray Seafront cheer-on Ireland in RBS Six Nations via giant outdoor video wall
 Local Christian Churches unite for Ecumenical Blessing of the Shamrock
 St Fergal’s Community Development wins Carnival Parade Best Overall Award for second year in a row!
 Chamber sends big ‘Go Raibh Míle Maith Agat’ to all supporters

Organisers of the 2007 Bray St Patrick’s Carnival & Parade have confirmed that over 15,000 spectators lined the streets of Bray for this year’s St Patrick’s celebrations in Bray – all part of the five-day and weekend-long Bray St Patrick’s Carnival & Parade festival. Presented by Bray & District Chamber, the 2007 Bray St Patrick's Carnival & Parade was sponsored by Bray Town Council, DART, Bray Town Centre/Pizarro Developments, and Bird's EuroShow Funfair.

Despite adverse weather conditions which dampened some spirits across the rest of the country, the spring sunshine held firm across Bray on St Patrick’s Day for what was billed as the brightest St Patrick’s Carnival Parade yet – and for the thousands who lined the route, some of them 10 deep at different route points, they weren’t disappointed! And sports fans had plenty to cheer-on also, with almost 2,000 rugby fans watching the crunch RBS Six Nation rugby clashes via a giant outdoor video wall on Bray Seafront, organized at short notice by Bray Chamber.

PARADE PARTICIPANTS
The highlight of this year’s Carnival Parade was the all-new Carnival Street Spectacular, presented by Bray Chamber in association with community performance specialists Artastic and sponsored by Bray Town Centre Pizarro Developments. Transition year students from across Bray were joined by members of Dry Rain Youth Theatre and the Sinead Hearn’s School of Dance in a street performance spectacular that celebrated the elements of the planet – air, water, fire and earth. Their performance was the culmination of weeks of rehearsals in workshop format with the parade production staff and the team at Artastic.
Bray’s hour-long parade was greeted with cheering and applause as the fruits of the tireless efforts on the part of all the almost 40 participating community, youth, civic, sports and arts groups were celebrated by the thousands of spectators. Winning organizations included:
 BEST OVERALL: St Fergal’s Community Development, with their colourful celebration of The Wizard of Oz. This is their second overall win in as many years!
 BEST MARCHING / UNIFORM: 5th Wicklow Sea Scouts
 BEST ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT: Majwa Zenya Bellydancers, including students from Bray Institute of Further Education
 BEST COMMUNITY: Bray's Filipino Community
 BEST SPORTS: Wolfe Tone & District Youth Club
 BEST OPEN: Students from Loreto College, St Kilian’s Community College, Presentation College, Dry Rain Youth Theatre and Sinead Hearn’s School of Dance who performed in the Carnival Street Spectacular

The awards will be presented at a special reception in Bray Town Hall, co-hosted by Bray Town Council and Bray Chamber.

FUNFAIR & RUGBY SCREEN
Once again, thousands of visitors to Bray thrilled at the five-days of rollercoaster family fun on Bray Seafront. With the largest selection of family entertainment attractions ever-collected together on any St Patrick’s Day in Ireland, and all located on Bray Seafront, it was officially Ireland’s biggest-ever St Patrick’s Funfair. The explosion of colour and fun attracted huge crowds on St Patrick’s Day, as well as on the Half Prize Patron’s Day last Wednesday (14th March), although it was only the most hardy that brazed the rollercoasters, carousels, Bounceworld, and thrill rides on the final two days of the festival weekend.

Sports fans had plenty to cheer-on during the weekend, with almost 2,000 rugby fans watching the crunch RBS Six Nation rugby clashes via a giant outdoor video wall on Bray Seafront. This additional attraction was organized at short notice by Bray Chamber to ensure that visitors could enjoy the best of the parade as well as the best of the rugby on St Patrick’s Day.

ECUMENICAL BLESSING
Earlier in the day, representatives of the local Christian Churches in Bray attended the Ecumenical Blessing of the Shamrock. This event was initiated by Bray Chamber for the first time last year to celebrate the united Christian Spirit of St Patrick on the streets of Bray. Fr George Begley of the Church of the Most Holy Redeemer, the Rev Ian Cruickshank of Christ Church, Church of Ireland, and Clifford Sullivan of Mountain View Community Church, blessed a large bowl of Shamrock in a ceremony that echoed St Patrick's historic re-telling of the Holy Trinity. Once blessed, the Shamrock was presented by veteran stage and screen actress Gladys Sheehan along with Bray Chamber President Clifford Sullivan to the staff and residents of the HSE Orchard Residential Home for Older People, in a warm and highly-moving ceremony. Shamrock which had been blessed in unity by the Bray’s ecumenist churches was then handed out by Orchard Manager, Catherine Hamill, to individual residents, while a clearly radiant Gladys took time out to greet many residents in the home.

SHOP WINDOW DISPLAY WINNER
Anne-Marie Holland of Holland’s Fine Wines, Main Street, Bray was celebrating as the premises’ colourful, vibrant and highly visual window display saw them win Bray & District Chamber’s St Patrick's Window Display Competition. Over 30 town-centre retailers took part in the competition to add yet a further splash of green and gold throughout the town, with the judges commending the great effort made by all participants. Previous winners include The Bodhrán Café (2005) and Milan & Co. (2006). Commenting, Katrina Farrelly-Cooke, co-ordinator of the St Patrick’s Window Display Competition, said: “Bray Chamber is pleased with the increased number of retailers who participated in this year’s competition, and we hope next year that even more will take part. The effort made by participating retailers was superb, and it was really hard to select a winner, however the obvious effort, enthusiasm and imagination that the team at Holland’s Fine Wines brought to the completion of their window display make them a really worthy winner.”

NATIONAL PRESS COVERAGE
The largest-ever community carnival for St Patrick’s festivities in Bray was also celebrated nationally, with both RTE TV News and TV3 featuring the event. Once again, Ireland’s No.1 breakfast television show, TV3’s Ireland AM, which is watched by over 250,000 viewers across Ireland every morning, invited participants taking part in the Bray St Patrick’s Carnival & Parade to lead the festivities on the show last Friday morning (Friday 16th March.)

THANKS TO EVENT PARTNERS
Commenting on the success of this year’s Bray St Patrick’s Carnival & Parade, Production Director Mick Glynn paid tribute to all those who had helped to make this year’s community celebration weekend such a massive success, including event lead sponsors Bray Town Council, its management and outdoor staff for their superb assistance to the event team. Mr Glynn also thanked Supt Michael Lernihan and the members of An Garda Síochana for their highly significant contribution in the run-up to and during the event, which resulted in an enjoyable weekend for all, as well as no significant increase in public order offences throughout. Thanks were also paid to the HSE Ambulance Service, the Order of Malta, Iarnród Eireann and Dublin Bus, and all stewards and event promotion team members. Mr Glynn also paid particular thanks to sponsors Bray Town Centre/Pizarro Developments, DART, and Bird’s Euroshow Funfair. “The success once again of Bray’s new-look St Patrick’s Carnival & Parade is due entirely to the huge efforts that were made by everyone, including the parade participants, to ensure that this was a truly magical and colourful celebration of the best of Bray. On behalf of the entire event team and Bray & District Chamber, I would like to thank everyone who helped make this weekend such a success – and, in particular, I’d like to extend a very sincere thank you to everyone who visited our five-day St Patrick’s Carnival & Parade, and helped make this the largest family and community celebration on the East Coast.”

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