Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie
Spraoi 2007
-
10-07-2007 5:04pm#1This will mark the 4th year that my girlfriend and I will have made the trip from Galway to Waterford to celebrate the most excellent Spraoi festival.
We've kept ourselves up to date with The Official Spraoi Website, but what we want to know (apart from that) is there any good clubbing events being held in Waterford City this august bank holiday. Last year we went to Ten and had a good night. The crowd were a bit dodgy in spots, but the majority were just there to enjoy themselves (you get muppets in all necks of the wood, so it wouldn't bother us as long as we were not completely surrounded and out of place). What we really don't want is to end up in a place with a battle for service at the bar and general chart music that tends to only attract a minority on to the dance floor.
Are there any big name DJs heading to Waterford that weekend?
Are there any good web sites that I can keep myself clued in to what's going on down there?
Appreciate anything you can offer, cheers
0
Comments
-
-
-
-
-
-
Advertisement
-
-
-
-
-
-
Advertisement
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Fajitas! wrote:I know the festival is great, and I've always really enjoyed it (and volunteered for it).
I'm just not sure a fiver is nessicary for the programme.
Considering the whole 3 day festival is free - €5 is nothing !0 -
-
ve wrote:We're from Galway City and at the moment the Galway Arts Festival is on. You can drive through the streets of Galway right now at any time of day or night and this fact will not be apparent. Went to the traditional parade held last Sunday and it was crap, there were about 3 floats and just a load of muppets running around the streets trying to scare kids. Don't get me wrong I don't hate it, but up here it lasts 2 full weeks and IMHO it has nothing on Spraoi at all, so we have no problem what so ever putting another €10 towards the Spraoi festiaval, so we can come down to Waterford for the 5th year running.
No offence intended to Galway, a wonderful city, but I've heard that the arts festival there is much more arty farty and exclusive than Spraoi, tends to be concentrated very much on the individual venues - where people have to pay, and has a very low profile on the streets and among the populace.
What I love about Spraoi is that it's mostly free (for God's sake stop complaining about a fiver for the programme lads, it's a fiver for the festival, don't you understand?). It's also very, very democratic, in the sense that it's organised for the enjoyment primarily of the people of Waterford (and of course our visitors), not for some beard-stroking élite that converges from D4 and West Cork.
What bugs me is that the Galway Arts Festival gets seemingly acres of coverage in the national papers, whereas you'd barely know Spraoi was on, from what the Dublin-based media cover of it. I don't begrudge Galway their high profile at all; I'd just like to see Spraoi (and Waterford generally) recognised for its qualities in the same way.
Maybe VE can give us a few hints about how the Galway PR machine works, because by golly it works well!
0 -
-
Advertisement
-
No offense taken at allfricatus wrote:No offence intended to Galway, a wonderful city, but I've heard that the arts festival there is much more arty farty and exclusive than Spraoi, tends to be concentrated very much on the individual venues - where people have to pay, and has a very low profile on the streets and among the populace. I share your opinion. However the Arts Festival in Galway has changed over the years. It was more like Spraoi in the 90s and before. Actually the most impressive Fireworks display I have ever seen was during the Galway Arts Festival in '99. There was a sense of community, a bit like the Air Show that they put in in Salthill every July. Lately the GAF, starts off with us getting the programme in the local paper for all to see about a week or two before it starts. I can't remember a time I looked a the programme and said "oh that looks good, I'll have to go an see that". Now that could be quite simply a matter of taste. However all those events are not free. The parade is the only free event, I believe.
I think the reason for this is that the GAF was once a very well respected and much anticipated festival. I remember when plenty of people around Galway would be talking about this and that, and events going on around the city, and it was all free. Then people from abroad used to fly in especially to either spectate or take part in the festivities. I remember being abroad and having forreigners ask me about the GAF and that they would always try and make it over. So I think the marketing campaigns that we see today are simply riding on the fact that it was once something special. The GAF seems to have become a "brand" of sorts, and the fact that it is now just a collection of "arty farts" making money, and selling out was just added in, in a sly way. I don't know how long it will last because people are starting to cop on that it has become more of an elitist showcase rather than a public/community festival. As I said before you could wander through the streets of Galway at any stage during the GAF and not realise it is on. The only thing I did see recently that was interesting here in Galway was during the annual Film Fleah. They had huge cinema size projection screens setup (some evenings) in both Eyre Square and the Spannish Arch, showcasing ameture works. On a fine evening it is nice to see everyone sitting down outside under the stars and just watching the show.fricatus wrote:What bugs me is that the Galway Arts Festival gets seemingly acres of coverage in the national papers, whereas you'd barely know Spraoi was on, from what the Dublin-based media cover of it. I don't begrudge Galway their high profile at all; I'd just like to see Spraoi (and Waterford generally) recognised for its qualities in the same way.
The GAF organisers earlier this year said that there would be no parade this summer as they were going to do something on Halloween night instead. Their was uproar over this. So it got put back on the summer programme at the last minute.
I look at Spraoi right now, like many in the past would have looked at the GAF. We would get off the train in Waterford, arrive in our hotel and you could hear street performers (usually drummers) in the distance. Add some fine weather and you could not be in a bad mood in such an environment. It is not like that in Galway anymore. Personally I would get more involved and seek out the entertainment during the GAF if it was free, but alas...
Don't move. For the love of God don't change a thing in Waterford. If you attempt to mimic what is done here in Galway, you will attract the wrong sort of attention and will ultimately lose what us fun loving Galwegians have been looking forward to all year.fricatus wrote:Maybe VE can give us a few hints about how the Galway PR machine works, because by golly it works well!
Thank you Waterford! and well done.0 -
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Advertisement
-
Advertisement