Docklands Maritime Festival

WindSock

The Docklands Festival is this weekend. They are opening the Beckett bridge to let the Tall Ships in and offering free Luas tickets.

http://www.dublindocklands.ie/maritimefestival/

WindSock

Saw the bridge opening last night, no Tall Ships though. It moves quite quickly. I thought it would have rested on those 3 bollards on the river but it stops short of them. What are they for, does anyone know?

markpb

WindSock wrote: »

Saw the bridge opening last night, no Tall Ships though. It moves quite quickly. I thought it would have rested on those 3 bollards on the river but it stops short of them. What are they for, does anyone know?

I always assumed they were there to stop boats crashing into the rotation part of the bridge.

JosDel

markpb wrote: »

I always assumed they were there to stop boats crashing into the rotation part of the bridge.

correct, they are buffers to protect the bridge when opened.

Chinafoot

This festival is always good fun. We popped down for a hotdog and a pint before heading to the pub and there was a cool swing band on just before the bridge and lots of people milling about the place.

We did however, spend over 30 minutes queuing for a beer as people seem to have no concept of actually waiting their turn. Oh and one of the erdinger taps was broken and the bar staff decided to ignore the queue on the side of the working tap and hand all the beers over to the other side. I got ignored for about 5 minutes while at the front of the queue and had to say "Any chance of getting a beer on this side, mate?" Got a dirty look but got my beer soon after.

Heading up now in a bit to check out the stalls. Pity the weather is so overcast.

silverharp

was there today , bit more low key then last year, not many ships there but good selection of all the usual stands. You wont go hungry!

Chinafoot

Very surprised at the lack of a beer tent or food stall on George's Dock. The place looked wrong being so empty as there didn't seem to be too many kids about.

Myself and the other half spent a few hours walking all the stalls today. I would recommend the wood furniture stall, if even just for a look. Its on the northside past Milano's restaurant. Some incredibly beautiful stuff. We got a gorgeous little carved elephant candle holder thingy for €15.

The food today was great too. The other half was quite taken with the hog roast across the bridge. It was a full hog in the display and when we came back to try some 2 hours later there was about a 3rd left. He said it was gorgeous, I decided to decline :P

Good day all in all and will probably pop down again tomorrow. Hopefully the rain will hold off for a little longer

gurramok

Last year, you could drink on the boat 'Artemis' but this year it is not allowed. Queuing for the Erdinger tents was a put off so we headed to CHQ and sat outside in the last of the sun yesterday.
Regarding tall ships, they are really not tall! An extra ship arrived this morning but the other ships are made of a Dundalk tug boat, the Jeanie Johnston(there all year round) and Irish warship Le Eithne.

To conclude, this year was not as great as last year and prices like a fiver for a smoothie was really a put off.

Sparks

WindSock wrote: »

Saw the bridge opening last night, no Tall Ships though.

You must have been within arms reach, I was taking this at the time

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TT111XckCQY

gurramok

Here's the tall ship Artemis arriving on Thursday evening. It had gone upstream first but had to go back down pass the bridge to finally dock on SJR quay.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLqSA1JN6b4

I too was there on Friday 4th. Opening:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdQbS1F7dDg

Closing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPW8mGf9kvc

And that barrier!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWL1P_y1ieI

BraziliaNZ

had a look at it on Saturday. As usual, overpriced nonsense, nothing worth seeing really. Must try harder.

00112984

BraziliaNZ wrote: »

had a look at it on Saturday. As usual, overpriced nonsense, nothing worth seeing really. Must try harder.

Agree. I live in the area and walked home from town via the IFSC and Maritime festival on Friday and didn't see anything to keep me hanging around. The layout of the market is silly as the stands are just fenced off from the road onto the pavement so there's only room for two people, in places, to file past eachother. I don't know how permission is granted for this set-up as it would be virtually impossible to get through the area with a wheelchair and difficult enough with a pram.

Very annoying too is the set-up of railings. I walked along the southside of the quays needing to turn at the "O'Carroll's" sign to get onto Lime St. and head home but the barriers were set up in such a way that I had to walk further up the quays and double-back. Small thing but very irritating if you live in the area and don't have all day to browse before getting home.

Other than that, I just didn't see anything at the festival to keep me hanging around. I went to see the tall ships last year but the way the crowds were forced onto the pavement making moving virtually impossible put me off going this year. The food stalls were over-priced and very typical of a bad French market found in any Irish town of a weekend.

I think there'd be potential if there was better thought put into positioning of stalls. Either into the area around CHQ or elsewhere.

Tabnabs

A couple of tall ships and a INS ship do not a maritime festival make. :mad: The crowds were hemmed into the quayside and the cobble stones made it very child buggy/pram unfriendly. TBH, you'd get more or less the same stalls at any farmers market With the enormous Grand Canal Dock just a few minutes walk away, you'd have to wonder why not use this facility?

Panie Janie

Chinafoot wrote: »

Very surprised at the lack of a beer tent or food stall on George's Dock. The place looked wrong being so empty as there didn't seem to be too many kids about.

At €3 each for the amusement rides I think anyone who brought kids would not have hung around too long.

€3! And no 4 for €10 offer or anything.


RIP. OFF.

loyatemu

Panie Janie wrote: »

At €3 each for the amusement rides I think anyone who brought kids would not have hung around too long.

€3! And no 4 for €10 offer or anything.


RIP. OFF.

same at the Xmas market in the IFSC - it is a ripoff, €3 to go down a slide? No thanks.

Sparks

TBH, about the best part of these festivals is that you get a lot of folk gathered together with large BBQ stands and beer, and generally without too much danger from people deciding they're hard enough to have a go and so forth. The stalls are just a nice additional extra to look at while eating your bratwurst.

Not exactly children-friendly though...

gurramok

It was 8quid for a burger in the CHQ!! :eek:

monument

There was an strange feeling of been fenced in on the footpath on section on the quays where it got crowded, mostly on the south quays on parts where there's almost no traffic. People kept on having to pull the barriers apart and security kept putting them back.

There was no place to cross the road or anything. And on the north side there was parking along the quays while everybody was fenced into a small space?! For the amount of spaces of parking they could have closed them off for the day and made more space for people.

Then there was this nonsense at pedestrian crossings:



At the same crossing the side that blind and other disabled people have to be at is blocked by the DDDA's barriers:



What planet do these people live on?

Chinafoot

gurramok wrote: »

It was 8quid for a burger in the CHQ!! :eek:

Ely absolutely rake it in at the Maritime festival and Oktoberfest with the food and the beer tap outside. People just want somewhere to sit really. Last year they were doing a pint and a burger for €10. I guess they decided the demad would be enough to charge €8 for just their "organic burgers".