Future yearly quayside party ideas

FatB

Albeit of very little purpose other than to chat about the possibility of future events similar to the Tall Ships weekend that we have just seen, I'd be very interested in a discussion on what people think would be enough of an event to garner the same kinds of crowds/sentiment as the awesome festival of family fun we have just witnessed in this fine City.

I'm not a native of Waterford, both my parents are Waterfordians but I've lived in Tipperary most of my life. I'm now back in the City and have worked here for 8 years anyway. I'd love to see more events similar to what we know we can do happen every year.

I personally think a Viking themed quayside party with a lot happening both on the water and in the reginald's tower region being the highlights would work well for the city as a whole. Perhaps a self-made pirate boat race and re-enactments or similar may be enough of a starting point for such an event.

I would definitely be all for the Tall Ships being a yearly event but the truth of the matter is that very few cities have had the privilege of hosting the event twice, we may already be pushing our luck to see it more often than once every 5 years. Of course, should it happen, I would love to see the Tall Ships take priority.

Any ideas would be welcome, the finer points are what a planning committee would arrange and discuss, I feel we just need the initial reason for such planning to commence.

wmpdd3

i can't see any reason Sproi couldn't be extended to a weekend of quayside partying like this weekend. It would be a shot in the heart for the shops withing a km of the quay.

You could leave the bridge and Bridge st open as the same crowds wouldn't need to cross to the north quays.

Tragamin2k2

we were talkin about this all weekend. they should have a food and drink festival or something

reni10

How about a dragon boat racing festival?

That could attract teams from all over Europe and maybe even Asia!

You have each dragon boat with about 12 people in it and you run races from starting at the Tower Hotel and finishing at maybe the Clock Tower.

You have people line the route on both sides of the river to watch it.

You have this on during the day and have your food, craft and music stalls have an Asian feel to them.

Then at night you have the winners presentations and music to round it off.

Any takers???

Dum_Dum

Viking Longboat race. People from various city/county districts construct ships to compete in a race on the River.

reni10

Dum_Dum wrote: »

Viking Longboat race. People from various city/county districts construct ships to compete in a race on the River.

Yeah would be a good idea and fits with the cities heritage but I don't think there is a strong enough international following.

The dragon boat races are the Asian equivalent of long ships and has a great international following with various places around the world already having yearly events.

Waterford could even bid to have the world championships or something like that if it established itself as a good quality festival for dragon boat racing.

That's my 2c anyway!

FatB

I quite like the idea of Spraoi taking the helm on the entertainment end of things, my only concern is that they may like to have some time to enjoy such a festival themselves. I feel the vikings are possibly the stronger reasoning alright, mainly because of our viking heritage. Waterford is a viking word for example, albeit a little Anglicized.

In saying that, Dragon Boat racing sounds truly spectacular, I'm just not sure how we could convince people over other than to offer a huge prize for the winners.

Waterford has only recently started thinking bigger, I love where this city is heading, I just want to try ensure it doesn't stop here.

I'm hoping the Waterford Music Fest is a massive success also, who know's what next years version will bring if so.

WIT could be brought into play a lot more also, engineers creating cool things to enter competitions etc would be great.

kkdela6

i think if these quayside parties became too consistent it would end up like the bluegrass festival in dunmore, where the actual festival becomes forgotten and its just an excuse for scumbags to go drinking and cause trouble.

not to be a negative nelly, but....

south

Red Bull Air Race?

mike65

Any festival needs to use the linear nature of the quay allied to the river itself.

So for one year I'd suggest something like a walk through maritime/industrial history of Waterford which starts at the bridge with the Vikings and ends at the Tower with Waterford Glass Mk 2 (or is it Mk 3 now?!)

Another year could be powerboat racing there are several classes, mainly off-shore but it seems to me that the nature of Waterford Harbour and the river would allow some inshore racing with the climax in the City

http://www.p1superstock.com/championships/p1-superstock/venues

This would clearly be in the Tall Ships class in terms of planning and promotion but no reason why it couldn't be done.

Kanoe

I think Spraoi should have learned a lot from the event, they have the opportunity to revive the currently fragmented annual festival and bring it in line with what the city now expects and knows it can handle from a summer festival.
They are in receipt of funding with local and national grants, sponsorship and donations and usually the results get exported for other cities to benefit. There should be some kind of network in place which would support the city council and Spraoi organising a joint venture that would make use of the services we saw in place this week.
The market and craft fairs that were dotted about the city in places that people would never know existed before, have always been there. The old post office sorting sheds which hosted the viking longboat exhibition, should be on permanant display (I'm not sure if it is?)
Grey friars and Cathederal Sq have always run annual art and craft exhibits and every friday saturday and sunday there are markets through red square to the french church (the one by penny's is that french church?) and not forgetting the ardkeen artisans market, all weekly events which could all be streamlined into the city along the quayside for a weekend of food fair and drink.

All it takes is some level of organisation because all the components are already there. Coupled with the street entertainment, music, fireworks and parade there is no reason why the august bank holiday weekend cannot equal this weekend in terms of success.

Hoffmans

most of the quay is privately leased so anything being held there would come with a hefty price..........

spraoi were the main movers for the tallships from organising the fireworks to work with the various stages...

Kanoe

I'm trying to think why Spraoi doesn't generate as much enthusiasm now as it did before and there's a few things that come to mind, when comparing what was essentially a family oriented fun weekend. At soe point sproi became divided in the line of what is was providing for the public, I remember because I had a young child when the events were memorable moons ago, the last decade it has slowly declined into a party time that tries desperately to cater to the kids but doesn't really equate with a family day out. (it just becomes a bulmers trail after 7pm..

The difference this weekend was the supply of family designated areas, the marquees and stalls and the provision of seating which practically invites you to eat and drink, as a family and enjoy the entertainment together. It was less divided in what it set out to achieve, something for the adults and something or the kids, in unified and equal terms.

decies

Need to look how galway do festivals they can't go a month without having one and our beloved neighbours Kilkenny get top comedians and top musical acts . We have a good few festivals in Waterford but too many are elitest and for the minority interests . Definitely a regular musical festival is a must .

FatB

I agree with a lot here, really, the biggest draw this weekend was not the ships themselves but the fact it was so geared towards families. The seating areas were probably the best thing about the whole event.

You could literally come to Waterford, find parking (better yet, take any of the many trains or buses here) and spend very little for a day of enjoyment. You could bring your own picnic basket or beer, whatever was your choice and sit on the quay to enjoy the time passing by.

I do feel that Spraoi, as great as they are for the city - have a lot learnt that they can put towards future events. I'm glad to hear they organised so much, it makes better sense in the long run if Spraoi is at the heart of any festivals as they already receive so much funding and have a lot of experience built up to date.

I personally don't have any kids, but it's great to see them enjoying themselves, I really couldn't care less for the people drinking the day away - even if I was one of them - we are merely the side product of such events I guess.

dayshah

One of the reasons it was successful is that its not an annual event. There was a strong novelty factor that would be lost if something is held annually.

We do have a few festivals during the summer/autumn. I suppose we could combine Spraoi, Spraoi in the park, Terra Madre food festival/ Bluegrass, then we'd get a bigger crowd.

Big weekends are great, but you are putting all your eggs in one basket with regard to the weather. Waterford needs steady business throughout the summer, so I'm not so sure if compressing all our festivals into one weekend would be a good idea.

mike65

dayshah wrote: »

One of the reasons it was successful is that its not an annual event. There was a strong novelty factor that would be lost if something is held annually.

True, in the first year everyone is full of beans and ideas then as the years pass events take taken for granted everyone gets complacent and the original point starts to get lost in a welter of partying and boozing. That's why it would be important to hold only ONE big event per year, change its focus every year and then to take the odd year out (which may be forced anyway if something like winning a round of the Red Bull air race doesn't come off).

The other thing would be to make sure a festival is staged in a car free zone so everyone has time and space over a large area to sit down and settle. A deal with the toll company would have to be agreed if it were an annual shindig.

FatB

In reference to the Quay being a private entity for the most part, a friend of mine was being charged €700 for a stall down the quay, it was taking up no more room than 2 cars, I'm quite sure 2 cars would not be charged as much for the weekend and guess the carpark owners did not lose money this weekend.

I hear you with the novelty factor, but I truly believe in the "Build it and they/he will come" mantra though, if we provide enough for a family to do, they will be glad of a reason to come. Parents are generally left with few real choices for entertaining kids, more so for cheap entertainment.

200motels

I think a yearly festival around a maritime idea would be a good idea but it wouldn't attract the same people as the Tall Ships, the only thing is we might get bored with it but if enough thought was given to it, it might work.

jimbojazz

I think the idea for an annual Maritime type Festival is a good one.

One way of getting around repititiveness would be to have a different theme to it every year say one year it could be based on sailing yaghts, the next powerboats, maybe naval vessels from other countries (but I'm sure that might cause problems) and as other people have stated longboats, viking ships etc..

For it to work we annually it might mean that the Spraoi weekend is combined with this one and maybe stretch it over a week.

Using both sides of the river is a must as well. At first I had doubts about the North Quays but I have to say it was just as good on that side.

Maybe now the time is right to look developing the North Quays into Cardiff Bay type develoment - I think it would be a huge success.

mike65

Looking at the RTE package yesterday I was struck by just how awful the North Quay carbuncles look and how the Ard-Ri was not that offensive (it would have been even less an issue had they clad it in a medium to dark green) ,I have no idea what the state of play is regarding demolition of the silos and mill but if they are there for the long term then they also need to be covered in something semi-permanent.

Psychedelic

I don't think we could do something this big every year. That was a massive festival, 2 years in planning, with loads of money being pumped into it which you couldn't generate every year. I think we should try expand on numbers attending the Spraoi and Harvest Food Festival but something on the scale of the Tall Ships every year isn't realistic imo.

The next big thing for us now is 2014, the city's 1,100 year birthday party. Tall Ships again then in maybe 2016.

FatB wrote: »

In reference to the Quay being a private entity for the most part, a friend of mine was being charged €700 for a stall down the quay, it was taking up no more room than 2 cars, I'm quite sure 2 cars would not be charged as much for the weekend and guess the carpark owners did not lose money this weekend.

You can't say the €700 was for 2 car parking spaces - the festival organisers (City Council) were charging this fee and they would not have been passing on all that €700 to the car park owners. The money they charged for the stalls was needed to run the festival and I'm sure all the stalls made a healthy profit.

One thing though is that the car park owners are businesses in the area so these festivals are of direct benefit to their buinesses, so I hope the City Council is not paying them too much for use of the car parks.

FatB

Psychedelic wrote: »

You can't say the €700 was for 2 car parking spaces - the festival organisers (City Council) were charging this fee and they would not have been passing on all that €700 to the car park owners. The money they charged for the stalls was needed to run the festival and I'm sure all the stalls made a healthy profit.

One thing though is that the car park owners are businesses in the area so these festivals are of direct benefit to their buinesses, so I hope the City Council is not paying them too much for use of the car parks.

Ah, I personally think that the price was fair, she had just about broke even on the first day alone. But, that is not the point either, my point was that even with a lesser amount being given to the carpark owners, they were surely not losing out and as you pointed out, they will probably gain in the longer term anyway.

Either way, we know it is possible to run events similar in scale to this, the hard work was doing it in the first place. Hats off to all involved of course, but it should be "plain sailing" from here on in if we are to be honest about it. The funding came from many sources that seem as though they would be available again if something was planned. Add in Spraoi's funding and your sitting at a very nice starting balance.

It will be interesting to see how the next City Council meeting goes, I can only imagine a lot of these points will be raised anyway.

I like the idea of rotating themes, Tall Ships can be one of them if we get it back. The City is built on the Suir, I feel any major event should focus around the Quays (I work in a hospital, I've nothing to do with wanting it there for business reasons or the like).

It's just a shame we can't make the water look clearer heh.

Junior

I'd love to see us try get something like the World Cycling Championships for Waterford, we've got the history, the countryside and an Irishman at the head of the UCI, and it would cost about the same amount.

libra02

I've always said to family and friends that we should be making more use of the river and that a maritime festival of some kind sHould be organised every year. It need not be a huge affair like the tall ships but regatta's for rowing, sailing or events along those lines would bring a much needed boost to city and with it being in the heart of the city and everything on the doorstep we are in an ideal position.
This is one of the reason Sail Training and Tall Ships Committee gave it back to Waterford - we are about one of a handful of citys were the ships come into the city's heart.

Even if Waterford got the Tall Ships every 6 years - 8 years it be fantistic. To think an approx €3 million investment into bringing it here yielded an estimated €30 million to the city says it all.

ziedth

You only have to look at the Galway Races and Kilkenny Cat laughs to see that we are loosing out on something. The Quay is a great spot for these kind of things.

I love the idea of some kind if boat race.

Joe blogger

ziedth wrote: »

You only have to look at the Galway Races and Kilkenny Cat laughs to see that we are loosing out on something. The Quay is a great spot for these kind of things.

I love the idea of some kind if boat race.

how was your weekend ziedth

ziedth

Had a ball thanks. Still a bit shook. Missed the fight but I caught the highlights so all way good in the end.

jimbojazz

The main thing we have to do is build on this weekend and reap its rewards for many years to come and not let it become just a happy memory.

For too long we've been the poor relative in Ireland in terms of tourism.

We now have the infrastructure in place in terms of both transportation and amenities to make this happen.

When you look at what we have in the city and county there's no reason why we cant compete with the rest of the country.

Here's an example of what we have to offer:-

Spraoi weekend
Light opera Festival
The food Festival
Bluegrass Festival
The Weekly entertainment laid on in the City Centre
Tramore racecourse

DunmoreEast
Tramore
Bonmahon
Annestown
Boatstrand
Woodstown
Cheekpoint
Stradbally
The scenic coast road drive from Cheekpoint all the way to Ardmore
Rinn
Ardmore
The Comeraghs
The Vee and Nire Valley
Ardmore
Dungarvan
Mount Mellary

Numerous Golf Clubs
Sailing and surfing facilties
Fishing facilties
Dolphin and whale watch excursions
The river itself which is underexploited
Reginalds Tower
The City Walls
The new Crystal Centre
The new Museum

The Peoples Park - surely one of the finest in the South East
Lismore Castle

I'm sure there's plenty more
But what you have there is a good selection of activities and attractions that we could work on and try and get our share of the tourist market.

We cant say anymore that there is nothing here for the tourist or even ourselves.

Joe blogger

very proud at the moment

waterford is awesome

libra02

ziedth wrote: »

You only have to look at the Galway Races and Kilkenny Cat laughs to see that we are loosing out on something. The Quay is a great spot for these kind of things.

I love the idea of some kind if boat race.

Exactly for years now I think there has been this impression or belief that Dublin is the only place that can pull off events like this but I seriously hope that the city embraces that fact we can hold world class events successfully and this is proven by the Tall Ships in 2005 & 2011.

We have a great resource right in the heart of the city as everyone here has said and I hope that out city councillers will take the next step and actively go out and seek to bid and try to win other sailing events or try to establish some kind of martime event ourselves.