bringing The Tall Ships back to Waterford

comeraghs

Does anybody know if there are any plans to launch a bid to bring the Tall Ships Back here?

I heard from a source in Galway that they are thinking about a bid, They even have a facebook page

We are in the driving seat after the success last year but lets not let that slip.

abouttobebanned

Galway really are a shower of hungry bastards.

Professey Chin

Wouldnt it be awkward in Galway since most of the anyway decent sized ships would be stuck out in the bay?

jayboi

We should try and get the Volvo Ocean Race out of spite.

kensutz

2017 they're back

cocoshovel

Would we really get them 3 times? That would be mad but I cant see it happening to be honest. I think it has to be one of the most enjoyable festivals in this country ever and would love to see it happening again.

Professey Chin

cocoshovel wrote: »

Would we really get them 3 times? That would be mad but I cant see it happening to be honest. I think it has to be one of the most enjoyable festivals in this country ever and would love to see it happening again.

They seem to love it here aswell. Perfect docking area and a great reception both times aswell as a near perfect place to actually start the race.

abouttobebanned

The Great Chinholio wrote: »

Wouldnt it be awkward in Galway since most of the anyway decent sized ships would be stuck out in the bay?

We should host the galway races this year.

Professey Chin

abouttobebanned wrote: »

We should host the galway races this year.

Out in the dog track :pac:
Feck tramore. They have their own races -_-

fricatus

jayboi wrote: »

We should try and get the Volvo Ocean Race out of spite.

Why not? It doesn't belong to Galway. Poaching works!

The other thing is while the Tall Ships was a great festival, you're only as good as your next festival. I don't know a lot about how these things work, but I'd say we have a great infrastructure in place now for organising major festivals - some people have become very accomplished at it. Maybe instead of focusing solely on the Tall Ships in 2017 or whenever, we should be looking at a bid for the VOR in the next available year, as well as the Tall Ships?

Jason Todd

While I'd love to see the Tall Ships back, I'd like to think we could host a festival (or two) of our own close to that size, we've proved we can do it. Two festival ideas mooted on here before were a Beer Festival and a Viking Festival, they are great ideas imo. If we made them our own we would't have to rely on a bidding process etc.

old gregg

Tall Ships for Kilkenny

abouttobebanned

They'd have trouble hosting a tall vans festival.

Speak Now

Tall ships in Dublin this August.

Silverado

I think that there is every chance that we will get the Tall Ships back in 2016 or 2017. They like going back to suitable venues and Waterford is one of their favourite places. That's because of our Quay layout and deep water docking. The largest of the Tall Ships can berth here and the bigger the better to create a spectacle. Many of their other venues are not half as good - and that includes Cork.

Our only downside is our general location being so far west in Europe. These ships are commercial enterprises and they are working in crew changeovers who have travelled from all over Europe on a budget. Its often cheaper to fly to the UK than Ireland or Waterford.

I also happen to think that the Volvo Ocean Race could be on the cards but remember that we are 12 miles up the river from open water and they need to hold Harbour Races during their stopover. These races would need to be held down around Dunmore to give them enough space. Also, there are only six large yachts to look at. This is in no way comparable to 70 or 80 large square riggers and other older craft.

Galway were lucky to host the VOR this year since we didn't even have an entry. Last time we were in with the Irish/Chinese entry Green Dragon.

Finnbar01

Jason Todd wrote: »

While I'd love to see the Tall Ships back, I'd like to think we could host a festival (or two) of our own close to that size, we've proved we can do it. Two festival ideas mooted on here before were a Beer Festival and a Viking Festival, they are great ideas imo. If we made them our own we would't have to rely on a bidding process etc.

Oh please no, not a beer festival, we have enough drunking shenigans going on as it is already.

A viking festival is a great idea. I also think having a world record breaking festival would be great too.

Nypd

Word has it that it COST the city 14 million to host the event.
City manager is none to keen on it.
It was a great year for the city last year festival wise.
This year it looks like we have Spraoi and the harvest festival.

abouttobebanned

I could think of 14 millions ways to make money during the tall ships. With the amount of people that visited the city that week id be very disappointed if the city manager really felt like this

wellboytoo

I don't think the City Council spent anyway near 14 million, they did spend substantial monies though. A lot of it was on structural stuff that was a once off and puts that infrastructure in place for future festivals.
So we are now geared up to do festivals , I am sure they are actively searching for new opportunities .

merlante

Nypd wrote: »

Word has it that it COST the city 14 million to host the event.
City manager is none to keen on it.
It was a great year for the city last year festival wise.
This year it looks like we have Spraoi and the harvest festival.

If so, that's some pretty retarded event management.

Didn't we have a thread on people with stalls getting ripped off, hotels ripping off, etc. Now apparently we hear that the event made a massive loss. Did they pay for the ships to be airlifted to Waterford or something?

Silverado

Nypd wrote: »

Word has it that it COST the city 14 million to host the event. .

I never heard any report of a loss of that nature. Festivals such as these will cost the local authorities initially but when they gain momentum they will pay it back. This may be in the form of rates and local taxes but the money does come in. The figure I remember hearing about was that the city made about €30 million on the event.

Remember the vast majority of the work was done by volunteers at their own expense. They did it because they love being associated with Tall Ships and Waterford's associated heritage with the port and the sea. These people came from all over the south east of Ireland and some even travelled from abroad to assist in the event. Where possible the City Council allowed sporting organisation to run facilities for their own profit using their own volunteers, i.e. programme selling, car parks etc.

I think that we could run a similar event again but it would need to be of the same type. You won't get that commitment from hundreds of volunteers to run just any ordinary festival.