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Great Limerick Run bands to entertain runners on the day

As part of the festivities happening throughout the Bon Secours Hospital Great Limerick Run, a returning key event is the Great Limerick Run bands, a feature of the run that has been running nearly as long as the main event itself.

Great Limerick Run bands to entertain runners on the day

by ilovelimerick correspondent Chloe O’Keeffe

One of Ireland’s mass participatory sporting events, The Bon Secours Hospital Great Limerick Run 2018 is taking place this May Bank Holiday weekend, Saturday and Sunday, May 5 and 6.


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So far, 7,650 people – including 1,830 children – have signed up for the major annual event, which expects to exceed €1m in charity fundraising.

With over 12,000 runners and between 25,000 and 35,000 spectators, a team of over 600 volunteers will help to deliver the event.

Three runs will take place: a half-marathon, a fun-run, and the full marathon. Some events are likely to sell out, especially the half marathon event as numbers are significantly up on previous years.

Great Limerick Run bands

The Great Limerick Run bands will be set up throughout the course of the Bon Secours Great Limerick Run.

As part of the festivities happening throughout the Bon Secours Hospital Great Limerick Run, a returning key event is the Great Limerick Run bands, a feature of the run that has been running nearly as long as the main event itself. The Bon Secours Hospital Great Limerick Run bands is a feature that the committee have introduced over the last number of years, in a bid to introduce music onto the course.

Speaking about the band’s feature of the run, Caolan Maloney of The Bon Secours Hospital Great Limerick run spoke of the several different reasons for the music throughout the course, “The first being the energy it brings to the route. We believe that it really aids the runners [and] gives them that extra life that they could possibly be lacking and needing,”

Not only will the runners be able to enjoy the music throughout the running course, but the music will be available to be enjoyed by onlookers also, making the event more open to the public, “The event is not only for the runners but for our spectators also, we want to bring a real festive mood around the city and a quiet course just wouldn’t be okay,” added Caolan, “The Bon Secours Hospital Great Limerick Run is about showcasing our city and what is great about Limerick.”

Throughout the course there will be thirteen massively talented Limerick-based musical acts, from bands to solo artists, and a fair share of DJs doing sets also!

Wedding band, Acoustra will be on track on the day, with band members Dylan Shine, Liam McCarthy and Pat Wright, all hailing from Clare who said it felt “great to be part of such a big event for Limerick City.”

19-year-olds Aaron Moloney and Liam Byrd, the duo behind Elenay music are another up and coming Clare band that will be playing on the Bon Secours Great Limerick Run course are both very “happy to be involved with such a big event in Limerick,” and having played last year are hopeful of more success.

Both the Retro Fusion Choir and the Limerick Gospel Choir will be playing music on the day. Valerie from the Limerick Gospel Choir spoke of how it is “always exciting to be a part of, [the] atmosphere is electric on the day [and it’s] an unbelievable experience to be in the thick of.”

The Limerick Gospel Choir are based in Limerick, and have approximately 30 members from the ages of mid 20’s to over 60’s with members that are local and abroad, such as Africa, Hungary, Serbia and Denmark, “to name but a few.”

Solo artists such as Stuart Bond, Anna’s Anchor and Fintan Maloney will also be sharing their musical talent to the runners and onlookers of the Bon Secours Great Limerick Run. Annacotty native, Marty is behind the creation of Anna’s Anchor, a solo project “for the most part… sometimes we’re lucky enough to tour full band,”. Marty is also a returning artist to the Great Limerick Run Bands, having played three years in a row previous, “It is lovely to be asked back and be a part of it each year, as a proud Limerick man, I’m delighted to play any part.”

DJ sets from DJ Kash, DJ Patrick Kelly, Pa Dunne, DJ Tom Cussen and DJ William Russell will be held throughout the running course on the day. 22-year-old Tom Cussen from Galbally will be returning to the Great Limerick Run Bands for a DJ set for his third year running and speaks of how it’s a “great opportunity to DJ for such a crowd on such a big day in Limerick!”

The Great Limerick Run 2018 is proudly supported by Limerick City and County Council. Limerick Sports Partnership, LIT, UL, various media partners and an Garda Síochána.

The Great Limerick Run 2018 is the best excuse to start getting a bit more active. To date, 75,000 hours of physical activity over 570,000 miles has been generated as an immediate result of the Great Limerick Run, and a massive 49.6% of participants have said the root cause of starting exercising was for the event. For full details on how to enter the Bon Secours Hospital Great Limerick Run 2018 visit www.greatlimerickrun.com.

 

For more stories on the Bon Secours Hospital Great Limerick Run go here.

For more info on the Bon Secours Hospital Great Limerick Run go here.

Richard is a presenter, producer, songwriter and actor. He was named the Limerick Person of the Year (2011) and won an online award at the Metro Éireann Media and Multicultural Awards (2011) for promoting multi-culturalism online. Richard says that the ilovelimerick.com concept is very much a community driven project that aims to document life in Limerick. So, that in 20 years time people can look back and remember the events that were making the headlines.