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Tune in to take part in the Limerick St Patricks Festival 2021!

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3 years ago

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Limerick St Patricks Festival 2021 takes place virtually this year!

Tune in to take part in the Limerick St Patricks Festival 2021!

Limerick people at home and abroad are being invited to tune in to take part in this year’s jam-packed virtual Limerick St Patrick’s Festival featuring some world-class musicians and a host of online events to celebrate our national day!

Limerick City and County Council, with the support of Fáilte Ireland, has created a festival programme of online events and fun family content that will be broadcast on Limerick.ie/StPatricksFestival and on ‘Limerick St Patrick’s Festival’ social media.


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The headline event is Wild Atlantic Edge – Music, Conversations, and Songs from Limerick City.

Working in partnership with Dolans, we invite you to experience a virtual musical celebration from Limerick, Ireland’s gateway to the Wild Atlantic Way and enjoy, among others, some of Ireland’s most celebrated musicians Sharon Shannon, Hermitage Green, MuRli, Emma Langford, and a host of surprise special guests.

Grammy Award winner Rhiannon Giddens will be the star attraction in the Virtual St Patrick’s Day Fling in collaboration with the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, University Concert Hall (UCH), and UL Global. Limerick’s young musicians will also be showcasing their talents from the Irish Chamber Orchestra’s Sing Out with Strings and the Irish Chamber Orchestra Youth Orchestra, and Music Generation Limerick City.

It will certainly be a festival unlike previous ones but that doesn’t mean it won’t be as special. The public are being asked to embrace this new-style festival and tune in to take part!

This year’s Limerick St Patrick’s Festival will also host family workshops from Limerick’s Lumen Street Theatre and the Hunt Museum and retrospectives on Limerick St Patrick’s Day Parades and International Band Championships gone by.

There will be an aerial performance from locally based Fidget Feet Aerial Dance Theatre from the stunning backdrop of King John’s Castle.

In addition, we will be celebrating our Limerick Diaspora, linking up with our sister and twinned city around the world, knowing that many of them would love to return to Limerick but cannot at present.

Fáilte Ireland is supporting Limerick St Patrick’s Festival in order to keep Ireland at the forefront and help position Limerick as ‘the’ place to celebrate St Patrick’s Day when it is safe to travel again. They have provided funding to support the greening of locations across Limerick this March, marketing content creation, web development and the festival’s long term development plans.

Mayor of the City and County of Limerick Cllr Michael Collins said: “Limerick’s St Patrick’s Festival is always a special occasion and this year is no different, even though the way we are celebrating in a different way. It’s now more important than ever that we work to keep Limerick in the forefront of people’s minds.”

“By using technology and creating online content, it is the best way of celebrating our national holiday this year – at home with family.”

“We are placing our creatives and musicians at the heart of the programming, providing them with much needed support so they can do what they do best – create and inspire us while spreading happiness and joy.” Limerick St Patricks Festival

 Dr. Pippa Little, Culture and Arts Officer with Limerick City and County Council said: “The online programme celebrates Limerick, our artists, buildings and history. Much of it is brought to us by Limerick’s creatives; cultural organisations, artists and young people. They continue to perform and create new work, and for the Limerick St. Patrick’s Festival this year we can all enjoy concerts for young and old and aerial performances, from home.”Limerick St Patricks Festival

“Families can tune in and take part at the kitchen table in making St. Patrick’s themed costumes, including a magnificent snake headdress, with Lumen Street Theatre and applique badges with the Hunt Museum. Limerick’s participation in Fáilte Ireland’s Destination Greening initiative lights up more than twenty buildings across the city and county in green.”

Cathaoirleach of the Metropolitan District of Limerick, Cllr Sarah Kiely added: “This year we have an amazing line up for Limerick St Patrick’s Festival with big names for online concerts here in Limerick.”

“This keeps Limerick St. Patrick’s Festival in the limelight too especially for our International Band Championship which draws people from all over the world but mostly from the USA, where the majority of our tourists for St Patrick’s Day comes from.”

“It has to be a priority to keep the connection alive and maintain relationships with our diaspora and ensure next year we get them back here in Limerick. It is worth so much in terms of the economy and employment in the region.”

Keep up to date with the full festival line-up on Limerick.ie/StPatricksFestival

Programme of Events:

Destination Greening 13 – 20 March Limerick Tourism, Culture and Arts Department is working on Fáilte Ireland’s Destination Greening initiative to light up buildings across Limerick city and county. Some of the buildings going green’ are: King John’s Castle, Merchant’s Quay; St Mary’s Cathedral; Limerick City Gallery of Art; Hunt Museum; Askeaton Friary; Rathkeale Library; Foynes Flying Boat and Maritime Museum; Friar’s Gate Theatre, Kilmallock; Glin Castle; Cappamore Library

 
Family Workshops 13 & 14 March ·       Saints and Snakes with Lumen Street Theatre – Available online from 10am on 13 March, these two St. Patricks Festival family workshops will outline step-by-step instructions on how to make a Snake Head-piece and a bespoke St. Patrick’s costume, including a Mitre and paper beard. Both workshops use recycled items found around the home.

·       Arts & Crafts St Patrick’s Day Special with the Hunt Museum –An arts and crafts family fun workshop- inspired by the lace components in some Sybil Connolly fashion designs. Using these as inspiration, participants will create appliqué style St Patrick’s Day badges. Available online from 10am on 14 March

 
Tuesday 16 March ·       Sister and Twinned Cities – Previous guests from our sister cities of New Brunswick and Spokane in the United States and our twinned city of Hohenlohekreis in Germany send St Patrick’s Day wishes.

·       Best of Limerick’s St. Patrick’s Festivals – highlights showcasing the best of the Limerick St Patrick’s Festivals of the last few years.

 
St Patrick’s Day Wednesday 17 March ·       Mayoral Welcome – Mayor Michael Collins will deliver a note of welcome to formally kick off the Limerick Virtual St Patrick’s Festival celebrations

·       A ‘Limerick Toast’ from Abroad – Limerick’s diaspora send messages home for St. Patrick’s Day.

·       Tune In To History – Dr. Matthew Potter, Curator Limerick Museum, will share fun facts about the history of St. Patrick’s Day parades in Limerick

·       The Irish Chamber Orchestra: Sláinte String Along featuring Sing Out with Strings: Irish Chamber Orchestra Youth Orchestra – Two performances by the young musicians of Sing Out With Strings and Irish Chamber Orchestra Youth Orchestra.

·       Music Generation Limerick City – MGLC.LIVE This programme features performances for teenage songwriters, producers and composers working with the Limerick Voices programme, fresh from their successful collaboration with a group of spoken word artists in India and from Music Generation’s Musicians Team under the musical direction of Boris Hunka.

·       Fidget Feet Aerial Dance Theatre – Abduction from On High – St. Patrick in the Sky. Fidget Feet returns to King John’s Castle to create a new aerial dance film. St Patrick has returned to Ireland to make sure that the snakes that once roamed Ireland are forever gone! He has arrived at King John’s Castle in Limerick to give his final ceremony celebrating that all of Ireland is once again saved, but out of the sky comes a snake! Who can save who? 

 
Concerts – St Patrick’s Day

 

 ·       The Virtual St Patrick’s Day Fling! The Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, the University Concert Hall & UL Global in partnership with Limerick City and County Council presents a once in a life time experience with performers from all over the world for a tremendously exciting and unique online St. Patrick’s Day experience. Featuring Grammy award winner Rhiannon Giddens.

·       Limerick City and County Council in partnership with Dolans: Wild Atlantic Edge – Music, Conversations and Songs from Limerick City. We might not all be able to touch the green, green grass of home this St Patrick’s Day, so instead we invite you to experience a virtual musical celebration from Limerick, Ireland’s gateway to the Wild Atlantic Way. This St Patrick’s Day we will celebrate brighter days ahead with a showcase of Irish musical talent representing some of the best Irish artists from the traditional, contemporary music and dance scene. Take a front seat as we invite you to join in a warm Limerick embrace and Shannonside Céad Míle Fáilte. Presented by Olivia Chau with performances by:

o   Murli

o   Toucan

o   Windings

o   Mick Flannery and Susan O’ Neill

o   Sharon Shannon

o   Hermitage Green

o   Emma Langford

o   Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh and Billy Mag Fhloinn

o   Selection of local musicians, singers, and dancer

 

For more stories on St Patrick’s Day go HERE

For more information on this go HERE

 

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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.