Verena Cornwall - Creative Director, St Patrick's Day Festival
I’M FROM Winchester but at the moment I’m living in the Gibson Hotel, down near the O2. I started working on the festival part-time last July and at this stage it feels as if the hotel has adopted me.
I get up in the morning and, after getting breakfast in bed – a poached egg, I’m a really healthy eater – I’ll do an hour-and-a-half of e-mails.
I work on around seven big events in various countries each year so I need to keep on top of the overall picture.
I take the Luas and then walk across St Stephen’s Green to our offices in Earlsfort Terrace. I’ll pick my lunch up on the way, a salad and some fruit, and be in for 10am.
My role is to ensure the artistic quality of the festival but there is no structure to my day and no two days are alike.
Last night we had the festival launch so this morning we checked the papers for coverage and then went straight into a parade meeting. Everybody from hospitality to sponsors to the production team and the parade co-ordinators came in so we could sit down and go through the route plan.
It was a very long meeting and it ran straight into a second one about the Big Day Out. It’s mid afternoon now and I’m still waiting to eat that lunch.
This year’s parade is going to be amazing though. When I first got involved I suggested the idea of basing the parade on a specially commissioned story, and said Roddy Doyle would be top of my wish list to write it.
The very next day I was at the Electric Picnic and who was speaking in the Arts Council literary tent only him. By the end of his presentation I had squeezed my way up front and nabbed him. We met for afternoon tea the following week and he very kindly agreed to do it. It’s a fabulous story, called Brilliant, which you can read on our website. Each pageant company is interpreting a chapter with the bands acting as “page turners” in between. It will be fantastic.
This afternoon I’m heading out to the Big Day Out area for a consultation meeting with authorities, such as the fire department.
On other days I could be anywhere around the country meeting with pageant companies, such as Fir Bolg in Wexford which is putting on a show for the fireworks display.
I finish up at 8pm but the heat goes off at 5pm so I’ve to wear two cardigans because it gets so cold. I’m not familiar with how the parade used to be in the old days but I still get around 30 e-mails a day from businesses asking if they can put a float in the parade. I have to tell them, nicely, it’s not like that anymore.
- stpatricksfestival.ie
- In conversation with SANDRA O'CONNELL