ORGANISERS OF the Dublin New Year Festival have conceded that lack of publicity for the event may hamper its success in its maiden year.
The festival, which began yesterday in the capital with street theatre around Grafton Street and South King Street and a choreographed illuminated event, Solas, at Dublin Castle, continues today.
There will be events in several pubs tonight.
A ticketed supper and music party in the Guinness Storehouse, featuring DJs and a number of bands, including the Republic of Loose and the Joshua Tree, starts at 9pm.
Tickets are still available and cost €79.
A second ticketed event takes place at Christ Church Cathedral, with the Dublin Gospel Choir and the ringing of the bells at midnight. Tickets are also still available for this at €30 to €39.
“We expect to sell both the events out,” said festival director Barry O’Sullivan.
Their vision was that the festival’s popularity would be cumulative, he said, building over the next five years to be a “massive event in 2015, on the eve of a year that will be momentous for Dublin”.
In 2016 the city will mark the centenary of the 1916 Rising.
When asked about the low-key coverage, he said this had been down to a combination of factors.
“It has been a terrible year financially to get people to invest in anything.
“And I guess no matter what we did it was always difficult trying to get publicity when the big stories people wanted to talk about were the Budget, the bailout and then the snow.
“It has been difficult to get coverage,” he said.
“But this is the festival’s first year and we expect it to be a success, despite the difficulties.
“It is starting small and the plan is to double its scope and attendances year on year to 2015,” he added.
“The point is to try and keep people in the city to celebrate New Year’s Eve rather than to leave, and to attract people to this city in the way they currently are to Edinburgh, London, Paris.”
Its main sponsors are Diageo, Fáilte Ireland and Dublin City Council.
Other events around the State include a street party in Dingle Co Kerry, with fireworks over the bay at 10 pm; a night of 1960s music at the Pavilion in Cork, also starting at 10 pm. Tickets for this are priced at €15.
The Saw Doctors play the Royal Theatre in Castlebar, Co Mayo. Doors open 9pm, tickets €25.
In Dublin, aside from the festival, a number of gigs are set to take place tonight, including RSAG at the Workman’s Club (€15), Fight Like Apes at the Village (€20) and And So I Watched You From Afar at Whelan’s (€20).
