238,000 attend Ocean Race festival

Date Published: 02-Jun-2009

THE biggest crowds the city has even seen – a phenomenal 238,000 people – visited the Volvo Ocean Race village over the last week in what has been declared by the race bosses as the most successful stopover yet.

Gardai have estimated that the crowd on Saturday night alone when Sharon Shannon and friends rocked the harbour surpassed the numbers who have swarmed the city on the biggest Galway Plate nights of recent years.

Gwen O’Sullivan from organisers Let’s Do It Galway said since the event began on May 23 and until late into Saturday night, an estimated 238,000 passed through the village in the docks. There were
equally big crowds on Sunday and bank holiday Monday.

One of the highlights so far was the in-port racing at Salthill on Saturday when an estimated 100,000 lined the Green Dragon route from the docks to the beach.

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