New Galway festival aims to ride wave of success

Date Published: 14-Feb-2013

It’s an amazingly rich resource, sitting on our doorstep. But until recently, Galway tended to underestimate the value of the Atlantic Ocean to the city and county.

That’s changing and this year sees the inaugural Galway Sea Festival, which is being held in the city on the June Bank Holiday weekend.

“It’s a community based and city-wide Festival, incorporating many different elements,” says Declan Dooley, President of Galway Chamber of Commerce, which is co-ordinating the event.

The new Festival will highlight Galway’s rich maritime heritage in a way that’s designed to attract tourism, with a special emphasis on families.

One of its great strengths is that it’s not being headlined with alcohol related activities, he adds.

“It’s about families getting involved and getting active.

“We are trying to package all the disparate things that take place all the time in Galway,” explains Declan. These include kayaking, rowing, paddle sailing, surfing, and other sports that are growing in popularity.

“It’s about pulling all these together and getting momentum going,” he says, adding that “it’s going to require a lot of input from different organisations and businesses”.

Galway Bay Sailing Club is planning to bring its annual regatta into the city on the Festival weekend, and this will provide the spectacle of 45 racing boats for locals and visitors. In addition, the cruising side of the club is hoping to have 150 boats based in the marina at the docks and sailing around the Bay.

“There is a great opportunity here to position Galway as a stopover for cruising boats – not massive liners but small boats from 34-60 feet which people sail for leisure and pleasure,” Declan says. While Ireland is a popular venue for international leisure sailors, they frequently comment about the lack of facilities in the country.

However, since hosting the Volvo Ocean Race, the berthing facilities at Galway docks have been developed and “are made for this kind of visitor”.

The Galway Harbour Company now operates a 31-berth pontoon marina in the Harbour, with an additional eight berths available along a 60-metre pontoon/walkway. Fresh water and electricity are available at the pontoons.

Last weekend, some 40 boats were tied up at the Docks, none of them commercial and that’s due to the fact that the marina has been developed, Declan observes.

“If you build it, they will come.”

In the past, we have tended to forget that that Galway is a maritime city, he feels.

But that has changed. An Ocean Sports Centre has opened in the Harbour Enterprise Park, housing a range of clubs including the Claddagh Boatmen, the Galway City Sailing Club, the Galway Kayak Club, The Galway Sub Aqua Club and the NUIG Sailing Club.

In addition, the company West Sails have offices there and offer a sail making and sail repair business, which is a new development since 2011.

That makes it easier to organise major sailing events, says Declan; until recently if you had such an event and someone damaged a sail, it couldn’t be repaired, now it can.

But Galway’s newest Festival is not just about sea-based activities.

It will also host onshore events, including walks along the city’s canals, exploring their history and highlighting the various clubs that use these resources.

Family events will include beach safaris where children will be shown how to identify different wildlife along the seashore. The Galway Atlantaquarium is working with the organisers on this and is supplying expertise and equipment.

Also for families, there will be a sandcastle world record attempt.

There will be culture too, and Salthill will host top-class music events with the group Trad on the Prom staging a special show for the Festival.

Throughout the city, there will be street entertainment, music, food trails and other activities.

“It’s about combining lots of small events into a big Festival. Galway Chamber of Commerce is steering the event, but we don’t want to own it,” Declan remarks.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.