800,000 people to enjoy race festival

Up to 800,000 people are expected to throng to the west this weekend and next week as the Volvo Ocean Race finishes in Galway.

Although the six yachts taking part in the world’s most prestigious round-the-world yacht race will not arrive into Galway until July 3, festivities kick off on Saturday and run until July 8.

Three years ago, Galway put on a party to remember for the Volvo Ocean Race stopover. It was such a success that this time around, the city was given the honour of being the finishing port for the nine-month race and is expected to bring upwards of €80m to the economy.

As well as the six yachts finishing in Galway, a further 2,000 leisure craft of all shapes and sizes are expected to descend on Galway to view the events.

The final leg of the race takes place from Lorient in France, which is a twin city of Galway, and the crews will be welcomed in by President Michael D Higgins.

As with the arrival of the yachts in 2009, tens of thousands of people are expected to line the route of the bay from Salthill into Galway docks to welcome the competitors. The following day there will be a fireworks display to celebrate America’s Independence Day.

The biggest free open air music festival of the year will take place during the festival and is expected to attract over 150,000 visitors to Galway’s waterfront.

The nightly concerts will feature some of the country’s best-known and up-and-coming bands and entertainers and will be one of the centrepieces of the global TV coverage of the event.

During the 2009 Volvo stopover in Galway, tens of thousands of music fans thronged the waterfront each night for similar free concerts and organisers of this year’s festival say this year will be even bigger and better.

A Global Village is also being erected for the occasion and will promote job creation possibilities in the Galway region.

The Food Fair, one of the innovations of this year’s festival, will see Darina Allen, Kevin Dundon, Ross Lewis, Neven Maguire and Mickael Viljanen in action in the waterfront Kitchen Theatre being constructed in the Global Village Food Pavilion.

Running at a budget of €10.5m, the event is expected to break even and local businesses made the event possible by offering services and products free of charge to organisers.

With a global audience of over 800 million following all or part of the progress of the gruelling 39,000-mile race, president of the event’s co-ordinators, Let’s Do It Global, John Killeen, said it was a once in a lifetime opportunity to showcase Galway to the world. “There have been many articles and radio and TV interviews describing Galway as one of the most exciting and welcoming cities in the world and this will be a once in a lifetime opportunity to showcase Galway and the West of Ireland as a tourist destination.”