Kildare Village Summer Festival

For anyone yet to experience the Kildare Village Summer Festival, I’d suggest that you look to this weekend as the perfect time to get down there. The four-week long festival brings together entertainment, shopping and Irish artisan food all within the comfortable and relaxed setting of Kildare Village. The festival, which launched on July 1st with the arrival of star guest Whitney Port, designer of Whitney Eve, may be nearly two weeks in but it isn’t losing any momentum and in my opinion is getting better and better with each passing day.

One of this years highlights for me is taking place this Friday from a specially constructed stage in the piazza. As part of the festival and to celebrate Kildare Village’s fifth anniversary there will be a free gig from Choice Music Prize nominee Cathy Davy. The free gig is on at 8pm and all you need to do is register on the site and become a VIP member of Kildare Village. Easy peasy!

Another part of the festival that I think is particularly cool is something from their star guest, Whitney Eve. Whitney has created an exclusive canvas bag for Barretstown, which is exclusively available in Kildare Village for the duration of Summertime Festival, priced at €15. Best of all, all profits go to Barretstown.

Whitney Port commented, ‘I am so excited to be the face of the Summertime Festival @ Kildare Village especially as I get to take part in my two favourite pastimes shopping and designing. I’ve created the perfect summer bag which will be sold at Kildare Village to raise money for Barretstown children’s charity. This will be my first visit to Ireland and The Summertime Festival makes Kildare Village the perfect stop for me to enjoy performances, food and entertainment this July. ‘

Dee Ahearn, CEO of Barretstown commented, 'We are delighted Kildare Village has chosen to support Barretstown in their Summertime Festival campaign with the launch of the canvas bag by Whitney Port. This year as Kildare Village celebrates their fifth anniversary, Barretstown will pass the milestone of welcoming 20,000 children and their families from Ireland and across Europe since being founded in 1994. Childhood cancer affects so many families in Ireland each year, and through the support of Kildare Village, we can continue to welcome as many campers as possible each year.’

This is really just a snapshot of everything going on and I would strongly recommend that you pop over to www.kildarevillage.com/summertimefestival for full details.

Get Your Giggle on for ReachOut.com

Having been lucky enough to work with the good people at Reachout.com before this is something a little close to my heart. On 26th July 2011 Reachout.com is hosting a comedy night at The Sugar Club. Basically this is an awesome opportunity to help raise money for ReachOut.com and have an excellent evening of comedy.

The MC for the evening is an old friend of mine and an absolutely hilarious gent, the magnificent Fred Cooke. Fred is joined by Jack Wise, Eric Lalor and Shazwanda.

Fresh from his performance at this year’s Street Performance World Championship, Jack Wise is sure to mesmerise the audience with his speciality cocktail of comedy and magic all served up with a solid slice of sarcasm. Meanwhile, the warm and energetic Lalor will leave the audience with a warm fuzzy feeling that only a belly laugh can, showing why he goes down such a treat with comedy gig goers across the land.

Keeping the boys in check with her razor sharp North Dublin wit is the disarmingly demure Shazwanda. With hair extensions and high heels galore, Shazwanda is a shining example of why the Dublin sense of humour is so side splittingly special.

For those of you not familiar with ReachOut.com I'd urge you to click through to their site and check them out. They're a service dedicated to taking the mystery out of mental health, removing the taboos and bringing mental health issues out into the open. With this event all proceeds from the sales of tickets will go to helping ReachOut.com deliver the best service it can to young people with something on their minds.

This event is kindly supported by the Macquarie Group Foundation and its Dublin staff.

Tickets cost €20, available through entertainment.ie. The event starts at 8pm and is strictly over 18s.

Guinness - The Power To Lift Us All

Today, Monday 11th July, Guinness launched a new advertising campaign in support of its GAA Hurling All-Ireland Senior Championship sponsorship. Entitled “The Power to Lift Us All” the campaign brings to life the way the game of hurling and its players inspire and thrill a nation through the unique place the game holds in our hearts. For many Irish people Hurling is more than a sport. It instils a sense of cultural and national pride.

The campaign was created by Irish International and photographed by Kevin Griffin, with photographic retouching by Taylor James.

Speaking about the campaign, Guinness Brand Manager, Barry Fitzpatrick said, “With this campaign, we wanted to recognize Hurling as a uniquely Irish icon and an inspiration for people across the country. The 2010 Hurling Final drew the biggest audience for RTE of any sporting event last year, highlighting just how highly regarded it is as the national game. Hurling is a part of what we are and has a unique ability to inspire, not only fans of the game, or of a winning county, but the whole country.”

The overall campaign will also include PR and digital activity, and a media partnership with Newtalk, which includes the Guinness Hurling Greats series of recordings with players, managers, referees and fans that bring to life iconic and game changing moments in the sport.

Stay tuned and as soon as I have more details on these additional elements I'll get them straight up, of course in the mean time make sure to check out the above graphic in it's full glory.

PhotoIreland VAI Professional Development Programme

Following an extremely successful 2010, PhotoIreland Festival is back for 2011. On top of a great lineup of exhibitions there are loads of workshops and seminars on, and the most interesting in my opinion is the PhotoIreland VAI Professional Development Programme. Visual Artists Ireland (VAI) in partnership with PhotoIreland Festival are running a limited series of professional development seminars aimed at emerging and established photographers to help in four key business areas: Professional Practice, Money Matters, Negotiation and Experience.

The four sessions take place over the closing weekend of PhotoIreland Festival on 23rd and 24th of July in La Catedral Studios off Thomas Street. While this is primarily aimed at Photographers it may be of interest to all artistic practices but places are limited so advance booking is essential. Prices are €20 for non-members and €15 for VAI members or €60 for all 4 sessions.

Professional Practice: Online marketing with Mary Carty
23/07/11 10:00 – 13:00
This session will teach you how to grow your profile, build your network and promote your work online. By using social media tools like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Flickr effectively, you can grow your audience and position yourself as an expert in your field. I will use case studies and practical walk throughs to help you get the most from your time online.

Money Matters: Preparing Proposals & Grant Applications with Eilis Lavelle & Sarah Searson
23/07/11 14:00 – 17:00
This session will look at the proposal and application preparation process in detail exploring the strategic skills required to ensure that you submission is seriously considered. The session will include information on writing and preparing, documentation or visual packages, application forms etc. It is aimed at artists who wish to apply for resources and opportunities such as: funding; residencies; exhibitions and commissions.

Negotiation: Dealing with Public/ Private Galleries with Jerome O’ Drisceoil & Karen Downey
24/07/11 10:00 – 13:00
This training session is designed to give artists the confidence and knowledge to build strong relationships with curators and to get the most out of their experience when working with a private or public gallery. It will look at: Do’s and don’ts in approaching or presenting work to galleries. Being clear on why you want to exhibit; clarity of the artist’s intention for the artwork; clarity of ambition and expected outcomes for an exhibition. It will also examine roles and responsibilities for both the artists and the gallery. Understanding element of planning an exhibition, time-line, budget and production value. The expectations and motivations for an exhibition from both the gallery’s and artist’s perspectives.

Experience: Career Options with Anthony Luvera; Dragana Jurisic; Liam Campbell & Stephanie Joy
24/07/11 14:00 – 17:00
This session is aimed at emerging photographers and is designed to show them the variety of career options available to them. Our panelists have a variety of careers and availed of numerous and varied opportunities all within the umbrella of photography. From commercial photography to book publishing and from teaching to collaborating, each of our panelists will explain how they came to be in their current position and the opportunities and decisions that accompany them.


For more information and booking go to www.visualartists.ie/education or contact Donna on +353 (0)86 3505 722 or donna.kiernan@gmail.com

Be a Budweiser Ice Cold Index Weatherman

By now I’m sure you’re well aware of the Buweiser Ice Cold Index and its spokesman, Ireland’s newest weather man Scott Campbell. In an exciting development of the campaign, Scott has landed in Ireland and has announced that he’s here to search for his weather presenting co-star. Scott is looking for one lucky individual to star alongside him and present a weather bulletin that will be broadcast on national television.

Speaking about his visit, Scott said, “I’m excited to finally arrive in Ireland and begin the search for my co-star. I’m guessing it’s going to be tough competition as I’ve heard the Irish really have the gift of the gab and combined with that great Irish charm, these are the key ingredients I’m looking for.”

As the face of Budweiser Ice Cold Index, Scott is recognisable for his slick weather presenting style both on TV and on outdoor ads all over Ireland for the last couple of months. Scott’s co-star will need to be just as effortlessly cool, and exude a instant likeability, as well as bringing buckets of charisma and charm. Essentially, Scott wants someone who can inject that Index excitement into their weather bulletin and really help to make this summer in Ireland a whole lot more interesting.

To kick off the search and to celebrate the USA’s biggest holiday, Scott is hosting a 4th July party from 6pm in DTwo, Harcourt Street, Dublin 2 on Thursday 30th June. With help MC’ing from Today FM’s Ray Foley and music from Fourplay DJs (98FM’s Steven Cooper, Rory Lynam, FM104’s Killian O’Sullivan and Q102’s Ray Shah), this is your chance to put yourself forward.

Dublin is the first of three heats in the search for Scott’s co-star. Scott will continue his search at the Galway Races and also in Cork later in the summer. Each finalist selected from the three heats will win €1,000 and go through to the final heat to win the overall prize which includes starring alongside Scott on national TV and winning the ultimate holiday to Los Angeles.

To check out Scott and keep up-to-date with the search for his co-star, visit the Facebook page where there will also be regular competitions, updates from Scott and invitations to the hottest events throughout the summer. You can also follow Scott on Twitter.