It will be the culmination of what promises to be a unique festival on 11 and 12 July, in Mullingar, the heart of Ireland. Plans are unfolding nicely, with many local entertainers and artists getting on board as the organisers shape what is going to be a really great event and hopefully the start of something transformational for the town.
Maria Bourke, the festival’s founder, said the immediate plan is to spend some time reaching out to Irish people on foreign shores to promote the Heart Of Ireland celebration.
“Later this week, Melanie will be travelling to Manchester, to start tying down the international centres that will send their contestants to Mullingar to compete for the Heart of Gold. As the original reason for the festival was to attract tourists to Mullingar – especially the 84 million Irish Diaspora – we have decided to open the competition to as many international contestants as possible,” she explained.
“There are well managed and organised Irish centres around the world in a position to quickly and easily select a contestant for Mullingar. Likewise, with international publicity in the Irish communities worldwide due to the festival, those saving to come to Ireland since The Gathering in 2013 will hopefully put Mullingar and the Midlands on their visit list – even if they are not in Ireland during our actual festival,” added Maria.
Maria is hoping that being able to demonstrate strong national and international hotel night stays this year will put the festival in the running for Fáilte Ireland funding next year.
“Year one was always going to be the most difficult. We have so much ground to cover and very steep learning curves to manoeuvre. Thankfully, so far so good. We are very happy with our progress to date under the circumstances. Several companies currently considering which level of sponsorship to agree are blown away by what we have achieved and the publicity plans we have before the event and the corporate / brand opportunities during the festival. In truth we cannot make as much progress as we would like, for one simple reason. Our biggest obstacle at the moment – in fact our only obstacle – is lack of money,” she said.
A sponsorship package is available since last week and in addition to the significant packages available to businesses to promote their company/brand either locally, nationally and internationally – organisers have created a new option where a group or company can sponsor a contestant for the weekend of the festival.
“We are still a small team, so we are relying on people getting in touch with us. To request a sponsorship pack or to offer help / support please email: maria@heartofireland.ie,” said Maria.
