A great year for citizens of Limerick City
2006 will go down in the history of Limerick City, for this year was the year Limerick City Council finally made providing entertainment a priority for the people of this great city. And although many would feel nothing monumental occurred this year, reality shows that this was very much a year of development but the spokes are turning and the latter part of the year has been spent planning for next year, an idea unimaginable by public entertainment providers in this city thus far.
The year kicked off with Limerick’s annual ‘Un-fringed’ festival, headline acts including comedian Karl Spain and The Frames. Un-Fringed is one of those great festivals I urge people to search for information on and enjoy it at their pearl (see links at bottom of post). The city’s contempory arts festival EV+A spralled right out across the city and was acclaimed as Irelands best arts festival, from presentations in Limerick City Gallery of Art to free coffee in the ‘Story Café’ the two month long festival was as per usual a hit.
This year also was the year of the ‘mini-Munsterfests’ which saw parades running from the city centre to ‘Fortress Thomond Park’, debates and book signings by top rugby analysts and meet ‘n’ greets organised with the team. Also Limerick Boatclub (although now closed) was the place to be this year with amazing gigs catering for new audiences in the city was a haven for those who really enjoyed a good night out.
The announcement that for the first time in the cities 800-year history a professional entertainment company will run Limerick Springfest (incorporating the St. Patrick’s Day Parade and International Band Recital) and Limerick Riverfest. Eightball Promotions and Media set up Limerick City Festivals office and within only six weeks of having the contract pulled off Limerick Springfest. A festival marred in controversy because Limerick City Council didn’t release the funds for two parades thus meaning Limericks Band Parade was mixed with the St. Patrick’s Day celebrations. Critics complained that the parade was the shortest in years, although organisers pointed out that this years was the first in decades to actually begin on time and had the exact same amount of groups as 2005 parade, but prided themselves with bringing more bands to the International Marching Band Parade then Limerick has seen since 2001 (before 9/11).
Eight weeks later and Limerick got a real sense of how a city should celebrate a 
three day weekend. Riverfest ’06 showcased the city at its best! The city was a festive playground from the International BBQ on Georges Quay right across the city to an extreme sports expo outside Peter Clohessys. Crowds numbering in the thousands enjoyed the sports and BMX action in Arthurs Quay Park, while Crusis Street played host to an outdoor circus, the riverfront was the scene of high speed boat-racing and an incredible firework display, the cities theatres showcased the best of limerick as Riverfest brought with it a fringe festive, and Budweiser Global Beats meant we had 54 free gigs to attend to.
Only 1 month later the city had another glorious weekend, as 15,000 people took to O’Connell Street to watch the historic Heineken Cup final on Europe’s largest screen. After the final whistle the city was on a high for two days straight the atmosphere was in one word awesome. On the Sunday 40,000 people stood on O’Connell Street to welcome to team home through rain and strikingly cold winds they sang and celebrated. As Paul O’Connell came up to the mic Queens ‘We are the Champions’ blasted out loud, red fireworks exploded and confetti fell from the buildings, Mayor Diarmuid Scully renamed O’Connell Street, Paul O’Connell Street, just for the special day.
The summer sun shone down on Bedford row as the city council organised an opening bash on the newly pedestrianised street, with free food and a weekend of free outdoor concerts as well as street theatre.
The year was finished with Limericks Christmas celebrations, which included an Ice Rink, Panto’s, Santa, Acrobats and an abundance of Carol Singers.
These are only the most major of this years festivals, there are just too many to summarise its only a pity that the general public are largely unaware of these festivals and how to be a part of them. Many are only advestised at the back of The 
Limerick Post the weekend of the events, I recommend checking as soon as you can to be part. People in Limerick complain that “nothing ever happens here�, but we actually have a huge array of different festivals unfortunately these suffer from poor attendance due to little funding meaning the money goes to the actual event rather than promotion of it and also an indifference to these events by Limerick-men and –women, who generally need to be told by a friend that attending is worthwhile but be aware things do happen here as you can see the list above is long other events of note would include ‘Cuisle’, Limerick City International Poetry Festival, Euroshow (Funderland) funfair, ‘Sionna’ Music and Dance Festival, Twilight Summer Festival, Red Bull flugtag, ‘Music in the Parks’ Band festival, Guinness Christmas Racing Festival, Fresh Film Festival and many more….
The city even has some mad festivals such as Limerick Festival of Church Music in March which is described on the Shannon Region tourism site as “Competitions in sacred music, featuring choral groups�, these people are actually battling it out to see who sings praise the best. Theres a cinema festival (of sorts) which is running from May ’06 to March ’07 and is so to let everyone see and learn about all the cities minority cultures. We have more dance and classical music festivals then anywhere else
As I have mentioned something new about festivals in Limerick is that for once the city is now planning festivals ahead of the actual event. In 2007 prepare to witness a much-improved Springfest, an internationally acclaimed Riverfest and the Limerick Blogger can reveal talks are underway with to open up The Gaelic Grounds during the summer of 2007 to top Irish and international acts. The Limerick Blogger will keep you up to date on this information, as it becomes public, keep checking here throughout the year. Also see the Limerick newspapers and these websites:
LimerickSpringfest.com – Already updated with info on Springfest ‘07
LimerickRiverfest.com – All the listings for Riverfest
Sionna.com – Offical Website for Sionna music and dance festival
ShannonRegionTourism.ie – A comprehensive list of all the cities annual festivals (also includes once off closer to the date)
VisitLimerick.com – a list of festivals in the city
Also a good list of arts events in the city is posted on the city councils website, unfortunately we cannot link directly to the page but visit www.limerickcity.ie and under the ‘EVENTS’ heading click into ‘Arts Events’