Northern Ireland’s biggest cultural family event The P&O Ferries Dalriada Festival in partnership with UTV, 18 – 25 July, officially launched today with the announcement that ‘Rollermania’ is set to take over when Bay City Rollers starring Les McKeown headlines the music concert on Saturday 18th July.
As usual the festival will feature the world famous Highland Games along with a jammed packed programme featuring top quality sport, music and food in the grounds of Glenarm Castle, with community events taking place in Glenarm Village throughout the week – so make sure you get the dates in your diary and don’t miss out!
Following a record crowd last year, the main event of the festival, the Glenarm Castle Highland Games, is back on Saturday 18th & Sunday 19th July. New to the games this year is the County Antrim Pipe Band Championships which will feature numerous bands from across N.Ireland and Scotland, as well as an expanded action packed programme of events to include live wrestling, additional music stages, more local foods, pop-up restaurants, shopping, displays, and back by popular demand, the ‘world’s only’ sheep fashion show. On Saturday 18th July the evening music concert will rock with nostalgia as Bay City Rollers starring Les McKeown take to the main stage along with Bagatelle, Hothouse Flowers and support from Rob Strong, Runabay and XOD dancers.
After the weekend festivities celebrations will continue for the rest of the week in the stunning village of Glenarm and wider community. An action packed programme of events will take place which will reach a spectacular finale with the ever stunning fireworks display.
Adrian Morrow, Festival Director, commented;
“We are delighted to get our ‘shang-a-lang’ on and officially launch The P&O Ferries Dalriada Festival in partnership with UTV for 2015. Whilst we saw record crowds last year and received fantastic feedback from visitors from across Northern Ireland and beyond we are pushing ourselves to raise the bar and ensure we pull out all the stops to make 2015 our biggest and best festival yet. With an incredible line up across sport, music and food – we have something for all the family. From amazing highland games and local strongmen to our every popular sheep fashion show to even more food events and a brilliant music showcase featuring Bay City Rollers, Bagatelle – to name but a few. As usual we couldn’t stage the festival without the continued support from our official sponsor P&O and our media partner UTV and this year we are delighted to welcome Decathlon as a new partner. We also appreciate the support from our many other partners as well as the commitment and enthusiasm of the staff, volunteers and the local community. Without this support the festival just wouldn’t be possible – to all of them we say a huge thank-you.”
Joanna Walsh from P&O Ferries, title sponsor of the event, said;
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“P&O Ferries is proud to be title sponsor for the 2015 Dalriada Festival. Each year, the festival improves more and more with the promise of fantastic food, great music and sporting action to keep the whole family entertained. It is sure to be another successful year!
“As operators of the shortest, fastest and most frequent crossings between Larne, Cairnryan and Troon, P&O Ferries is looking forward to welcoming many visitors from Scotland on board our sailings this summer to bring them across to the event. We wish the festival every success!”
Michael Wilson, Managing Director UTV, added;
“UTV has been a part of the P&O Ferries Dalriada Festival in Glenarm for the last four years and we are delighted to be lending our support once again this year. UTV is all about family entertainment and the Dalriada Festival is a perfect partnership. The event is first class family entertainment with the caliber of the musical line up, the food on offer and events surrounding the week. The Festival just gets better. It will be an event for all the family to enjoy.”
Day passes for Glenarm Castle Highland Games, Saturday evening concert tickets and camping packages are on sale from 9am on Thursday 12th March. Visit www.dalriadafestival.co.uk. Book online and SAVE 20% on day passes. Car parking is FREE. Saturday night concert tickets can also be purchased at www.ticketmaster.ie priced at £28.50.
Further information on the festival visit www.dalriadafestival.co.uk.
