{"id":5760,"date":"2013-05-12T21:04:10","date_gmt":"2013-05-12T20:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whatsonni.com\/news\/?p=5760"},"modified":"2013-05-12T21:04:10","modified_gmt":"2013-05-12T20:04:10","slug":"excitement-builds-at-the-ballycastle-launch-of-the-first-rathlin-sound-maritime-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/2013\/05\/excitement-builds-at-the-ballycastle-launch-of-the-first-rathlin-sound-maritime-festival\/","title":{"rendered":"Excitement builds at the Ballycastle launch of the first Rathlin Sound Maritime Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

Friday 10th<\/sup> May saw the launch of the exciting Rathlin Sound Maritime Festival, set to be one of the highlight events of the summer, beginning later this month on 24 May.<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/a>The launch event was held at Portnagree House Harbour & Marina Visitor Centre in Ballycastle, the building that is home to the Harbour Master\u2019s office and the Visitor Information Centre and offers impressive facilities for both visitors and locals. The launch event was organised and hosted by Caroline Carey, Acting Tourism Development Manager for Moyle District Council and John Morton, Harbour Master for Moyle District Council, both part of the Festival steering group.<\/p>\n

Moyle District Council Chairman Cllr Sandra Hunter welcomed everyone to the launch event and paid tribute to the work of the Festival steering group and all the organisations involved for their efforts to put together such an exciting programme of activities throughout the Festival dates of 24 May to 02 June 2013.\u00a0 The Festival has been organised by a team comprising Moyle District Council tourism and marina staff, Rathlin Development and Community Association, Ballycastle Community Development Group and Ballycastle Chamber of Commerce. \u00a0Michael Cecil, Chair of Rathlin Development and Community Association, Paul Kerrigan Chair of the Ballycastle Community Development Group and Mary O\u2019Driscoll, Chair of Ballycastle Chamber of Commerce all spoke at the launch to welcome the guests and acknowledge the strong working relationships between the Festival team and outside organisations which has demonstrated how the local area and local businesses can be successfully promoted through this and other exciting tourism events in the Moyle area.\u00a0 A host of other organisations from across NI and beyond are also involved and will be running activities during the Festival, including Ulster Wildlife Trust, NI Environment Agency, Bushmills Distillery, NI Libraries, National Trust Giant\u2019s Causeway Visitor Centre, Ballycastle Market and many more with representatives present at the launch event.<\/p>\n

Guests were treated to samples of the excellent local produce available in Moyle with catering by local cafe Thyme & Co and Morton\u2019s Fish Shop, provided courtesy of Malin Waters and their Sail West programme, with the focus on seafood to tie in with the overall maritime theme of the Festival.<\/p>\n

Heavy showers didn\u2019t dampen enthusiasm at the event with guests also visiting Ballycastle marina to see the iconic Colmcille currach, currently moored in Ballycastle and soon to head to Iona in the Western Isles of Scotland before making the return journey to Rathlin Island to take part in the Festival later this month.<\/p>\n

The full programme of activities has recently been released for the first Rathlin Sound Maritime Festival which\u00a0will run from Friday 24th May to 2nd June 2013. Programs with full activity listings as well as tickets for the music events are now available from Ballycastle Visitor Information Centre at Portnagree House on Bayview Road.\u00a0 Headline acts include among others Bap Kennedy, Bagatelle and Skerryvore.<\/p>\n

The Rathlin Sound Maritime Festival is aimed at celebrating and promoting local maritime heritage, history, culture, music and food and has grown out of a number of conversations within local communities as well as last year\u2019s successful Sailing Regatta. There has also been great interest from various organisations throughout Northern Ireland and beyond to participate.<\/p>\n

This festival is centred on Rathlin Sound, the body of water that lies between Rathlin and Ballycastle and is about inspiring a passion for the sea by bringing together a rich mix of activities and events both on the sea and on land with an overall maritime theme. Events will focus on Ballycastle for the opening weekend and Rathlin for the closing weekend with plenty of activities in both locations throughout the Festival dates.<\/p>\n

With on the water and seaside based \u2018get involved\u2019 activities including kayaking, diving, paddleboarding, surfing and more, historic and modern sea craft, dinghy and yacht racing, competitions, local and historic talks, tours, guided walks, open days and exhibitions there will be something to interest everyone including plenty of family friendly activities. The Festival will also include a special seafood themed food and craft market with cookery demonstrations, and a Can\u2019t Cook Won\u2019t Cook challenge by local Councillors. Local cafes, bars and restaurants will also be offering special menus and events throughout the event to celebrate our unique food offering. In the evenings there will be a wealth of entertainment to choose from including music, drama and films including great local, national and international singers and bands.<\/p>\n

Full details of all activities and events can be found in the Festival program available at Ballycastle Visitor Information Centre and online on Moyle\u2019s new tourism website at www.heartofthecausewaycoastandglens.com<\/a>, \u00a0and also on facebook at www.facebook\/HeartofCCAG or the festivals dedicated page as well as on twitter @heartofccag<\/p>\n

Head to Ballycastle and Rathlin Island at the heart of the Causeway Coast and Glens this bank holiday weekend 24 May to 02 June for a fantastic family friendly event listed as one of the top events for this year in the NITB International Visitor Guide, on The Gathering website and in Belfast Telegraph\u2019s Ultimate Events Guide for NI.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Friday 10th May saw the launch of the exciting Rathlin Sound Maritime Festival, set to be one of the highlight events of the summer, beginning later this month on 24 May. The launch event was held at Portnagree House Harbour & Marina Visitor Centre in Ballycastle, the building that is home to the Harbour Master\u2019s … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5760"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5760"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5760\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5762,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5760\/revisions\/5762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}