Festival Community Meeting - Thurs 4th Feb at The Irish Centre

The St Patrick’s Festival committee would like as many of the community as possible to attend a general meeting at The Irish Centre on Thursday 4th February at 7pm to hear of plans for this year’s festival and other related issues.

For more details call Kent Davis on 0774 7037821 or email stpatricksbirmingham@gmail.com

Hear Ye Hear Ye: Sweetest St Patrick’s Festival Yet

With the recent addition of Cadbury as a headline sponsor, this years’ Festival is promising to be the best yet. As always the thousands that throng to the annual Parade can expect a multitude of sights sounds and fringe events. There will be a small army of marching bands– including a new jazz ensemble, more floats, vehicles of interest, walking groups and plenty of ‘Wow what was that?’ including a mustering of Town Criers from throughout the Midlands.

Last year many believed the Parade to be the best so far – but we realise there are many improvements still to be made. Following last year’s feedback we will create a more extensive programme for very young children (1- 10 year olds) – making it more obvious and accessible with more clowns, magicians, children’s disco, activities, kiddie rides and workshops – and who knows there may be some free chocolate to be had! A great new addition last year - St PatROCK’s will this year make use of the exceptional facilities and expertise of South Birmingham College (who have been a staunch supporter of the Festival for many years) and with whom we are working on some excellent content and artists for the Festival. The Emerald Village will return to the area around the Irish Centre and will include a significant focus for teenage audience members –bringing back the freestyle football champions amongst other surprises. Young adults may be interested in The St Patrick’s PaRAVE at The Rainbow Warehouse, while most of the pubs in Digbeth will be providing traditional entertainment throughout the day. Senior Citizens can look forward to films evoking a traditional way of life in Ireland to be shown in the comfort of the cinema at the Custard Factory. There will of course be plenty of alternative organised and spontaneous street level entertainment throughout the day -so to get the best out of the parade we recommend trying to take in as much as possible. One aspect of the Parade that many are not aware of - and which is a real highlight – is all the marching bands forming up en masse at the end and marching down to the Irish Centre before doing an about turn back up to Alcester street – a great spectacle. With the help of a few local choirs we are also hoping for a mass singing this year – either at the start or end of the parade – traditional Irish songs- Molly Malone, Danny Boy.

Photo c. Martin O'Connell

The Birmingham St Patrick’s Festival is however not just about the Parade. It starts with the dinner and dance at the newly refurbished Irish Centre on Friday 12th March – for a great night make a note for your diary now and get in touch if you would like tickets (FREE to the community as always). There are traditional and contemporary activities planned for the Bullring on Saturday 13th March 2010. The Parade itself is becoming increasingly contemporary and inclusive of all communities – but supporting events on the Monday, Tuesday and St Patrick’s Day itself are all focused exclusively on Irish arts and culture. New this year will be an Irish literary event to celebrate the magnificent legacy of poets, playwrights and authors form Ireland.

More than anything though the Festival is a community event and the committee are appealing for people to come forward if they would like to be involved in any way – with a float, walking group, performing, stewarding or street collecting. Similarly there are still plenty of opportunities for the commercially minded to sponsor a float, band or other exhibit – quite simply the greater our budget the greater the scale of possibilities.
The festival gets ever more expensive to organise and the voluntary committee (there is only one paid temporary event manager) find it extremely daunting each year to try and cover all the associated costs and leave some money in the coffers for future years. We are busy submitting grant applications and working with Birmingham City Council for ongoing commercial sponsors, but as is so often the case – it is the overall combination of smaller amounts that can make such a difference.

If you or your company feels in a position to fund or part fund a float or band (approx £400) please contact us. Also we ask the entire community to support us in keeping The Birmingham St Patrick’s Festival such a great FREE event by giving generously on Parade Day to our official street collectors – or to make an optional £1 purchase of brochures via honesty boxes. We are immensely grateful to the ongoing support of our ‘Friends of the Festival’ who annually donate £25 and whose contribution is immensely valuable – please contact us if you would also like to help in this way.

To contact the festival please call Kent Davis on 0774 7037821 or email stpatricksbirmingham@gmail.com

Philip Donnellan's The Irishmen on BBC's Inside Out

At 8pm on Monday 25th January at the Spotted Dog (Warwick St), regular screening event, Filum Night will be showing The Irishmen for the BBC current affairs programme Inside Out, who are making a film about Philip Donnellan and are keen to collect reactions to this documentary:

'We'd like very much to show the film to members of the Irish community here in Birmingham and then see what they think of it. Things like: Do they agree with what was being said? Does any of it still ring true? Should the film have been shown at the time or is it too one sided? etc.'

The Irishmen is about Irish railway and manual workers in London in the 60's - by Philip Donnellan, a documentary maker based in Birmingham in the 60's and 70's.

So come along to the Spotted Dog, for a film, a drink and the chance to discuss it with the lovely chaps from the BBC afterwards. As always, free tea and buns will be in abundance.

St Patricks Festival 2010: How you can Help

With Christmas and New Year now safely over for another year, the next big date looming on the horizon for any self respecting citizen of our great city is the annual St Patrick’s Festival which this year will run from Friday 12th March through to Wednesday 17th March, with the big parade on Sunday 14th (mothering Sunday). The committee are working hard on ensuring we deliver an event as equally as successful as last year.

BUT WE NEED YOUR HELP.

As I am sure most of you know the Festival is run by a voluntary committee and funded by a grant from the city council and the generous support of some key sponsors. Clearly there is a significant link between the funds we have available and what we are able to curate as part of the festival, and we are working hard on new lines of grant funding and sponsorship.

However this is, and always will be a COMMUNITY EVENT (we can all be proud of the fact that it is the biggest community event in Birmingham and one of the biggest in the UK), and we really want to engage with and involve as many of the community as possible. Many of you will be unaware of just how you might be able to assist, please contact us if:

You are involved with band (classical, jazz, rock, indie, ethnic, brass – anything)

You are not in a band but can play an instrument

You are in a choir (church, school, gospel, contemporary,...)

You are not in a choir but can sing (barber shop, opera, jazz, rock etc)

You can perform (juggle, magic tricks, ventriloquist, dance...)

You are in a club/team or society (sport, art, acting, film, astrology, any kind of club/society/team at all)

You are an enthusiast of literature and/or poetry and are good at reciting.

You are available as a steward or street collector

You have time to help in some other way

You would like to make a donation or sponsor an event at the Festival.

None of the above apply to you but know someone to whom it does.

GREAT THINGS COME FROM SMALL INITIATIVES – PLEASE CONTACT US AND WE CAN COORDINATE A NOVEL AND INNOVATIVE WAY TO INVOLVE YOU IN THIS GREAT CELEBRATION OF COMMUNITY.

CALL KENT DAVIS ON 0774 7037821, OR EMAIL stpatricksbirmingham@gmail.com

Many Thanks.

St Patrick's Christmas Party Friday December 11th 2009

Come and join us on Friday 11th December at the wonderful newly refurbished Irish Centre for an excellent night of fun, food and dancing. Enjoy a fabulous curry and soak up the party atmosphere whilst Caidre get you in the mood with some traditional Irish Music before letting loose on the dancefloor to the fantastic disco.

Tickets are only £5 and all proceeds go to helping make the festival in 2010 the best yet.

Come join us and catch up with friends old and new. Tickets are available from behind the bar at the Irish Centre or from Minstrel Music, or call Kent on 0774 7037821.

ST PATRICK’S FESTIVAL SET FOR NEW HEIGHTS

After what many believed was the best Festival yet last year, the St Patrick’s team (which includes some new heads amongst the experienced team), is out of the blocks earlier this year and has been busy planning for 2010. ‘We promised last year we were looking to raise the bar and in little time made some excellent progress. With an earlier start this year we are getting very excited about how things are shaping up. The success of last year has drawn a lot more interest from those who wish to be involved and we have been inundated with requests from bands (many from Ireland). We are also already teeing up some fantastic new aspects to the parade (including a whole range of vintage vehicles and steam engines), and we have been approached by all kinds of weird and wonderful looking walking groups. We are meeting with one of our most supportive partners South Birmingham College this week, so we can discuss with them how we can best use their absolutely incredible facilities, auditoriums, stages and sheer indigenous talent to best effect.’

Most of all though the festival as ever is a community event and the St Patricks team want as many involved in the festival or parade as possible in whatever capacity, and would kindly ask you to contact Event Manger Kent Davis to discuss ways of being involved/publicising the event:

IT IS YOUR EVENT- please contact us asap so we can discuss ways to continually improve the festival with your help and/or involvement.

The St Patrick’s team is also encouraging everyone to attend its’ fantastic Christmas party and Disco at the wonderful newly refurbished Irish Centre on Friday 11th December which for £5 will include a delicious curry or Chilli, Cairde performing live and the best dj in town John McMahon. ‘This promises to be a fabulous excellent value for money night out as well as raising funds to make the festival better than ever’.

For more details on The St Patricks Festival 2010 visit www.stpatricksbirmingham.com email info@stpatricksbirmingham.com or call 0774 7037821

St Patrick's 2009 Round up

Thanks for turning up everyone! The weather was beautiful and a lot of fun was had.

Videos and photos have been collected and added to the Media page for you to enjoy. Thanks to everyone who filmed and videoed the events. People have also been putting up their own personal round ups of the parade. So please go and visit:

• BBC Birmingham's round up, plus their photos
  
• John Hemming's Blog
  
• Digbeth is Good (Although she couldn't make it. There's some good comments.)

Although St Patrick's Day has passed this year. Irish related event's will pop up here, as well as some more bits and bobs to add to the collevtive memory of this year's festival.

Photo by Tim Ellis