PROMS IN THE PARK

Client: Limerick NATIONAL City of Culture 
Project: 'PROMS IN THE PARK'
AUDIENCE: 4,000

EVENT DESCRIPTION

In July 2014, CWB successfully tendered for the delivery of one of the key events of Limerick National City of Culture 2014, the city’s first Proms in the Park event, which was to take place on Thursday 24th July. The venue was the city’s Peoples Park, an iconic city location containing a 19th century bandstand, the Spring Rice Memorial and a number of protected structures. The musical centrepiece was to be provided by the highly regarded band of the Army 1st Brigade with guest soloists.

METHODOLOGY

With a short lead-in time and the largest daily capacity of any ticketed event during the City of Culture year, we initiated a series of meeting with the stakeholders, including: the council’s environment department who have responsibility for the People’s Park; the Army Commdt from Sarsfield Barracks; Brendan Finlay from MSA; staging companies; the Gardai and Fire Services; local residents group; and Sheila Deegan, who was leading the project from within LNCC.

Once this initial round of meetings was completed, we began to prepare the event plan using inputs from this expert group and best practice for outdoor events. We gained approval for the marketing plan and began rolling this out through local and national press. We entered into a ticketing partnership with Eventbrite for the online ticket allocation and put in place a system of checks and balances on the physical ticket distribution to ensure the event did not exceed capacity. Limerick Market Traders were engaged to provide a tented food village with 12 individual food and beverage offerings and a full H&S plan was prepared for the same.

As we neared the event, we were in daily contact with the Environment Department, monitoring long-term weather forecasts and adjusting the production schedule accordingly. Custom-designed stage dress was commissioned, the musical program finalised, and all 4,000 tickets for the event were subscribed to and taken up three days in advance of the event. On the day of the event we commenced a 12-hour build-in advance of the concert area opening to the public and did a final round of event updates to all the stakeholders before opening the event to a capacity crowd on the day.

CHALLENGES

Presenting a city-centre event for 4,000 patrons that began during rush hour required a detailed traffic management plan and management of neighbouring streets. Ensuring that neighbouring businesses – including the Limerick City Gallery, housed in a protected structure – endured minimal disruption.

Planning and delivering a safe outdoor event in an unfamiliar place for an audience, many of whom were elderly, young children or disabled, and being aware of their needs in terms of access to facilities and the event medical plan.

CONCLUSIONS

This was a hugely rewarding event to deliver, with a huge feel-good factor from all attending. It was delivered on budget and generated significant revenue for local businesses and traders. The event was a huge success, with no incidents reported and a customer satisfaction rating of 9.5 from a sampling of 300 attendees