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Launching the Freshers Fest in the Square on Monday were, Joseph Kavanagh, Petrina Comerford, Helena McMahon, Jason O’Byrne, Paul Ruane, Mary Lucey, Ken Tobin, Dale Brosnan, Ruairi Fry, Tadhg Flynn and David Scott. Photo by Dermot Crean
TRALEE will host the 1st annual ‘Freshers Fest’ from Tuesday, September 10 to Thursday, September 12.
This brand-new festival will see a stage erected in the ‘festival square’ hosting live acts until 10pm on two nights, followed by live music in the bars of Tralee, and a host of events throughout the town, all geared towards welcoming the students to Tralee.
With offers issued, Tralee expects up to 2,000 new third-level students to start this year. They will enjoy music from such acts as The Clockworks, Garrath Burke-Weigt (Xero), Gerard Ahern, a Daft Punk Tribute act and other bands and DJs (more details of acts below).
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Petrina Comerford, President of IT Tralee Students Union said; “We are overwhelmed by the incredible support being shown by the businesses in Tralee and the Colleges themselves to supporting this event. In particular we want to thank the bars in Tralee who are matching the fund generated by the Third-level Colleges in Tralee and Tralee Chamber Alliance to cover the events”.
The festival was earmarked earlier this year in an announcement by Tralee Chamber Alliance, after they re-scheduled their popular Food Festival to the May Bank Holiday.
Ken Tobin of Tralee Chamber Alliance said; “We committed to creating a new festival each September in Tralee and working with our colleagues in the third-level colleges we done just that! This new festival is focused on supporting the night-time businesses of Tralee and developing Tralee as a real College Town. We would have some serious ambitions around this festival, including looking at the potential of developing it into a larger music festival in years to come.”
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The event team made up of the IT Tralee Students Union, Kerry College of Further Education and Training, Tralee Chamber Alliance and the Institute of Technology Tralee have brought in some highly experienced professionals to support the event, including Paul Ruane of Midpoint Creative and Maire Dineen of Sugradh Productions.
Mary Lucey, Principal with Kerry College of Further Education and Training, along with Dr. Helena McMahon, External Services Manager of the Institute of Technology Tralee, both welcomed the opportunity that has been created for the students of all third-level institutes to enjoy Tralee together.
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Marie Dineen, who is coordinating the event said; “We were thrilled to come on board with the team to develop this new festival, and would have ambitions to seeing this develop to the scale of some of other festivals we are involved with in Ireland and the UK. We are delighted to also work with the local organisors of the ‘Stag & Doe’ events in Tralee, to put on what will be an amazing event for the students”.
In addition to the incoming students to colleges in Tralee, the organisers say the event is open to all third-level students from Tralee to come along and enjoy and advise any third-level student interested to keep an eye on Social Media from the colleges for more details.
The Tralee Freshers Festival is supported by The Vintners of Tralee, Institute of Technology Tralee, Kerry College of Further Education and Training, Tralee Chamber Alliance and Kerry County Council’s Community Support Fund.
The festival will kick-off at 6pm on Tuesday, September 10 with an eclectic mix of bands and DJs live in the Square, opening with Cork man Garrath Burke-Weigt (Xero).
Following will be Stolen City, three young energetic acoustic rock lovers from Dublin, that promise to bring the same amount of passion and energy to every gig they play.
Closing out the Tuesday night will be Galwegians The Clockworks, with their strong, punchy dynamic post-punk influenced music.
On the Wednesday, the Students Union will be hosting ‘Trails of Tralee’ bringing the newest batch of Students on daytime guided tours of the bars and restaurants of the town centre, and capping it all off with Bingo-Loco which has taken the world by storm.
The Thursday night means a real party atmosphere in the square, with local DJs BPM, the very popular Corkman Gerard Ahern, who has recently supported Billy Ocean, The Academic and Stephanie Rainey.
Closing out the night are Daft Punk Tributes whose ethos is to “bring the Party” with their exhilarating, energetic and sonically breath-taking live performance.
