More race hype
If you don't live on the Galway docks and aren't obsessed with round-the-world sail races, you may not know that there's much happening this weekend. If I didn't live right in front of the stage, I would hardly have noticed until a few days ago, but this week on Shop Street you can't turn around without hitting a Volvo Ocean Race banner.
Now, I'm not particularly all this corporate-sponsored racing, but I am curious about it. Most people in Galway are only dimly aware of this race stopover event, despite a huge publicity machine and a full program of music and miscellaneous other shows. The organizers, however, are expecting this to be the biggest thing since Jesus... or at least since the Pope came to Galway in 1979.
There's a bit of a disconnect between the hype inside the organization and practically everyone else I've spoken to. A business woman I talked to said that they're charging €6000 to set up a tent, and thought that was an awful lot to ask. The next minute she was complaining about how the City didn't understand how Important this event was, and how they'd nearly lost the stopover to Cork because they Hadn't Done Anything! True, they were supposed to take those tanks down in 2008, and it didn't happen until three weeks ago, but a mother of one of Mike's friends said that she's never in her lifetime seen the city move this fast to do anything. Perhaps the city's fastest isn't quite fast enough for the yacht racing scene.
I will be doing the odd stint down in the race village in the coming weeks. The race organizers are now saying that they're expecting 200,000 people for the event. Last I'd heard it was 10,000 at a time -- I didn't realize they expected it to add up to such a large number overall.
We'll see.
Now, I'm not particularly all this corporate-sponsored racing, but I am curious about it. Most people in Galway are only dimly aware of this race stopover event, despite a huge publicity machine and a full program of music and miscellaneous other shows. The organizers, however, are expecting this to be the biggest thing since Jesus... or at least since the Pope came to Galway in 1979.
There's a bit of a disconnect between the hype inside the organization and practically everyone else I've spoken to. A business woman I talked to said that they're charging €6000 to set up a tent, and thought that was an awful lot to ask. The next minute she was complaining about how the City didn't understand how Important this event was, and how they'd nearly lost the stopover to Cork because they Hadn't Done Anything! True, they were supposed to take those tanks down in 2008, and it didn't happen until three weeks ago, but a mother of one of Mike's friends said that she's never in her lifetime seen the city move this fast to do anything. Perhaps the city's fastest isn't quite fast enough for the yacht racing scene.
I will be doing the odd stint down in the race village in the coming weeks. The race organizers are now saying that they're expecting 200,000 people for the event. Last I'd heard it was 10,000 at a time -- I didn't realize they expected it to add up to such a large number overall.
We'll see.
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