18 January - Week 1
The St Patrick’s Festival City Fusion project is underway this week and preparations are already being made for the festival in March. City Fusion is all about bringing the various ethnic communities located around Dublin together to create an exciting and colourful multi cultural pageant that will participate in the St Patrick’s Day parade in Dublin on March 17th. The City Fusion headquarters is located on Mill Street and the team is currently setting up the building into a studio which takes a bit of work considering the building was last used when they were the former Telecom Eireann offices!
The site however is the perfect location for this City Fusion project, with its large open spaces and huge warehouse, the team could not have asked for a better location to create the City Fusion pageant and we are delighted to have acquired it this year. The team is lively and excited about the work that lies ahead of them, already some amazing ideas have been dreamt up and we all look forward to realising them to make this years festival the best yet.
This week, the team has mainly just been setting up the building to accommodate for all the materials, tools, and costumes that need to be made over the next 10 weeks. Concepts for costumes are being thought up with almost every hour and some really creative ideas are being thrown around the studio. The team is also keeping in close contact with various community performance groups that we wish to be part of the project, and we realise the importance of this because this City Fusion project is mainly about them. The highlight of the week was when we had a Romanian brass band come into the City Fusion site to perform for us out in the large courtyard and we thought they were fantastic. It is really enjoyable being able to get an early glimpse of what the hundreds of thousands of people that fill the streets of Dublin on March 17th will get to experience.
We are only just getting started but so far everything is going great and we all look forward to presenting the public a festival that will enthral the world. Much more exciting updates on the progress of the City Fusion group will follow in the coming weeks so watch this space!
25 January - Week 2
The second week of the City Fusion project is over and for us here the time has flown by. This week we had a new addition to the team to the costume department and we are all getting a clearer picture in our minds of what needs to be done to achieve this year’s vision for the City Fusion pageant. There is a lot of work to be done over the coming weeks but we are all confident that we can achieve our goals before March 17th.
Like last week we have spent much of our time sourcing out materials to help our designers get a better idea of how to achieve the vision for the project, and we have also been speaking with more cultural groups who have expressed their interest in this project. This week we saw a huge amount of materials from past festivals delivered to the City Fusion studio here in Mill Street and although it took some time to find the space for them here, seeing all the various materials around the place that will be used over the coming weeks has given the old offices much more a studio feel. The costumes for the pageant performers are being designed and as each day goes by it seems that another design on paper has been turned into a real costume. We can’t wait until we get to see the performers try on these designs because it will give us all a real boost to see the vision come to fruition.
Everything will really begin to kick off next as we plan on starting the parade workshops with some of the various confirmed cultural groups and we can not wait to see them all in action. We spent some time this week preparing our workshop space and getting everything we need to help to make our performer’s time at the workshops more enjoyable, and now we are just looking forward to seeing them in action and getting an idea of how everything will play our during the parade.
Next week the City Fusion team will be completed as we will see our final two new arrivals join us here in Mill Street and we can not wait to have them here. The studio has currently been a little empty the last couple of days as two members of our team were lucky and just about managed to jet off to Paris on Wednesday despite the strikes to source out materials for the pageant. On Monday the place is going to seem packed! But we are really looking forward to having everyone back here next week because the pace of the City Fusion project will definitely begin to pick up as it becomes more and more of a reality.
1st February – Week 3
The third week of the City Fusion project is finished and everything is really coming together. The new additions to the costume and props departments have arrived and the output of work that they are putting out is extremely impressive and plentiful, we are flying through our materials and the offices we are working in are offices no more! We are really making headway on our project and the work is becoming much more enjoyable as we are getting to see all the designs put into action.
This week we put the finishing touches to our workshop here on Mill Street and on Thursday the first of our many diverse cultural groups came in for their first practice session with our pageant director. It is great to see the different cultures all coming together and mixing with one another, all working towards the goal of making this City Fusion pageant an experience of excitement and colour. It is really a great experience seeing cultural groups from around the world come together for this project. This year we are working with groups coming from Lithuania, Cameroon, Indonesia, The Philippines, and southern Africa to name a few. Also, this year the cultural groups also have been given the opportunity of documenting the City Fusion experience themselves with each group giving their insight of the workshops and parade festivities and we look forward to seeing their experiences matched up to our own after the festival is over.
Next week, the plan is to attain an old pageant from the St. Patricks Festival workshop and bring it over to the warehouse space here on Mill Street so we can begin to look at creating the centre piece for our pageant. For now though, we are concentrating on completing the costumes for our groups and choreographing the different performances that will take place during the City Fusion pageant, and when we are confident on how the pageant is shaping up, then we will focus our attention on what we think will be the highlight of the whole parade. All in all, we are delighted that everything is going according to plan and so far we have had no set backs and we are excited to be going into the penultimate month of the City Fusion project.
8th February – Week 4
The fourth week of the City Fusion project is over and we are now only six weeks away from the St. Patrick’s Festival parade. All of the workshops are now underway and all of the various cultural groups that are part of the project have all participated in the workshops and the outcome has been really positive. Everyone is really excited about how the project is coming together, but now we have to work really hard because we know that the deadline is sneaking up on us fast. We had another addition to our props team with Tanya coming to join us and her work has really been appreciated. So much props and costumes are being turned out that it is becoming hard to keep track of, the studio is a mess but that’s the way we want it!
This week the metal frame for the main piece was brought in to our warehouse from the St Patrick’s Festival store house and we are finally beginning to move in to the warehouse, which for now we have only been able to use for storage. Our construction team will be coming in to join us next week and work on the main float will then begin, and with that all aspects of the City Fusion project will be underway. It will be great to see how the float comes along because it is the climax of the pageant and it will tie all the aspects of the costumes and props of the performers together.
Next week the workload will increase again as we reach the half way point of the City Fusion project, and we really can’t believe we are at this stage already. That being said, there is already a lot of progress made but also a lot of work left to do. We are making real headway with the costumes and the work the prop team has been creating is really great to see. We all can’t wait to see the workshops where our performers will have their first chance to perform in the costumes designed for them and that moment will really bring City Fusion to life.
15 February – Week 5
It’s official, we have come to the end of the first half of the City Fusion project and the time has really flown. We are now very aware of how close we are coming to March 17th and everyone has got their head down this week and we’ve been getting a lot done because of it. This week saw the construction team come in to start their work on building the pageant’s climatic float and they have already made great progress and we can tell it is going to be really something spectacular. The construction teams’ arrival has seen the opening of the our warehouse here at Mill Street, up until last week the warehouse was just being used to store a lot of the materials we have which we had no room for here in the studio. This week the warehouse has been transformed into an artist‘s workshop and we are delighted to finally be using it.
This week the team has made great progress and got so much work done, and now we are a lot more at ease then we were at the start of this week. It really hit home to us earlier this week when we realised how many working days we have left until the festival begins. We also saw the largest volume of materials arrive this week, with materials coming from London and Paris and we almost have everything we need to complete the pageant. The workshops also made great leaps of progress this week with all the groups coming together and having a really enjoyable time during the workshop nights. It is brilliant to see this happening because it really gives the whole crew a sense of purpose to our work when we see the excitement and enjoyment it can bring. Next week we will get to see our performers try on their costumes for the parade and we can not wait to see colour of the extravagant costumes and the excitement of our fantastic performers come together. More updates next week!
22 February – Week 6
The sixth week of the City Fusion project is over and it really flew by keeping in sync with the previous five weeks. Everyone is really happy with the progress we have been making, particularly over the last three weeks, and the finishing design touches are just beginning to be put on to some of the costumes and props. We have been seeing some finished costumes being put up on to the rails and seeing them ready to go just gives the whole team a real boost because it is great to see that things are being finished and are ready to go.
The construction team have also been working really hard and the float is already taking real shape and it looks like it is going to be really fantastic. It is a real testament to the construction team with the progress that they have made considering they have been doing damage to themselves working so hard with all the fumes that are coming off all the varnish, resin and spray they have been using!
This week also saw the official launch of the St. Patrick's Festival take place at the National Concert Hall on Earlsfort Terrace. It was a brilliant night which displayed all the aspects of what makes the St Patricks Festival great. The night was awash with colour and energy as some of the groups that will be performing in the parade gave us a little teaser of what the crowds of thousands that will take the streets of Dublin on March 17th will get to experience. Guests were greeted at the green lit National Concert Hall doors by a vibrant samba band as well as two traditional bag pipers, and both sets of musicians instantly spread the festival mood into the incoming guest and passers by. Inside, guests were treated to traditional Irish music before listening to speeches made by Susan Kirby and the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism Martin Cullen. There was a real sense of excitement amongst everyone on the night and now we are really looking forward to the festival getting underway on the 12th of March.
The team here all had a great night and it has given us an extra incentive to create the best pageant yet after seeing and hearing all the sponsors involved and getting a real sense of just how big this festival is for the Irish economy and population, both at home and abroad. We are coming up towards the finishing line now but the mood around the City Fusion team has never been better.
1 March – Week 7
February is coming to an end as the seventh week of the City Fusion project finishes and we can not believe how quickly the month has gone by. Having said that, we have got a whole lot of work accomplished this month and we are happy with our progress leading into the final three weeks of the project. This week we have seen our team grow and grow as we have a had a few volunteers come in to us here on Mill Street and help us out with some much needed extra assistance which we have really appreciated. The extra helpers have been great because now all aspects of the pageant are being worked on at practically the same time, and this has really helped us speed up our production of the props and costumes. The costumes have been coming quick and fast and they look outstanding. Sadly, this was the last week for one of our long standing team members in the costume department, as she leaves us to go touring with her band across North America, and we wish her the best of luck with that.
This week the groups have been performing their workshops for the first time trying on their costumes that they will be wearing during the parade. This is a great way for us to gauge how the costumes look and react while our performers go through their exciting routine during the parade, and we get to fix up any problems that the costumes might have after going through a rigorous performance. We have also seen the final details being added to many of the costumes and props that we have been working on for so long over the past few weeks, and it’s almost a relief to see the finishing touches being put on them. The construction team were away for this week so there has been no improvement on the main float, but that isn’t to say we are behind because they did a huge amount of work on it last week. We look forward to having them back and seeing them work on the float because they are on track to match the extravagant design in place, and we can not wait to see the real thing in action.
There was no major event to report on this week, but we have all just been trucking along with our heads down getting the work done. Although maybe because we are working at such a fast pace, trying to get as much as we can achieve during a days work, the big events are beginning to just pass us by. Only three weeks left until the parade now, time is definitely running out very fast, but we are right on track and we’re looking forward to being able to roll out the pageant onto the streets of Dublin in a few weeks time.
8 March – Week 8
The last week before St. Patrick's Festival Parade!
It’s March and the eighth week of the City Fusion project is over and it is really all hands on deck down here at the studio in Mill Street. This week everyone has been working non stop to make sure that every piece of each costume is finished and ready to be put into the parade. All the small details that at first sound like a small job but are crucial to the parades success have been sneaking up on us all and everyone has been occupied for every minute of this week working on all these jobs. We had the cultural performance groups come into the workshop and practice while wearing their costumes although they look great, it has helped us all get a better idea of how some of the costumes need to be fine tuned so that nothing goes wrong with the performance during the parade.
The massive workload has been eased by the amount of volunteers that have graciously given up their time to come in to us here in the studio and lend us a helping hand, and we really appreciate all the work they are doing for us here, because without them we would really be up against it to get everything done before St Patrick’s Day. We only have one full week of work left before we hit the streets so you can imagine how frantic things have gotten in the studio. For the last week, the attitude for everyone has been to set ourselves goals for each day, and make sure that those goals are achieved before the day is out. We are confident that we will have everything ready for the big day on March 17th but only if we put in the hard work and extra effort that is required in these last remaining two weeks. We can not wait to see the pageant in its entirety hit the streets in front of the thousands of people who come to Dublin on the 17th, because we know that then all the hard work will have been worth it and it will be nice to take a moment and appreciate what the team has achieved over the ten weeks the City Fusion project was in operation for this year. Until then however, we have our heads down working hard and won’t lift them up until someone comes along and tells us to hit the streets.
15th March – Week 9
So here we go, the last week of the City Fusion project is over and we now have two days left to work before our brilliant performers hit the streets of Dublin. All the costumes and props are completed and are ready to be put into action, the float is not quite finished yet but there is no problem there, with only the final finishing touches to be attached to it. Without giving it away, all I will say is that it looks fantastic. The last few weeks have been so hectic but today we can all agree that all the hard work will be worth it. Today, we had all of our performers come into our space here on Mill Street to put on a mock parade for us. I have to say that with all their costumes on, and the energy that every single group member gives to their performance, the City Fusion project this year has produced something really special. Our performers took to Mill Street and gave any passing spectators a sneak peak of next Wednesday’s performance. Everyone here is now in really good humour after getting to see what the last 9 weeks of work effort has produced, as well as just feeding of the energy and excitement of the performers who are really having a good time being part of this project. There were a lot of photos taking today and they will hopefully be put up onto the website shortly before the parade so you yourselves can view a sneak peak at the City Fusion pageant ahead of the thousands of spectators watching on TV and on the streets of Dublin on Wednesday.
Now all that is left for us to do is touch up some of the costumes we have been taking note of that still need a small bit of work done on them to help our performers give it their all. As I said before the float also needs to have its finishing touches applied to it but apart from that we are good to go for the St Patrick’s Festival Parade. We’ll be looking forward to seeing all of you come out for the 17th to see this unique pageant perform down the streets of Dublin, and I’ll be writing the tenth and final entry for the City Fusion blog next week, reporting on how the day went for us all. I’m sure hundreds of photos will be taking on the day so we’ll try getting as many up for you as we can as well. Enjoy the whole festival, and the Sky Fest show in Limerick tonight promises to be something special.