Planning for an Outdoor Summer Festival: Iowa Irish Fest 2018
Since 2007, the Cedar Valley Irish Cultural Association has brought Irish culture to the heart of downtown Waterloo with the popular Iowa Irish Fest. In partnership with Qrowe Productions, Wired Production Group is proud to be a part of a special weekend that brings tens of thousands together to celebrate Irish traditions and fellowship in the Midwest.
Iowa Irish Fest is jam-packed with live music, authentic Irish delicacies, cold beverages and hours fun for the whole family. The three-day outdoor music festival brings in Irish musicians ranging from a one-man show on the bagpipes to the rockin’ traditional Irishmen from the west coast of Ireland. Besides the entertainment, Iowa Irish Fest hosts a 5K run, motorcycle ride, rugby tournament, Sunday mass, whiskey tastings and…well, the list goes on! Let’s just say there’s plenty of fun to be had at the festival.
Our event management team went all out! Planning for, producing and setting up an outdoor venue event like this involved the set up of three stages for live music, including our 45’ by 30’ Thomas load-bearing roof complete with LED video walls (jumbotrons) set up for split live screen video feeds for everyone to see the entertainers live on stage across the entire park. Think of how many microphones, par can lights and video cameras we needed for not one, not two, but three stages. You can definitely say that our audio engineers, lighting designer and video production specialists had their work cut out for them. Three stages full of music for three days — the sights and sounds — it’s incredible!
We also provided a special custom-built stage specifically to host the daily whiskey tastings. Concert production is nothing new to us and we absolutely love it when we get to design something creative for our clients. In addition to our staff, Iowa Irish Fest brings more than 100 community sponsorships and 1,200 volunteers in from all over Eastern Iowa to assist with the weekend full of festivities. This team of volunteers is incredibly passionate and it shows in the success of this special annual event. As the saying goes — “it takes a village!”
To see the support of attendees from all across the world come out for this annual Irish Iowa celebration is beyond impressive to our event planning and production team. The event will continue to thrive with the support of the community. There is truly nothing like Iowa Irish Fest, and we are honored to be a part of it. We’re hanging up our kilts until next summer — mark your calendars for August 2-4, 2019!
For more information on Iowa Irish Fest, please check out their website at www.iowairishfest.com or find them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/IowaIrishFest.\
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