The Heineken Green Energy Festival is now in its fifth year and has firmly established itself as one of the most exciting and eagerly anticipated events on the Irish music calendar. While the festival offers consumers the unique opportunity to see top international acts in the beautiful surroundings of Dublin Castle, it also presents a range of top gigs in the Olympia Theatre and Temple Bar Music Centre, as well as a host of live performances by young Irish bands in pub venues throughout Dublin's city centre.
The Heineken Green Energy Festival has gone from strength to strength since it began in 1996 and is now Dublin's biggest and best international music festival. The festival has consistently attracted some of the biggest names in music - Beck, Catatonia, Beautiful South, Suede, Counting Crows and The Cardigans immediately spring to mind - and this year's quality line-up, which will include performances from Irish and international artists including The Cranberries, Tracy Chapman, Bryan Ferry, The Charlatans, Gomez and Kila, is no exception.
It is testament to the success of the festival that we are able to stage this June Bank Holiday Weekend the first ever Heineken Green Energy Festivals in Cork and Galway, which will include live performances from top acts such as the Fun Lovin' Criminals, Van Morrison, Robert Plant, Counting Crows, Moby and Sinead Lohan. We are both proud and excited about all three festivals and we are confident that they will prove very popular with music lovers throughout the country.
One of the Dublin festival events which deserves special attention and which will be of particular interest to the large contingent of record and publishing companies coming to the festival on the lookout for young talent is the Heineken/ Hot Press Green Energy Band Challenge, the biggest competition of its kind in Ireland and worth £20,000 in prizes to the winners. This year it attracted over 150 entries from aspiring young bands which our judges had the difficult task of whittling down to 30 who will battle it out in five city centre pub venues to reach the final in Temple Bar Music Centre on Monday May 1st.
Last year's Heineken Green Energy Festival saw the arrival in Ireland of the largest ever contingent of record and publishing companies from the UK and Europe on the lookout for young Irish talent and, encouragingly, even more are expected to attend this year's festival.
As Ireland's No 1 lager, Heineken is proud that through its ongoing commitment to the festival over the past five years, it has become an integral part of Dublin's May Bank Holiday weekend celebrations. It is also very encouraging for us that people continue to travel to Dublin from throughout Ireland and abroad, but also to sample the festival atmosphere which takes over the city each year.
It is important to us at Heineken that the festival remains a fun and not-to-be-missed festival, whether people come to see their favourite bands perform or just to soak up the festival atmosphere, or both.
Heineken is proud of and excited about the contribution it has made to the development of Irish music over the last seven years and we are delighted that the line-up for all three of this year's festivals has met with such a positive response from media, industry and consumers alike.
We sincerely hope you enjoy what we are sure will be an excellent festival of memorable performances and we thank you for your support.
www.heinekengreenenergy .com
