Sligo goes car-azy for Cannonball with fancy dress frenzy all over town
Friday September 11th 2015 | From 5.30pm
On Friday September 11th 2015 at 5.30pm CANNONBALL arrives back to Sligo after a huge welcome in 2014 and excitement is mounting for this widely anticipated event. Having analyzed the event last year, the Sligo team believes that it should join in the fancy dress element of the Cannonball event fully and completely. The event attracted 18,000 residents and visitors to the city centre on the evening of the Cannonball event last year so this year there will be multiple fancy dress mini events rolling from early afternoon across shops, restaurants, shopping centres, late bars and nightclubs to make the overall event more unique and embed the fancy dress element as an annual event. Fancy Dress venues include The Glasshouse with a Jazz Session at 6pm – 8pm, Osta Café, The Italian Quarter, Bistro Bianconi, A Casa Mia, The Wine Buff and Le Fournil from 8pm, 5th on Teeling and Garavogue and on Saturday Martin Reilly Motors at Carraroe will host an event featuring some of the Cannonball Supercars. Each participating venue will run its own fancy dress competition and supply prizes. There will be active engagement with local tourism promoters in promoting the event. All fancy dress events will take place on the Friday evening starting at 4p.m. Additionally, organisers will seek to have employees permitted to attend work on the 11th September in fancy dress and promote the event to local schools and organisations.
Spectators can get up close and personal with 180 of the finest cars on the planet from 5.30pm until 7pm and then enjoy the unique festival atmosphere that Cannonball is renowned for. CANNONBALL, the action packed Supercar spectacle in aid of the Make a Wish Foundation goes up a gear once again with 180 supercars and over 150,000 spectators expected to line the streets all over Ireland. Soap stars Ryan Thomas from Coronation St and Adam Thomas from Emmerdale will be joining celebrity cannonballers this year and some of the most unique cars in the world are being shipped in for the event this year. The gleaming convoy will drive through 820KM of Irish open roads through Dublin, Leitrim, Sligo, The Wild Atlantic Way, Killaloe, Killarney, Cahir and finishing in Wexford. The gleaming convoy will leave Sligo at 10.30am on Saturday so spectators can enjoy the excitement and spectacle once again.
A quarter of the supercars are coming in from the UK, Europe and even Dubai with the highest ever number of top mark cars worth an estimated €23 million including McLaren, Lamborghini, Ferrari, Aston Martin, Porsche, Masseratti, Rolls Royce and Bentley. New in 2015 are the Pagani Zonda, Keonigsegg and Carrera GT. These are 3 of the most unique cars in the world with a combined value of €4 million. Some of the novelty cars on Cannonball this year include an authentic Delorean complete with Doc and Marty McFly, An NYPD Car with full kit, Smokey and the Bandit Truck, The Ghostbusters Sheriff car and a most unusual Top Gun inspired car. CANNONBALL is the brainchild of Kildare Businessman and AB Signs proprietor, Alan Bannon and is now in its seventh year having already raised over €700,000 for Children’s charities. Celebrities include Soap brothers Ryan and Adam Thomas from Coronation St and Emmerdale, Boyzone star Shane Lynch and Dirty Sanchez, Wes Quirke, celebrity chef Rachel Allen, Rugby ace Mick Galway, Models Emma Quinlan and Rachel Kavanagh many more. Cannonball never disappoints in the celeb stakes and the notorious NYPD, German Polizei, Fr Willie and colourful Cannonballers in crazy costumes add to the melee.
CANNONBALL will blaze a trail through towns and counties in spectacular style with FREE family friendly festivals all over the country. Each start and finish line at each host town is infused with an electric atmosphere featuring Brazilian dancers, live music, DJs, The Monster Energy JAM Truck, fire beathers, angle grinders, local entertainers and dignitaries, confetti cannons, lots of Manhattan popcorn, CANNONBALL official merchandise and, of course, the unmistakable roar of 180 supercars. CANNONBALL 7 will raise money for the Make-a-Wish Foundation which is a children’s charity that grants magical wishes to children between the ages of 3 – 17 years with life-threatening medical conditions. The benefit to the Irish economy of this event is estimated at €2,567,000 and most of this is spread evenly throughout the counties and towns visited.
“We are very proud to be part of Cannonball again in 2015 and to help raise funds for the Make a Wish Foundation. Movies and popcorn and inextricably linked but we have the opportunity to bring this mad cap movie to life! There will be lots of Manhattan popcorn on the route for spectators as they watch the supercar convoy and soak up the supercharged festival atmosphere” said Don O Neil of Manhattan Popcorn, main sponsor of Cannonball. The success of CANNONBALL Ireland has led to international events and this year CANNONBALL made headlines in Scotland at the Highland trip as well as the UK, Germany, Denmark and Norway in the Europen Trip as they roared through in spectacular style leaving their mark with the style, excitement and spectacle that CANNONBALL is now becoming renowned for all over the world. Manhattan Popcorn is the CANNONBALL Headline Sponsor, The tour sponsor for 2015 is Carzone.ie and associated sponsors include Paddy Connolly Specialist Cars, 37 Dawson Street, Solus, Autokey.ie, Best Western Montenotti, Triska Energy, Carrig Brewing Company, Charles Hurst, TPI & Cades Wheels and AB Signs. See www.cannonball.ie for further details, routes and events.
ENDS
