This article is from page 35 of the 2007-10-16 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 35 JPG
CLARE matchmaker Willie Daly and Matchmaking Festival organ- iser Marcus White are to travel to south-east Asia to share their match- making expertise with the people of Singapore.
The pair have been invited to address a conference next month organised by that country’s ministry of community development, youth and sports on November 2 and 3.
The Matchmakers’ Trade Seminar, which is the first meeting of its kind ever organised, will feature keynote speakers from Japan, Korea and Chi- na as well as the Lisdoonvarna pair.
“The Singapore chamber of com- merce is paying for them to come out and speak. They have witnessed the success of the festival here and have seen how it brings in €3.6 mil- hon for Lisdoonvarna,” said festival organiser Mark Flanaghan.
“It’s a double-edged sword really. They have invited us over because they want to start their own festivals in Asia.
“At the same time, we want to forge connections in that region so we can increase the number of people visit- ing Lisdoonvarna. We want them to bring a plane-load of people here for next year’s festival.”
Thousands of people _ visited
Lisdoonvarna over the past six weeks in one of the best-attended festivals in years. “This year was different from the last few years. We started to get a more middle-aged crowd back, people in their 30s, 40s and 50s. I think that the television advertis- ing had a lot to do with that,” added Flanaghan.
“We have six weeks of a festival here, with dancing going from first thing in the morning to the last thing at night. There is no place in the world with that going on.
“The daytime dancing was really great this year. It’s not Lisdoonvarna, it’s the whole catchment area. People take trips to Fanore, out to Doolin,
all around the place. We get all kinds of people.
“We get people who would just come for the dancing and would have no interest in the matchmaking and we would get other people who would not have a dance through the whole festival.
“It is a great benefit for the area – there is really nothing like it.”
This year’s festival ended last weekend with the Mr Lisdoonvarna and the Queen of the Burren com- petitions. The coveted Queen of the Burren title was won by local woman Roisin Crowe, while Michael Hugh- es from Limerick city won the Mr Lisdoonvarna contest.