Rio inspires St Patrick’s Day carnival

The St. Patricks Day parade is the spectacular highlight of a full programme of family friendly events, organised by Derry City Council and the North West Carnival Initiative, including live music, children’s arts and crafts, magic shows, face painting and a range of sporting activities which will take place in both Guildhall Square and Waterloo Place from 12.30pm - 5.30pm on Saturday.

The Rio de Janeiro theme of the 2012 Spring Carnival is linked to the success of our very own Derry~Londonderry Clipper on its stopover in the Brazilian city, after the first transatlantic leg of the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race 11-12.

The race of 450 crew members, on a fleet of ten 68-foot yachts, will take ten months to complete their 40,000 ocean mile journey of a lifetime around the globe. The final leg of which will race from Nova Scotia to the Clipper Homecoming Maritime Festival in the city when the fleet arrive in ‘LegenDerry’ at the end of June this year which promises to be a spectacular event for the North West region.

The Mayor Aldermann Maurice Devenney confirming his support for the Clipper festival this summer said: “The Homecoming of the Derry-Londonderry clipper will be an essential part of the lead up to the 2013 UK City of Culture celebrations and is a perfect occasion for locals and visitors to be part of the city’s new story. It’s a great opportunity to share the high and lows of team Derry-Londonderry as they arrive in their home city after a mammoth sail across the world and showcase the Walled City and the wider North West region and beyond to visiting crews from across the world.”

This weekend the ‘Voyage of Discovery’ St. Patrick’s Day carnival celebrations complete with Rio dancers will join intrepid explorers, Antarctic penguins, Aztec birds, pirates and much, much more including a host of international participants, and officially kicks off the start of a monumental series of events which will change and shape our city forever. Including the Clipper Homecoming Maritime Festival, the city will host the City of Derry Jazz and Big Band Festival in May, Peace One Day and Olympic Torch Relay Celebrations in June, Halloween Festival in October - and that is only this year - all before the City gears up for the epic City of Culture 2013!

A spokesperson said: “Bring the whole family along to join the St Patrick’s Day Spring Carnival Celebrations, which sees events in the city from 12.30pm-5.30pm this Saturday, 17th March 2012. The parade will depart from the Derry City Council car park at 2.30pm and will travel up the strand road towards the City Hotel, back along the Quay towards the council offices.”

A full list of event times is available online at www.derrycity.gov.uk/stpatricksday.