It all started over a
few pints in the pub, in January, ''How are we going to get 'The Festival' back
up and running again?'
We needed something different, something fun and
something inclusive to involve not only the locals but also to attract people
from our neighbouring villages.
As you may remember, 2013 was the year of 'The Gathering', a tourism led initiative aimed at bringing
people home for locally organised gatherings and events. Grants were available
to host these events in local communities...
The word 'Grant' has a special
meaning for the farming fraternity and there was no way we were going to let
some handy money to have a party slip through our fingers. We had to come up
with a festival that suited the wide age profile of the locals both home and
abroad. We were hosting a Tea Dance for the older patrons of the village which
we said in our grant application was our homecoming event…
It should be noted,
we were the only festival who had no one come home from abroad but we never let
this detail stop us enjoying ourselves.
The schedule of
events was amazing...
A Soapbox Derby event
for the young and not so young daredevils of the area which involved making a kart and being pushed down the road from outside the pub to the Post Office. A Tea Party for the older patrons from Gurteen and surrounding parishes, a movie
night where we held a premiere of a movie made by the kids from the school, a photo competition and a Treasure Hunt.
Soap Box Derby!
The one and only Eddie Mitchell
Toilet-kart carnage...
A subsequent St. Patrick's Day float for Gurteen
As there was loads of
volunteers to help with the Soapbox Derby, I got 'voluntold' onto the Family Fun
Sports Day. We had some fantastic ideas which all revolved around everyone
ending up back in the pub...something I didn’t disagree with.
Over the course of
a couple of meetings and brain storming aided by a few drinks the
reinvigorating of the School Sports Day took hold. A neighbouring community run a
very popular sports day every year and it was a format that we felt we could
replicate and even improve.
The BogOlympics was born, loosely named after our hinterland and the international sports event. Although Gurteen is one of the highest
farming points in Connacht with a view of Croagh Patrick on a fine day, we are
surrounded by bog.
Gurteen is your
typical place you drive through randomly, without even taking notice. One pub (Mitchell’s
Bar, only open from Thursday to Sunday - and for funerals on request), no shop,
a lovely Church and a small primary school of around 50 children. While most
people are lucky enough to work in the medical device factories in Galway city,
life in Gurteen tends to rotate around cutting and saving turf. We would give John
McGahern's book 'That they may face the rising Sun' a run for its money.
Now to choose the
games, make it attractive to all the locals and come up with a story. The
competition among the sub committees was intense. The Tea Party ladies were all
action, there was even talk of the Bishop coming for tea.
The games and the background
took as long and as many drinks to finally arrive at what we felt was a
suitable inclusive programme. The BogOlympics consisted of six games based
loosely on life in Gurteen. Firstly, doing the farming jobs, Picking
Potatoes, Throwing the Sheaf, Footing Turf, then some hurling
symbolized with the Long Puck,
call to the pub for a drink or two, then your partner (wife or significant other in these times ) would throw a
welly at you to get you out of the pub and then wobble on the unrideable
bike to get home.
The Committee’s PRO, with strong political links, was tasked with spinning a story together which
could be shared on our Facebook page. This was going to change to course of the
event for ever.
We looked for
volunteers. Some were just happy to help out with the valid excuse of a few
drinks along the way, others felt it was too pub focused and declined, more were
delighted to help out for the good of the village and the odd free pint to keep
them coming back.
As the size of the
group increased, making a fair scoring system that would suit both young and
old, male and female became an issue that made the Northern Ireland Peace Process seem like a
walk in the park. We eventually conjured up a system that we felt that could communicate
to the participants so the event would be enjoyable.
The Facebook page was
gaining traction and the locals in the village were really looking forward to
the day as excitement was also growing among our neighbours. You always know
when you are doing things right when the neighbouring parish start slagging you
off...
Then out of the blue,
our PRO got a message on Facebook from an Italian television production company. They scout social media to look for interesting for events for Mr. Daisuke Miyagawa to attend and take
participate in. He is a very popular comedian in Japan who travels around the
world taking part in unusual festivals. His show is very big in Japan, with episodes being viewed by over 22 million people.
At first, we thought it was a joke. Did one of our
neighbouring villages try to pull a joke on us? A committee meeting was called
and we swore secrecy to many Gods and relics. We had to find out if anyone was
trying to catch us out. After a few days of Columbo type questioning among our
neighbours and workmates we started to believe it was true...
What sealed the deal for us was the credit card details to
book hotels rooms, transport and other equipment, and the card actually
worked.
Now we were under pressure. The event was planned for June 9th
and this was the Tuesday beforehand. I contacted the Guinness and Heineken
Brewery along with Irish Distillers, the makers of Jameson, to see if they
wanted to exploit the situation in exchange for a barrel or two of beer or a
few bottles of whiskey. Out of hand they all laughed at the idea of this Mr
Miyawana coming to a place like Gurteen. The five strong camera crew and
translator were flying from Italy to Dublin, Mr Miyawawa was flying by private
jet to Heathrow with his model girlfriend Miss Japan and popping over to
Ireland for the weekend (Miss Japan stayed in London shopping - her loss). I
tried in vain to sell the idea but it is difficult when the person at the end
of the phone is openly sniggering at you.
To compound matters, we contacted the local newspapers and radio station to let them know of our great news, they laughed also, then declined.
The opportunity to promote our fun day or come along to meet our celebrity guest was, they said, a publicity stunt and there was no way this could happen.
The village was humming, the atmosphere was electric. I could
only compare it to the possibility of our hurling club getting to a county final. All the stops were pulled out to have the area spruced up and
looking its best. Lawns cut, turf brought home at top speed, bunting of all
colours, due to availability and at short notice was hung off every suitable point.
A 'Welcome to Gurteen' sign was printed, in Japanese.
The future reputation of the village and the committee was on a knife edge - is this for real? are we going
to go to the pitch on Sunday, all ready for action and no sign of Mr Miyakawa? There was no job that could not be done, machinery made available with drivers,
loads of stone and chippings delivered for free. If this was a game of poker, the Village was All In.
Instructions from Margherita Savarese,
the Italian translator from Italy.
They are coming to have a quick look around on Saturday, oh God, we have one day
less to get ready. The committee of around 10 met on Thursday night in the
lounge, another 50 squeezed into the front bar wondering if we are still
looking for new members. The Japanese were arriving in Dublin on Friday Night,
making their way to their hotel in Athenry, coming to Gurteen on Saturday for a
quick look around and then going for dinner in Galway on Saturday night.
On Sunday June 9th 2013 the historic sports day took
place. Mr Miyakaw arrived on time with his crew. Everybody was awe struck. This
was really going to happen. The whole village young and old turned up. Our
neighbours from the surrounding villages also turned up, more to confirm in
person that this was not a prank than support, but they were here.
The camera crew with some of the organizing committee
The camera crew sampling the local Guinness
It was a
beautiful day, the chip van was in prime location beside the PA system, the ice-cream van was beside the bouncy castles. The Order of Malta were as far away as
you’d be in hospital faster than getting to the Ambulance. There was no cover
charge which caused more confusion - what’s the catch? We tried to explain that
all the festival events were free.
Young and old lined up to have a shot at the BogOlympics. You
were allowed one practice go and then your attempt at each activity was recorded
by a supervisor.
You got to keep your own score card. All the locals scored
well on picking spuds, stacking turf, throwing the sheaf. The Long Puck and 'throwing the welly' suited the younger participants. It's surprising how
competitive people get. The ice-cream was selling and the food truck was doing a great trade - being an Olympian is tough work. No booze on site but everyone was working up a
thirst for a few pints later.
The greatest difficulty for almost everyone was the unrideable
bike…The Bike had been custom made for a sports days in Devon years ago. One of
the committee members brought it back for their kids and was never used, much
to their disappointment. It was reinvented just for the day… It turned out this
was going to be the winning and losing of the BogOlympic championship. Mr Miyakaw
did reasonably well in most of the other rounds but there were Olympians ahead
of him. He managed to cycle over 3 meters on the bike to propel him to second
place. The excitement was growing - would first prize go to Japan? He won
second.
Mr Miyakaw was awarded his prize, a little plastic trophy,
and a bottle of Paddy Whiskey sponsored by one of the local businesses. The Games
were a huge success and Mr Miyakaw posed for pictures with all the families. I
would say there is a photo of him in every house in the village. As fast as
they arrived, Mr Miyakaw, his translator and camera crew left… The day was
over, it was time to tidy up and go to the pub for a few drinks and barbecue and
everyone have their say on a memorable day.
It is the simple things that can bring everyone together. It
had been a tough few days getting things done and finishing with a few drinks
each night to plan the next day's activities. What will we do next year?
As it turns out, we hardly got a mention on the local
newspaper and the radio station never mentioned it. The locals didn’t mind too much, we had the memories and the proof. Could the neighbouring parishes pull
this off?
We didn’t think so and we had the bragging rights. A few weeks
passed and then we received an email saying our BogOlympics had been shown on
Japanese television to 22 million people… We were shell shocked.
As with all Grants for The Gathering 2013, feedback was
required as to how our Grant was spent, what it did for the village, did many
people return for the festival or event and how much media exposure did we
receive. Our PRO duly replied with all the information, listing our events and
highlighting our BogOlympics and gently made them aware of the fact that our
event was shown to 22 million people. We didn’t hear anything after that. The
festival was over, time to go on holidays and enjoy the rest of the summer…
Out of the blue in late November our PRO got a call from the
local radio station. Did we know we had been nominated for Event of the Year as
part of the Local Authority Members Association (LAMA Awards) and that we now
had been short listed for Event of 2013? It was all news to us. Suddenly
the local newspaper and radio were interested in our story. How did we get 22
million people to view our event? Why didn’t they know about it? Our PRO kindly
answered all the questions while frantically trying to find out was this for
real and who were we up against.
As it turns out, Galway County Council nominated us as their
Event of the Year. Galway County Council's summary of our event clearly mentions that it is bizarre to
nominate a Gathering Event that had not one person to return home to. However, they
kindly described how the whole village came together to have a festival that
suited all age groups and interests and how randomly, our BogOlypmics caught
the interest of this Japanese TV programme which just happened to be aired to millions.
So off we went to the awards night in Dublin. Oh sorry, I
forgot to tell you who we were shortlisted against: The Ploughing Championship
and Electric Picnic - talk about being out of our league. Sadly we did not win. However we had a great night and relived all the great memories. It was great
fun trying to explain an event that sounds so bizarre yet is true.
The organizing committee
LAMA Awards Night - with Miriam O'Callaghan
Below is the link to the Clip shown on Japanese TV, it starts about 3 minutes in. It is funny looking back at it after a few years. The St. Kerrill’s festival revolves around 'the well' shown at the start which takes place on June 13th every year. This holy water has special powers. Did I mention that because of St. Kerrill, the village of Gurteen is famous for being protected from thunder and lightning?...now that’s another story...
Here's the link to the video - it might take you a few minutes to download but it's well worth it:
And some more photos from that historic day:
What a great story and so well told.Hon Gurteen !
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