Powering of the Green ... GE Energy Rentals Supplying the Power for Dublin's Week-Long St. Patrick's Festival DUBLIN, Ireland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dublin is celebrating St. Patrick's Day for a full week this year, and GE Energy Rentals is supplying the power behind all of the festivities.
St. Patrick's Festival 2003 is running from March 11-17 and includes street theater, fireworks, music, exhibitions and a variety of other entertainment events, culminating with a parade on St. Patrick's Day itself that is expected to attract more than 400,000 people. GE Energy Rentals is supplying 20 generators totaling approximately 1.2 megawatts to produce light and power for the various festival activities.
The GE units are located throughout the city to power such events as a fun fair and a fireworks display, and to supply lighting and sound for a large stage located in the middle of the city. This marks the second year that GE Energy Rentals has been selected to provide power for this internationally renowned festival, said Luis Ramirez, president of GE Energy Rentals. This year, we are pleased to also be one of the sponsors of the parade which brings so much enjoyment to the people of Dublin and visitors from around the world.
The St. Patrick's Festival in its current format was established in 1996 by the Ministry of Tourism with the objective of turning the focus of the global St. Patrick's Day celebration back to Ireland, and to present to the world a positive image of the country's national holiday. Since then, the festival has grown into a six-day event receiving global media coverage. Last year's festival was attended by a total of 1.3 million people and was covered by almost 850 television stations in the U.S. alone. Each year, the festival involves approximately 5,000 participants including both professional performers and members of local and regional entertainment groups.
While the parade is the centerpiece of the celebration, other highlights include Skyfest, one of the largest fireworks displays in Europe, a family carnival day, an open-air concert, a fun fair, a treasure hunt and evening street theater events. Support for the festival includes government funding through the Department of Tourism, the Arts Council and the Dublin City Council; and commercial sponsorships generated by matching companies with the various events of the festival program. GE Energy Rentals, based in Atlanta, Georgia, was formed by GE Power Systems to offer rental equipment for temporary distributed power and climate control applications in the commercial, industrial, utility, oil and gas and special events industries.
Major sports and entertainment events using GE Energy Rentals equipment have included Formula One Racing events in Europe, and the Men's U.S. Open and Ryder's Cup golf championships. Ireland has been a center of significant activity for GE Energy Rentals. Over the past two years, GE has provided site power for several major concerts in the country including U2, Oasis, Robbie Williams, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Stereophonics, Neil Diamond, Elton John and Tom Jones, among others. GE also supplied site power for the Irish Open, European Open and the World Golf Championships during 2002.
About GE Power Systems
GE Power Systems (www.gepower.com) is one of the world's leading suppliers of power generation technology, energy services and management systems with 2002 revenues of nearly $23 billion. GE Power Systems provides equipment, service and management solutions across the power generation, oil and gas, distributed power and energy rental industries.
--30--JAH/at* CONTACT: GE Power Systems, Atlanta Dennis Murphy, 770/859-6948 [email protected] or Masto Public Relations Ken Darling or Howard Masto, 518/786-6488 [email protected] or [email protected]
KEYWORD: GEORGIA IRELAND INTERNATIONAL EUROPE INDUSTRY KEYWORD: UTILITIES ENERGY OIL/GAS SOURCE: GE Power Systems