Blacknight Sponsors Open Air Screening of Dirty Dancing at Carlow Arts Festival
Song and Dance Films Top the Popular Poll at Festival
Fans of the film ‘Dirty Dancing’ can enjoy a unique opportunity for a nostalgic night out at Carlow Arts Festival on Friday 9 June, when the 1980s favourite gets a special open air screening in the grounds of Carlow College.
The event has been made possible with the sponsorship of Carlow company Blacknight, Ireland’s leading provider of web hosting and domain names.
It’s the second year that the festival has held an open-air movie night, following a successful showing of ‘Grease’ last year.
This year, the festival billed the event as a ‘Mystery Movie’, and invited the public to submit their suggestions for the film they’d like to see. The film, starring Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey, topped the shortlist which emerged, and included well known classics like ‘Singin’ in the Rain’, which starred Gene Kelly in 1952.
Ciara Gogarty from Carlow Arts Festival says the preference for ‘song and dance’ musicals in the popular vote was undeniable.
“It’s not something we planned, but it’s interesting that, given the choice, people have a clear preference for the genre”, she says, pointing out that the event is seen as a fun night out for a celebration with friends.
“Last year there was an amazing atmosphere afterwards, with groups on the street singing their favourite songs from the film”.
It’s an atmosphere the organisers have encouraged this year, with special ticket options for groups, and a disco afterwards by Today FM’s Kelly-Anne Byrne.
This year’s festival has ambitious plans to build on the success of 2016, which attracted 30,000 visitors over the week’s events. Last year was the first time that the festival had a centrally located HQ on the campus at Carlow College, St Patrick’s, when it introduced a music and comedy pavilion for the first time. The programme also includes Visual Arts, Dance, Theatre, Spectacle, Circus and free entertainment.
Blacknight CEO Michele Neylon praised the festival organisers’ vision and hard work.
“As a local business, we’re very pleased to have the opportunity to support our community by sponsoring the Arts Festival”, he said. “Carlow Arts Festival is a valuable event on the cultural calendar, and we’re looking forward to enjoying the movie, and the other events on the programme”.
Organisers are expecting up to 1000 attendees at Carlow College, for the film which coincides with the full moon. It starts at 10:00pm.
For tickets, visit carlowartsfestival.com.
About Blacknight
Blacknight (http://www.blacknight.com/) are an Irish based, ICANN accredited domain registrar and hosting company. Recipients of several awards for their revolutionary use of social media, Blacknight are one of Europe’s most cutting edge Internet companies. Blacknight constantly seek to lead the way by introducing innovative solutions for its client base and provide dedicated servers and co-location as well as a comprehensive range of Microsoft Windows and Linux based hosting services and domain name registration services to business globally. IP transit services and other solutions for more demanding business and academic customers are offered a la carte. Fibre broadband services for both business and domestic users are also available throughout most of Ireland.