Guinness World Record Attempt in Tralee

Though the summer has been a bit of a wash out, the autumn is looking decidedly brighter with Kerry County Museum, Samhlaiocht and Siamsa Tire, the leading artistic and cultural organisations in Kerry partnering to bring Culture Night to Tralee. The partners have just announced a tantalising line-up of events for Culture Night Tralee, which will take place on September 25th as part of the National Culture Night celebrations.

Top of the bill is an event called 'Dancing The Street' which is an attempt at the Guinness World Record for the largest Irish Dance ever, which will kick off at 6:30 pm on Denny Street in the heart of Tralee.

"We wanted to put on an event that was fun, free and family-friendly and Karl and Jonathan at Siamsa came up with the idea of attempting to break the Guinness World Record for largest Irish Dance ever," said Jason O' Mahony, Director of Samhlaiocht.

"Yeah, but I didn't realize we'd need more than 10,000 people when we came up with the idea," laughed Karl Wallace, Director of Siamsa Tire, the National Folk Theatre of Ireland, which is located in Tralee.

Helen O' Carroll, Director of Kerry Museum, concurs, "We thought we would only need about two or three thousand people but when we did a little research we were blown away by the number of people required."

But in true Kerry style they decided to go ahead with it anyway!

Dancing The Street, is just the centerpiece of Tralee's stellar line-up of events, however, with more than 20 other events taking place. The leading arts and cultural organisations of the town have all chipped in, opening their doors until 11pm to give the citizens of Tralee and beyond a chance to experience the cultural delights of the town.

The idea behind Culture Night follows the success of Ireland's first Culture Night which took place in Dublin and was initiated by Temple Bar Cultural Trust in 2006, the event has grown from 40 organizations attracting 40,0000 people to over 100 participating organizations in 2008 with a public turnout of 100,000 people. Building on the enormous success of this initiative in public access and participation in cultural activity, Temple Bar Cultural Trust, in partnership with the Department of Arts Sport and Tourism launched Culture Night Goes National in 2008 involving the cities of Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford which was managed by The Arts Officers in each of the respective cities. This was an overwhelming success and in 2009 an additional six towns were added, including Tralee.

"We were absolutely thrilled to be invited to take part," said Karl Wallace, Director of Siamsa. "Tralee is a fantastic town and we're achieved a critical mass of artistic and cultural organisations and to be invited to take part in a national event like this is an honour for us and for Tralee."

"We really wanted to do something spectacular," added Jason O' Mahony, "and Dancing The Street will certainly be spectacular!"

Highlights promise to include the Irish Premiere of Rithim Rhythm, a dynamic collaboration between one of America's most exciting dance companies, Printz Dance Project, and Siamsa Tire, the National Folk Theatre of Ireland. It's a heavy mix of traditional and contemporary dance, Rithim Rhythm is crammed with Irish step, beat boxing and funky moves.

The line up other events has something for everyone and the vast majority are either completely free or offer a large number of free tickets to the public.

And with Street Entertainment, stilt walkers, face painters and more Culture Night Tralee is bound to offer something for everyone.

For more information on Culture Night and a complete listing of events please log onto www.culturetralee.com

For more information on Kerry County Museum please log onto www.kerrymuseum.ie

For more information on Samhlaiocht please log on to www.samhlaiocht.com

For more information on Siamsa Tire please log onto www.siamsatire.com