Events

I Love Ireland Festival

Feb. 27, 2017
By Haruka Masumizu
2 Comments

The biggest St Patrick’s Day celebration in Asia, the I Love Ireland Festival will be back in Yoyogi Park for the fourth year running on an unprecedentedly bigger scale. Commemorating the 60th year anniversary of the Japan-Ireland diplomatic relations, this year’s festival will run for two days (Sat March 18 - Sun March 19) for the first time. Organisers ambitiously aim for a greater turnout of 100,000 visitors.

St Patrick’s Day, though essentially an Irish national holiday, is now celebrated all over the world not only by Irish immigrants but also by the locals who love Irish culture. It is originally an event celebrating St Patrick, who is said to have introduced Christianity into Ireland during the 5th century by using the Irish national flower, shamrock, as a metaphor of trinity. Though geographically and culturally far apart, Japan is no different; Irish immigrants living in Japan and Japanese locals cooperate with each other every year to organize various St Patrick’s Day festivities, including the I Love Ireland Festival throughout Japan. In order to promote those events, organisers got together last week to talk about this year’s highlights at a press conference in Tokyo, attended by Irish Ambassador to Japan Anne Barrington.

Growth of St Patrick’s Day celebrations in Japan

Despite the lack of knowledge in Ireland and the origin of this event, St Patrick’s Day has begun to establish its presence in as many as 13 cities in Japan (Tokyo, Yokohama, Chiba, Nagoya, Fukui, Osaka, Matsue, Ise, Takamatsu, Okayama, Fukuoka, Kumamoto and Okinawa). The biggest and oldest of all, the Tokyo parade celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. The 2014 launch of the I Love Ireland Festival in Yoyogi Park, which annually takes place in conjunction with Omotesando’s Tokyo parade (March 19 this year) on the same day around the neighbouring area, has given momentum to the parade, making it recognizably an “Irish event” from a green parade.

According to the parade organiser Irish Network Japan (http://www.inj.or.jp), Fukui and Okayama will join for the first time the nationwide St Patrick’s Day celebrations this year. The highlight will be Matsue Castle, which will be lit up in green for the first time, the embassy added.

The growth of the event’s popularity in Japan is expected to accelerate thanks to the collaboration by some of the mega goods shops such as Don Quijote, Kishi’s and Claire’s, that have quickly recognized its market potential in Japan. Foreseeing it to be the next foreign event to become popular in Japan following Halloween, they have launched sales of some "kawaii" (cute) green merchandise to wear for this occasion.

Ambassador Barrington said, “I invite everyone to join in the St Patrick’s Day fun at the nearest festival or parade, and to share in our amazing, international cultural experience. If you can, don’t forget to wear something green!”

What to expect at I Love Ireland Festival 2017

Organisers of the I Love Ireland Festival explained at the press conference that the most important theme of the event has always been to provide people with “craic” - an Irish word for “fun.” But this year, they aim to develop and expand the event even further with a new sub-theme, “eco & sports - rugby.”

Eco-friendly

“Eco-friendly” aligns with St. Patrick's Day's symbolic color, green, as well as the country’s richness in nature. The I Love Ireland Festival aims to produce as little rubbish as possible throughout the event, while organising a group-sport with volunteers to pick up trash on the street in cooperation with the Spo-GOMI organiser, Social Sports Initiative.

Rugby

Ireland and Japan are coincidentally linked by rugby: Ireland will host the Women’s Rugby World Cup this year while Japan will host the Rugby World Cup in 2019. Celebrating this link, the I Love Ireland Festival will invite the Japanese women's rugby team, who will compete in the World Cup in Ireland this year, to join a talk show on the main stage as well as the parade. Visitors are invited to have a taste of rugby in the form of street rugby in one corner of Yoyogi Park in order to promote the “craic” of rugby further in Japan.

It is only a year and a half ago that Japan’s rugby all of a sudden drew worldwide attention when the men's team stunned the world, including Ireland, by defeating the powerful South African team in an unforgettable 2015 World Cup match. From this incredible team, Akihito Yamada, one of the star players has been confirmed to join the talk show on the Saturday evening, organisers revealed.

Craic

The festival is quite family-oriented and full of craic for any age group. Of course, as every year, you can enjoy some drinks, food, traditional Irish music and dance sessions, which give you some experience of the craic of an Irish pub. Music performances include both Japanese musicians and some Irish trad bands, while Irish dance will be performed by an Irish dance school based in Japan. You will also have a chance to try some gaelic football, the unique national sport of Ireland, along with the members of the Japan Gaelic Athletic Association.

Also in store is a talk show between Miss World Japan, Priyanka Yoshikawa, and her Irish counterpart, Niamh Kennedy, who became friends with each other in the global competition last year, to celebrate 60 years of friendship and diplomatic relations between the two countries.

The detailed schedule of the stage performances will be announced on their website this week. Invite your friends, go green, and join the craic to be Irish for a day.

To check out related news and events: Embassy of Ireland: https://www.facebook.com/irelandinjapan Irish Network Japan (St Patrick’s Day Parades around Japan): www.inj.or.jp I Love Ireland Festival: www.iloveireland.net

Photo below right shows Irish Ambassador to Japan Anne Barrington and Miss World Japan, Priyanka Yoshikawa.

© Japan Today

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2 Comments
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Have a great St. Patrick's weekend, everyone!

The Ireland-England match on Saturday 18th will be one to watch, and all the fans will have great craic in Dublin's pubs regardless of the result.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

St Patrick, who is said to have introduced Christianity into Ireland during the 5th century

Wrong, The first recorded missionary to Ireland was Palladius in the year 431

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

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