Great Opportunity for Local Businesses to Showcase at Country Fairs

Newry, Mourne and Down District Council Chairperson, Naomi Bailie is delighted to announce that there will be discounted rates for small businesses, within the Newry, Mourne and Down area, to promote themselves at some of Ireland’s best Country Fair’s.

This announcement is the first in a programme of schemes to be rolled out by the Chairperson in a bid to create and enhance business and tourism opportunities for the district. The events which are being held in Shane’s Castle, County Antrim on 27 and 28 June and in Birr Castle, County Offaly on 29 and 30 August will be a fantastic opportunity for local business to showcase their product across Ireland and encourage sales.

Albert Titterington, Director of the popular Irish Game Fair & Fine Food Festival is encouraging local small businesses to make the most of this incredible offer and is particularly keen to have fine food, crafts or country living products exhibited at the events.

Albert was also responsible for the highly successful Country Lifestyle and Harvest Fair at Montalto Estate, Ballynahinch in September 2014.

Albert commented, “Although we were delighted with all aspects of the event at Montalto in 2014 and considered it to be an exciting addition to our suite of events, with doubts around the funding of events by Failte and the TourismNI in 2015 we were unable to progress our event planning in the manner we considered necessary to develop the event. The uncertainty over funding meant that we had to rethink our corporate event strategy for 2015 and concentrate our resources on our two long established events at Shanes Castle and Birr Castle. We would like to thank the people of the area for their support in 2014 and plans are in place to be back with you in 2016.”

Councillor Naomi Bailie stated, “I am looking forward to the event returning in 2016 as it proved hugely popular last year and contributed positively to the local economy. It is unfortunate that a full scale event is not going ahead but we are delighted to work with Albert to deliver a smaller harvest festival in the town in September 2015. Furthermore, the successful Battle of Ballynahinch re-enactment in the town centre will return and will no doubt be a huge draw. In this difficult economic climate the Council is delighted that a 25% discounted rate is being offered to local businesses to enable them to promote their products at the events scheduled in July and August.

For further information on the small businesses discount rates please contact : 028 4483 9167 or 028 4461 5416; email irishgamefair@btinternet.com or visitwww.irishgamefair.com