Dublin City Council has been accused of St Patrick’s Day price gouging ahead of our patron saint’s party.
Festival organisers are charging up to €1,000 for a family of four to watch the city’s parade from a grandstand.
And they want people to fork out up to €110 per couple – to get into a market.
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Justin Leonard from the capital’s landmark fruit and veg market, between Capel Street and Smithfield, says it’s “absolutely outrageous”.
The council is charging €25 a head to visit the market on March 17, or more than twice that amount for a couple’s “luxury package”.
And fourth generation trader Justin, whose great grandmother Kate Leonard was the first fruit seller to take a stand in the Victorian market when it opened in 1892, urged the council to rethink its plans.
The historic site on St Mary’s Lane has been empty since 2019 when it was closed for a planned refurbishment which has yet to happen.
Justin told the Irish Sunday Mirror: “This market was built for the people of Dublin as a free public market, a civic amenity, by Dublin Corporation in 1892.
“It was never intended to be a pay per visit market – it’s absolutely outrageous.”
Justin runs Jackie Leonard & Sons, Dublin’s oldest fruit and vegetable suppliers. The family celebrated 130 years in business next to the old fruit market on December 6.
He continued: “I’ve been to food markets all over Europe – and I’ve never paid to go into any of them.
“Even as an open free market under the British empire, they were never toll paid. You never had to pay to enter. To hold events like this is not what the market was intended for.”
The Me Auld Flower event – run by the crew behind the annual Big Grill Festival in Herbert Park in leafy Dublin 4 – is just one of several billed by St Patrick’s Festival organisers that has come in for criticism.
Although the festival’s theme is “inclusivity” and states “we are one” as its mission, only parade-goers with deep pockets can enjoy certain “exclusive” events.
Justin said the first he or any local traders heard of the food event being staged next door was on social media.
Admission costs €50 per couple for either the noon-4pm or 5pm-10pm sessions.
No drink or food is included in the price but guests can enjoy demos, talks, tastings and workshops as well as music and DJs.
For €110, a couple can go VIP, with access to The Snug – a 250-seater chillout area with “posh loos” and “nice seats” – with a glass of Prosecco or a 330ml bottle of beer.
Justin fumed: “Nobody told us a dickey bird about it. It’s totally disrespectful to the tenants of the market and the people in the area, who the market was designed for originally but it’s not being used or that.
“We’ve a huge community down here – Church Street, St Michan’s flats – and the market was part of that community for generations.”
A Dublin City Council spokesman said: “This [market] is a wholesale warehouse and there are significant costs to making it safe and providing for an event with associated fire safety, health and safety, food safety, power, water, toilets etc stage light and sound as there would be in a green field site. There will be an allocation of tickets to the local community as there has been for all events in the markets to date.”
A spokesman for the Me Auld Flower event said it was partnering with the Capuchin Day Centre with all proceeds from walking tours donated to the Bow Street charity.
He added: “The festival will also match these proceeds from the weekend, doubling the amount donated overall.
“We have also been in close contact with the centre to help with kitchen equipment and food items where we can.” Meanwhile, wealthy parade-goers no longer have to slum it with ordinary folk on March 17 as a two-tier system takes hold.
For €1,014, including booking fee, a family of four can command views usually reserved for the President of Ireland in the exclusive Emerald Circle, a covered grandstand outside the GPO on O’Connell Street.
Earlier blurbs described these exclusive tickets as offering “the best view of the parade to see the arrival and welcoming ceremony of president Michael D Higgins and his wife Sabina as well as our international guest of honour to be confirmed and other distinguished guests, as they take their seats to watch the parade”. But the Michael D “sell” has since been removed from the website, with the promise now of “unparalleled views right at the heart of all the action on the parade route” and “the best view to see the ceremonial opening”.
The GPO stand is one of 18 VIP grandstands holding 1,700 seats along the parade route, with stands at Parnell Square, Westmoreland Street, St Patrick’s Cathedral, O’Connell Street and Christchurch. Festival organisers said tiered ticket options ranging in price from €100 – €250 went on sale in November, adding “due to exceptional demand, almost all of these grandstand tickets have now sold out.
The festival has also teamed up with five-star hotels including the Westin and the Hyatt to organise “luxury” VIP hospitality packages where for €1,000, a family of four can watch the parade from a bandstand before being “escorted” to a hotel to enjoy a buffet lunch and live trad music session.
On the website’s booking pages, organisers encourage ticket buyers to donate to help them run the festival.
The festival’s funding partner is Dublin Airport and it’s also being funded by Dublin City Council and Failte Ireland, with a record allocation of €600k by tourism minister Catherine Martin to stage this year’s festival.
A spokesman for the festival said: “St Patrick’s Festival is an independent not-for-profit organisation with charity status.
“Proceeds from ticket sales are invested back into the arts and culture community in Ireland, and into producing the festival’s parade and programme every year.”
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