Kia Ireland continue partnership with St. Patrick’s Festival 2024.
Kia Ireland continue partnership with St. Patrick’s Festival 2024.
March 8th 2024; Kia Ireland will return as the Official Electric Vehicle Partner of St. Patrick’s Festival for 2024. Building on the success of the past two years, Kia are collaborating with bespoke pageant building specialists Bui Bolg, who will produce four dedicated parade sections, consisting of five floats on their behalf. These floats, which have been commissioned by more than 10 artists and makers in line with Kia’s electrification and sustainability strategy, will convey the brand’s ambition to become a sustainable mobility solutions provider. Kia will support this year’s festival with their full fleet of electric vehicles including the new EV9, EV6 & Niro EV which will assist the celebrations of arts, culture, and heritage around Dublin City from March 15th – 18th. In addition, 60 performers will interact and delight audiences on the route while the overall performance will be choreographed by four different performing arts groups.
This association will also feature a vehicle display area at the Festival Quarter in Collins Barracks, National Museum of Decorative Arts, which will remain in place for the duration of the festival. This display will highlight Kia’s sustainability strategy and shine a light on the use of recycled materials in vehicle production, and also, their journey towards carbon neutrality. Together with Native Events, they’re creating an installation entirely made from recyclable materials and powered with solar paneled batteries, allowing audiences to witness firsthand the recycled materials gathered and then incorporated into Kia’s EV9.
Speaking on the partnership Cathal Kealey, Head of Marketing & PR at Kia Ireland commented “Apart from being one of Ireland’s leading electric vehicle brands, we have made a commitment to sustainability by placing it at the core of our business strategy. As more and more Irish drivers switch to electric vehicles, we are always looking for ways to inform the public about such strategies. By 2030, Kia will have 20% of all vehicle plastics coming from recycled materials. Our EV9, which will lead our parade pageant, uses 10 specifically sourced sustainable items in vehicle production that have either originated from recycled plastic, or have been sourced from plant-based materials. These materials will be used in all future Kia models also, so it’s an exciting time for our brand, and we are delighted to share this story with parade goers on the streets of Dublin, those tuning in on television our visiting our Festival Quarter activation.”
St Patrick’s Festival CEO, Richard Tierney added “We’re really delighted to be working with Kia Ireland for this year’s Festival – it’s a partnership that is important for the festival for so many reasons. Primarily, Kia placing sustainability at the core of what they do reflects our own values, and our firm belief that what we do individually and collectively can have a real impact on the world we live in. They have consistently worked alongside our team in bringing creativity and innovation onto the streets of Dublin and we’re hugely excited to show the world what we’ve been working on together with Bui Bolg.”
As part of Kia’s brand vision to provide sustainable mobility solutions along with a commitment to be carbon neutral by 2045, this four-part pageant will explore the electrification and sustainability credentials of the brand in what’s called the ‘What Powers Us’ pageant. The first section will consist of vehicle procession and a showcase of the new Kia EV9 in specially designed festival livery. Section two covers the Circular Economy and highlights Kia’s partnership with the Ocean Cleanup and their work to remove plastic from the ocean, while also recycling and upcycling this waste for use in vehicle production. Section three is an innovation section that plays on the overall theme of the festival – spréach (or spark). This pageant will replicate the use of atoms and electrons to highlight the power behind Kia electric vehicle range. The fourth and final section is simply called the ‘WOW factor’ and highlights the use of Kia’s innovative technology. This will be the largest parade pageant ever seen in the St. Patrick’s Festival parade in Dublin, standing at over 6 meters tall, the clever design will overcome the usual height restrictions of the Luas lines by adjusting and adapting along the route.
Buí Bolg Youth Arts based in Wexford transforms and re-imagines spaces, through spectacular installations, large scale community events and street art performances which turn the ordinary into the extraordinary. St. Patrick’s Festival is made possible through the continued support of the Government of Ireland, the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Fáilte Ireland, Dublin City Council, and many generous partners and funders.
For festival details see stpatricksfestival.ie. For more on this partnership see Kia.com.
