The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Objections halt the plans for a show in the Festival Dome
January 1992
OBJECTIONS from the Brandon Hotel has resulted in the Festival of Kerry turning down a £15,000 deal for the rent of the Festival Dome to help house The Kerry Homes, Motor Show and Boat Show in Tralee next month.
The organiser of the show, Alan Collins, confirmed to The Kerryman that the festival of Kerry would not make the Dome available to him this year despite doing so last year.
Festival President Dave Condon, explained that the board of the Brandon Hotel pointed out to the Festival that hiring out the Dome in this way was providing direct competition with the extensive conference facilities which are available at the Brandon Hotel.
“We were not set up to be in competition with anybody. Our brief is not to provide competition to anyone in Tralee but to be an adjunct to the town and the facilities and services provided here. Bearing this in mind, it was decided not to make the dome available this year to Mr Collins,” Mr Condon said.
The Kerryman understands that the Festival of Kerry received in the region of £15,000 in rent for the dome from Mr Collins last year and that it provided a net £7,000 to Festival coffers. The Brandon Hotel Manager, Austin Coady, is on holidays and was unavailable for comment this week.
Mr Collins is this year hiring a dome larger than the Festival Dome for the exhibition, which will be staged in the town car park opposite the Brandon Hotel.
The new temporary structure being hired by Mr Collins from Western Pleasure in Tuam will be 100ft wide and 260ft long, providing 26,000 sq ft of exhibition space.
It will be 30ft high at the apex and 14ft high at the sides. It is understood that this structure will be the biggest dome of its type in the country when erected in Tralee.
It is expected the rent, erection and outfitting of the massive new structure will cost in the region of £30,000.
Western Pleasure imported the final segment of the structure and if will take a team of eight men using a crane five days to erect it.
This will be the fourth year the exhibition has taken place in Tralee. Over 23,000 people attended the show last year according to Mr Collins who says that there will be over 100 exhibitors this year.
“Last year 23,000 people — many of them from throughout the county and beyond — visited the exhibition. This year I expect that to increase substantially with the 26,000 sq ft venue we are constructing.”
The Kerry Homes, Motor Show and Boat Show will open on Saturday March 14.