[26
JUL 00] COVENTRY
AND WARWICKSHIRE PROMOTIONS NEWS
Coventry Wins More Party Cash
Coventry
is to host another big night of festivities to mark New Year’s Eve
after winning a grant to pay for the celebrations, but this time there
won’t be a tightrope walker.
A
big-name, but so far mystery, band is being promised to headline the
party in the city centre.
A
grant of £90,000 has been awarded by the Millennium Commission for
the celebrations. With match-funding from Coventry City Council and
income from stall-holders, organisers Coventry and Warwickshire
Promotions have got £210,000 for the event.
The
city has been given the money after a hugely successful programme of
events last year.
The
highlight was a daring tightrope walk by Ramon Kelvink from the spite
of Holy Trinity church to the old cathedral.
RAMON KELVINK
DURING HIS TIGHTROPE WALK
More
than 30,000 people crammed into the city centre to watch the
death-defying spectacle and to mark the new millennium.
Coventry
is now one of 30 towns and cities to be given cash for more
festivities this year, with the donation from the Millennium
Commission being increased from last year’s grant of £80,000.
News
of the £90,000 award was being announced in Birmingham today by
Millennium Commissioner and Minister to the Cabinet Office Mo Mowlam
MP, who grew up in the city.
Rae
Hoole, head of events for organisers Coventry and Warwickshire
Promotions, is one of the keynote speakers at today's national New
Years' Eve Conference at the International Convention Centre in
Birmingham.
It
was her idea to stage the stunning high wire walk, which attracted
more than 30,000 people to the city centre on New Year's Eve, and she
will speak on "catching the imagination".
Rae
said:
"With
matching funding from the council, this grant allows us to stage the
celebrations on a significant scale.
“New
Years' Eve 99 was a special event and a one-off.
We're now seeking to lay the foundation of a New Year's Eve
event that will last and will make Coventry an interesting place to
celebrate it in the years to come".
Now
the funding has been secured, acts will be booked for the
celebrations.
There
will be a lantern procession for children from the Herbert Art Gallery
to one of four stages in the city centre.
Entertainment
will be on a world music stage, a family entertainment cabaret stage,
there will be a DJ and a circus stage, which will play host to the
main act.
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