SARI Soccerfest – free fun family festival

I got an email this evening about a free family festival in the Phoenix Park this weekend, from 11am to 5pm on Saturday and Sunday, the 10th and 11th of September. I thought I’d share the details here because it sounds like a great family day out! Although the Sports Against Racism Ireland (SARI) Soccerfest gets top billing, I have to be honest, my interest was piqued by the Concern Kitefest. I can just imagine how excited Little Man would be to see all those kites.

15 years SARI Soccerfest – the free fun family festival in Phoenix Park!

The 15th annual Tesco Mobile SARI Soccerfest-the largest intercultural soccer tournament in Ireland-is teaming up with Concern Kitefest and to present a fun, FREE event for all the family in the Phoenix Park, Dublin on the 10th-11th September from 11am-5pm.

This year Tesco Mobile have come on board as headline sponsor as the event looks to grow from strength to strength, with the highly popular festival aiming to attract even more than the average 6,000 participants over the weekend. The free festival will take place at the Garda & Camogie Sports Grounds just across from the entrance to Dublin Zoo.

At the heart of the Soccerfest is a seven-a-side soccer tournament with 40 men’s teams from all over Ireland, with players representing more than 50 countries. An All-Stars game, featuring celebrated sportsmen and women, will be held on Saturday afternoon with SARI director Brian Kerr threatening to referee!

Tesco Mobile Managing Director, Noel Burrows, commented; “Sport Against Racism Ireland is a fantastic initiative and we are delighted to become involved with the SARI soccerfest. Tesco Mobile has an extremely strong ethnic following in Ireland as it offers such low call rates all over the world so the sponsorship makes complete sense. We are looking forward to our first Tesco Mobile SARI Soccerfest in the Pheonix Park and would encourage people to come along and enjoy the weekend.”

Simultaneously, at the Concern Kitefest, kite flyers from around the world will display their big and vibrant kites as well as hosting kite workshops for children.

Tom Arnold, CEO of Concern Worldwide expressed his delight in partnering with SARI again: “Concern hopes to fly 1000 kites over the weekend to symbolise the huge importance of good nutrition in the first 1,000 days of a child’s life’.

The two-day festival also includes a wide variety of entertainment for all the family, with teddy-bear parachuting, face painting, DJs, clowns, capoeira, sports workshops and demonstrations, African dancing, drum circles, FAI soccer skills, GAA Have-A-Go, and lots more.

In running this festival, SARI and Concern hope to promote integration & social inclusion in Ireland and create awareness of the issue of global hunger, which affects one-sixth of the world’s population, and is of particular relevance in light of the current crisis in the horn of Africa.