Tourism Ireland's new Green Button Festival is set to turn advertising sites from New York to Sydney into an outdoor music festival to celebrate St Patrick’s Day this year.
The campaign, which was launched on Wednesday, will see advertising billboards turn into stages highlighting Irish music, culture and dance.
The billboards will be located in busy areas such as Times Square in New York, Westfield London shopping centre, Via Dante in central Milan and Sydney Cove in Australia.
The billboards will be interactive, encouraging passers-by to scan QR code to ‘press the Green Button’ and activate the festival.
Acts lined up include Clannad and Denise Chaila, the Hot House Flowers and Kíla who will all perform from various locations around Ireland from the Giant’s Causeway to the Cliffs of Moher
Niall Gibbons, chief executive of Tourism Ireland, said: “Our Green Button Festival will bring some of our best-loved and up-and-coming acts to a wide audience of prospective holidaymakers around the world.
“We want to showcase the breadth of our musical talent – and encourage people everywhere to come and experience it for themselves.
“Our St Patrick’s Day programme this year includes an extensive programme of trade, media and consumer activity to restart overseas tourism. Our aim is to remind holidaymakers everywhere that Ireland offers the warmest of welcomes and great fun, as well as wonderful scenery and heritage.
“We are taking every opportunity to capitalise on Ireland’s heightened profile around this St Patrick’s Day period.”
The festival will also run on Ireland.com and on other digital channels including YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
