Celebrating St. Patrick’s Day

March 15, 2017

The St Patrick’s Day Festival is always important to Riverdance, as one of Ireland’s best loved and internationally recognised performances .  Many of the iconic Riverdance milestones over the last 23 years took place at this time of the year when the world celebrates being just a little bit “Irish”…..

• March 1995:
  • Riverdance – The Show, the first Irish dance show ever, closed at the Point Theatre, Dublin after a sell-out five-week run.

 

• March 1996:
  • Riverdance performed for the first time in North America where 8 sold-out shows at Radio City Music Hall, New York heralded the start of 17 years of touring by Riverdance companies throughout the USA, Canada and Mexico.

 

• March 1997:
  • Riverdance opened in Sydney, the start of a sell-out tour of Australia, taking in Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.

 

• March 1998:
  • Riverdance opened in Auckland, New Zealand followed by March 1998 when Riverdance performed for the first time in Japan to sell-out audiences in Tokyo and Osaka which received unprecedented standing ovations lasting ten minutes.

 

• March 2000:
  • Riverdance – On Broadway a new production opened at the Gershwin Theatre, New York for a hugely successful 18-month run.

 

• March 2002:
  • Two Riverdance companies – the Lagan and the Liffey celebrated the 5000th Riverdance show with performances in San Francisco, USA and the Edinburgh Playhouse, Scotland. The Mayor of San Francisco proclaimed Wednesday March 6th Riverdance Day in honour of the show.

 

• March 2005:
  • Radio City Music Hall hosted Riverdance for the fifth time and was the seat of the show’s tenth anniversary gala performance. The Mayor of New York, Michael R. Bloomberg, declared March 15th Riverdance Day. Citizens of the Big Apple affirmed this honour by awarding the show a sell-out run.

 

• March 2008:
  • Riverdance returned to the UK for the 5th time and toured ten cities celebrating the fact that Riverdance had played to over 2.9 million people in well over 1000 performances in 18 UK cities

 

• March 2011
  • While on tour in Australia the Riverdance cast staged a St Patrick’s Day Flash Mob with local Irish Dance Schools in Central Station, Sydney.

 

• March 2013:
  • Riverdance announced the 20th Anniversary UK tour in fine style with a very special performance on ITV’s hit prime time show Ant & Dec’s Saturday Takeaway.
  • Riverdance – The Gathering was launched which included the Riverdance Longest Line where 1693 dancers danced the icon Riverdance steps on the quays of the river Liffey in Dublin to claim the World Record.

 

• March 2015:
  • In the show’s 20th Anniversary year Riverdance welcomed the next generation of Irish dancers when 300 dancers from 23 countries worldwide qualified for the first Riverdance Summer School at Trinity College Dublin.

Here’s to many more memorable March dates!
Enjoy your Patrick’s Day from all at Riverdance