Sydney’s St Patrick’s Day Parade Committee has launched new sponsorship packages for the 2010 St Patrick’s Day Parade and Family Day. The Sydney parade is the largest in Australia, attracting more than 100,000 visitors to the city business district on the parade day, with this year’s national media coverage to reaching an audience of over 4.5 million people. The next parade will be held on the 21st March 2010.

As with nearly all St Patrick’s Day parades held around the world, Sydney’s parade and family day is run as a not-for-profit event with sponsorships, memberships, grants and donations funding the festival. There are a number of sponsorship packages available, from Major Sponsorship of the parade itself to the Irish Bachelor of the Year fundraising event held in February each year.

Australia has a particularly strong Irish heritage, with hundreds of thousands of Australians claiming Irish decent, celebrating St Patrick’s Day. Added to this is the new generation of Irish living and working in Sydney, many skilled migrants on resident’s visas. This year saw a record number of Irish citizens granted residential status in Australia, due to the high education and skills level.
 
Gerard Ryan, President of the St Patrick’s Day Committee, Sydney said: "The event goes from strength to strength each year and increased numbers in attendance mean additional expenses such as more security and infrastructure at the Parade and Family Day itself. In the past we have had such sponsorship as Guinness, Qantas, Sinapore Airlines.

There are additional opportunities for organisations wishing to sponsor various segments of the event. In past years sponsorship has come from International, Australian and Irish organisations, all of whom have a great synergy with the event. It is seen as a particularly good return on investment for Irish organisations due to the rate of the Australian dollar to the Euro.
"We would now like to hear from organisations wishing to register their interest in sponsorship opportunities. We have a dedicated, experienced committee including a professional and experienced marketing and public relations function to support sponsors. We work with all sponsors to tailor packages that ensure the partnership is mutually beneficial. Whilst we will consider all one year sponsorship deals, we are interested in discussing longer term sponsorship options such as three year terms, with interested organisations."
 
Closing date for all 2010 Sponsorship Package arrangements is 31st October, 2009.
For more information please contact:
Gerard Ryan
President
Sydney St Patrick’s Day Organisation Inc.
Email: president@stpatricksday.org.au
Tel: +61 411 851 268 (please note +9 hours time difference)
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