A major outdoor dance event, the Thrill on the Hill, is being planned for next month in Castlebar in a bid to establish a new world record and raise valuable funds in aid of a cystic fibrosis group.
Louise Heraty, a parent of a child with cystic fibrosis and member of the Mayo branch of Cystic Fibrosis West, reported that CF sufferers in the west of Ireland have the lowest life expectancy in the country.
“We are trying to raise €1 million for a special CF facility with specialised airflow that will help minimise risk for our CF sufferers,” she said. “At the moment we have managed to raise €800,000 of this. There are 50 families in Mayo with CF sufferers and we are not doing as well regarding facilities as other counties.
“The Thrill on the Hill, sponsored by C&C Celllar, will be an attempt to break the record of the number of people dancing at the one time to Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ hit. To do this we need 15,000 people in McHale Park on June 3. This will bring a lot of activity into the town and the idea is to get all dressed up as a zombie — maybe people in the town will join in and do the same. We are asking everyone to come on board because everyone can benefit from this major event.”
Brendan Chambers of C&C Cellular said as well as being a good news story, there would also be revenue potential in it for Castlebar businesses. He suggested that hoteliers get involved and put packages together and perhaps promote the event as part of a weekend visit to the town.
“There are many signed up already,” he said. “It’s going to happen and we are confident the record will be broken and it will be great for Castlebar to be involved in breaking a new record in the Guinness Book of Records.”
Castlebar Chamber of Commerce president Tom Canavan, also called on everyone to get involved to make Thrill on the Hill “a win win for all in the town”.
Further information on www.thrillonthehill.ie
