Kildare man behind successful Cannonball Ireland now aiming to bring event global
The Kildare man behind the Cannonball run, a massive Irish event that is packed with supercars that trek across the country and was witnessed by over 180,000 people this year, has set his sight on conquering countries on the far side of the world next year.
Alan Bannon, who set up the Cannonball event that proved a resounding success last weekend, is now aiming to bring it to the US and Japan in 2019.
Last week, top mark cars including McLaren, Lamborghini, Ferrari, Aston Martin, Porsche, Maserati, Rolls Royce and Bentley blazed a trail through Dublin, Kinsale, Limerick, Galway Plaza, Claremorris, Sligo, Mullingar and Moneygall with a dramatic finish line in Kilkenny. Now in its ninth year, CANNONBALL has raised almost €900,000 for Irish Charities and this year, proceeds will go to Make-A-Wish Ireland, a children's charity that grants magical wishes to children between the ages of 3 - 17 years with life-threatening medical conditions.
The gleaming convoy of 190 supercars and novelty cars worth an estimated €32million drove through over 1000 kilometres of Irish open roads. 40% of Cannonball entries came from outside of Ireland and this year an exciting team with 10 supercars came in from Dubai. CANNONBALL is the brainchild of Kildare Businessman and AB Signs proprietor, Alan Bannon and the benefit to the Irish economy of this event is estimated at €2,567,000 per year. With two National Awards and four nominations this year, this Supercar event shows no signs of slowing down and is now gearing up for the US in October and Japan in 2019.
Spectators got up close and personal with 190 of the finest cars on the planet and enjoyed the unique festival atmosphere that Cannonball is renowned for. The seven Cannonball Official Grid Girls and Brazillian Dancers set temperatures soaring and with Cannonball anything is possible from Spiderman to Starwars, Cat woman to Wonder woman, Cheerleaders to Charlie’s Angels, Babewatch, Batman, The Joker and much more. Celebrities like Shane Lynch, Andy Quike, Wes Quirke and Model Emma Quinlan are firm devotees of the event and the costumes get more and more outrageous each year!
This year Aslan’s Christy Dignam was in Dublin, Owen Colgan from the Hardy Bucks was also signed up and a host of celebrities joined Cannonball during the three-day event. Paddy Casey played the outdoor stage in Claremorris and Cannonballers enjoyed a special guest performance by The Four of Us in Sligo along with Daft Punk and The Drum Club- Spoken Word with Big killer tunes + incredible visuals featuring Wayne Sheehy former drummer with Rolling Stones Guitarist Ronnie Wood.
The Cannonball Convoy was preceded by some great free family fun and children’s entertainment with Transformer Robots Bumblebee, Batman and Robot Ted from Audionetworks along with Optimus Prime in ‘vehicle mode’ and The Hone Energy Transformer Truck. Doc and Marty McFly will be Back to the Future this year in the fully kitted out Delorean and the notorious NYPD, German Polizei, and colourful Cannonballers in crazy costumes add to the melee.
This year Cannonball went to a whole new level with a fantastic line up from headline entertainment sponsor Audionetworks and AMA Music Agency. With massive digital screens and rocking tunes at each stop and a host of household names playing on various outdoor and indoor stages around the country, this year was one for the spectators and a great free family day out.
Meanwhile, Absolutereg.uk writer Jake Smith has also published an article on his blog which explains the opulent lifestyle of supercar drivers in Dubai which provides a very interesting insight into the supercar scene in Dubai which can be found in the below link: