The Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby Festival will take place this coming weekend at the Curragh Racecourse. A host of glamorous guests and international visitors are set to descend on the Kildare track to watch world class racing and enjoy fabulous food, fashion and celebrity spotting.
The festival has become even bigger over the years and this year includes a host of ancillary events and live entertainment outside of the weekends racing. The Ladbrokes.com Derby Friday will kick off the weekend’s racing.
Saturday is one of the most fashionable racing days of the year with high drama on the track and high fashion in the enclosures with Europe’s leading fillies lining up in the Audi Pretty Polly Stakes. Hats will be the most important fashion accessory on Derby Saturday and the fashion sponsors Kildare Village and their judges will be looking out for The Most Stylish Hat.
Sunday will feature the best of racing, fashion, food, entertainment, pageantry and spectacle culminating with the top horses and jockeys competing for €1.25m in the Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby. The fashion competition is always a big attraction at the races and for the first time ever members of the public will have their say in who will win the title of Kildare Village Most Stylish Lady. Six finalists will be chosen by the judges who will then go through to the public vote.
The inaugural running of the National Lottery Sweepstakes Race is a very exciting addition to Derby Day and will create a new millionaire with the person lucky enough to draw the winning horse in the Sweepstakes winning a cool €1 million.
A selection of delicious food courtesy of Good Food Ireland will be showcased and will be available to all race goers in the Good Food Ireland Village over the whole weekend. Some of the celebrity chefs who will be doing live demonstrations over derby weekend in The Neff Kitchen will include RTE’s Catherine Fulvio and Darina Allen of Ballymaloe fame. A variety of Good Food Ireland restaurants, hotels, food shops, cookery schools, cheese makers, artisan bakers, master smokers, chocolatiers and many more of Ireland's favourite artisan food producers will showcase their delectable cuisine.
For more information or tickets for the racing or any of the events over derby weekend log on to www.curragh.ie or call (045) 441205