The annual St. Patrick’s Festival is renowned as a large-scale gathering, bringing a range of performances and artistic mediums together to celebrate our national heritage. In 2021, when the Festival’s celebration was hampered by lockdown, partnering with newly Ireland-based social network TikTok allowed them to create an ambitious digital programme while re-engaging with community groups across Ireland.

With a mission ‘to inspire creativity and bring joy’ and having recently established themselves in Ireland, TikTok was actively looking for opportunities to invest in the creative landscape in Ireland. While the partnership was initially envisioned as a series of outdoor art and lighting trails, this format was reimagined. It became Solas, a large-scale audiovisual project that was mounted across the country in two strands alongside an #AwakenIreland hashtag challenge.

The relationship laid the foundations for the ‘St. Patrick’s Festival x TikTok Creative Fund’. Similar to Solas, the goal of the project was to spread connections and creativity throughout the nation. In 2022, the Festival and TikTok took the partnership a step further by supporting in-person connections and collaborations, as well as digital and metaphorical ones. Anna McGowan, Deputy Chief Executive of St. Patrick’s Festival explains, “this drive towards reconnecting and re-engaging with our communities was a key element of the overall 2022 Festival theme of ‘Connections’.”

For Ailish Finnerty, Partner at Arthur Cox and a member of this year’s judging panel, the scale and ingenuity of TikTok’s partnership helped it to stand out from the competition. ‘The entry was an excellent example of business and the arts community closely collaborating on a project that is so clearly carefully considered and mutually beneficial. Few projects can demonstrate TikTok’s commitment to Ireland as well as its involvement in our St Patrick’s Day celebrations,’ she said.