She may have travelled the world and lived far and away in Germany, Donegal and Dublin, but, for  Dyane Hanrahan,  Cork is where the heart is and she’s now on a mission to raise the profile of the city both nationally and internationally.

As General Manager of the Cork Midsummer Festival and Chairperson of the Cork Festivals Forum, Dyane is truly at the centre of the Cork festival scene and works tirelessly to ensure that the city’s festivals are attracting more and more people each year.

Her primary role as GM of the Cork Midsummer Festival means Dyane is responsible  for organising fundraisers, securing sponsorship and marketing the Midsummer festival which has undoubtedly become one of the biggest festivals which takes place in the city every year.

As Chairperson of the Cork Festivals Forum, a fledging local organisation which brings the Cork International Choral Festival, Ocean to City, Cork Midsummer Festival, Corona Cork Film Festival and Guinness Cork Jazz Festival among others together, Dyane is at the helm of an organisation which sees local festivals working together to share resources, lobby and market themselves as a group.

With the festival season now in full swing and less than two weeks to go until the Cork Midsummer Festival gets underway, Dyane is working day and night to ensure the festival opens seamlessly and that this year’s event proves even more successful than the year before. Behind the scene, Dyane is continuing her endeavours to raise the profile of Midsummer festival and Cork’s other major festivals while attracting more visitors from both within and outside Cork. “Cork is already informally known as the festival city, we now want to build on this, to attract more and more people here,” she says.

For Dyane, one of the highlights of this year’s festivals will be the Lord Mayor’s Picnic in the Park which takes place on Sunday, June 15 at Fitzgerald’s Park and will see the city park transformed into a magical playground with boat rides down the river, circus shows, street theatre, face painting, string quartets, bands and  fun activities for all the family.  This event, which attracts thousands of people every year, has earned itself a prime place in Dyane’s busy schedule and is one which she looks forward to attending every year. “The Picnic in the Park is an event that I just love. I suppose I have a real attachment to Fitzgerald’s Park and have great memories of watching CorcaDorca’s  The Trial of Jesus and The Midsummer Night’s Dream there. Fitzgerald’s park has and will always have a very special place in my heart,” she says.  Dyane likens this attachment to Fitzgerald’s Park as to the attachments we build with the places we grow up in and to the attachment she once had for her own teenage haunt, the bridge in Glanmire.

Dyane has many happy memories of her youth in Glanmire, of her days in St Joseph’s primary school and later in Coláiste an Phiarsaigh and of her teenage haunts, so much so infact that when Dyane returned to Cork she choose to go home to Glanmire.  Today, she lives there with her husband Sean and her one and a half year-old son Archie. “I just love where I live because we have no real traffic, we’re only 25 minutes from Inch and I can be in work in a very short time,” she says.

Dyane’s positive outlook on the city, its festivals and even its traffic is infectious and after just a few minutes of speaking with the Cork woman it’s clear to see how her attitude helps her in her role as GM of the Midsummer Festival . To suggest that it is her positivity alone though that helps Dyane to sell the festival would be naive, as the Glanmire local has a wealth of experience in both marketing, public relations and management having worked in brand management for Slendertone, medical sales for Johnson and Johnson, event management for Deborah Veale and management for Corca Dorca before finding her true calling right at home in Cork with the Midsummer Festival.

Looking to the future, Dyane hopes to see Cork’s many festivals grow and grow over the coming years both in what they offer and who they attract to the city. “This is a very exciting time for our festivals and I feel very positive for the city. Without a doubt, over the coming years, the festivals are going to get bigger and better,” she said.

www.corkfestivalsforum.com