Blackness raises its head at shrunken Sharks

The Kinsale Sharks awards have adapted to the new realities of the economic climate by cutting short the festival and reducing the delegate fee from €595 to €220. In a month when Guinness celebrates 250 years, the festival trophy takes on a new black look.
Award winners will go home with a “sleek, solid, bold and black shark’s head”. This year, the festival kicks off with a reception in Acton’s at 10.30pm on Friday, September 11th. On Saturday, an unnamed creative will give a talk followed by an audience with the jury.
This year’s judges line-up include Simon Collins, Euro RSCG; Roger Kennedy, Saatchi & Saatchi; Alan Kelly, Cawley NeaTBWA; Jeff Kling, Weiden Kennedy Amsterdam; John Peacock, Inferno UK and Marco Mehrwald of BBDO’s Start agency in Munich.
On Saturday afternoon, the Promo and New Director Awards will be followed by ‘Us Against the World’ games with a €500 cash prize. The awards show in Acton’s will be hosted by comic Paddy Courtney. TG4 will sponsor the after party with trad music.
Sharks’ organisers will be hoping that the Kinsale storm that blew up last year after a new group in adland took ownership of the festival will not be an issue. After IAPI pulled back from the festival there were loud cries of conflicts of interests.