This year marks the eleventh anniversary of the last ever Arthur's Day, a festival created by drinks company Diageo celebrating Guinness. The multinational drinks brand introduced 'Arthur's Day' in September 2009 to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Guinness. The idea behind the event was for drinkers to raise a pint of Guinness at 17:59, the year the Guinness Brewery was established, in honour of the founder Arthur Guinness.
The event ran for five passionate, booze-guzzling years before it was eventually stopped by Diageo after its fifth successive year in 2013, Galway Beo reports . To this day many will have fond memories - or nightmare flashbacks - of raising a pint 'to Arthur!' The one-day festival brought huge international acts to play across hundreds of venues in Ireland - and a massive boom for bars and pubs across the country. It was initially welcomed with open arms in Ireland and around the world, with celebrations of the drinking festival held in cities including New York, Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, Jakarta in Indonesia, Lagos in Nigeria and Yaounde in Cameroon.
While the first Arthur's Day focused mainly on Dublin, by the end of the event's run Cork was one of the most rowdy cities celebrating as Diageo staged huge Irish music acts and international superstars at venues across the city. Thousands came out to Leeside streets to toast to Arthur over the five years of the festival. In 2010, Paolo Nutini, Sharon Corr, The View, Fortune, O Emperor, Reko played at the .
