The Braid - Ballymena Town Hall & Museum Arts Centre

Ballymena Blackboard & Ballymena Arts Festival have won an Irish Festivals Marketing Award at the Irish Festivals & Events National Marketing Awards Ceremony in Galway

The only project from Northern Ireland to have been nominated and to have won an award this year, among over 200 entries, Ballymena Arts Festival were in the top 7 projects in All Ireland to receive this annual award.

The Ballymena project will now be used as an example of good practice in Events Marketing and used as part of the Irish Festivals & Events presentations to the European and International Festivals Conferences in 2014/15

Ballymena Arts Festival was nominated for its Ballymena Blackboard site. Ballymena Arts Festival initiated Ballymena Blackboard Social Media site following a project with the Ministerial Advisory Group placing painted blackboards around the town centre for groups to promote events. Ballymena Arts Festival expanded on this project by the introduction of Ballymena Blackboard Facebook and Twitter sites. The sites were used as promotional tools to advertise events in The Braid Arts Centre and town centre offers. Ballymena Blackboards has had over 26,000 views for some of its postings and is now a site for local groups to promote their events. The site & blackboards managed by Hannah Gibson and Greg Winning from the Arts & Events Service Unit, Ballymena Borough Council has proved to be hugely popular with local groups organising events, with the latest postings for projects as diverse as Christmas events, Charity Concerts and Town Centre shopping offers.