On 31 January 2008 she was hit by a wave that caused her cargo to shift and she beached at Blackpool, very close to the boundary with Cleveleys.

[7] Before he was rescued, one of the passengers made an emotional, and what he thought at the time final, mobile phone call home to his wife.

[8] Starting at 21:00, eight[9] people were airlifted from the ship, which lost one engine and drifted aground on Cleveleys's North Beach opposite Anchorsholme Lane at around 22:50 (grid ref SD 309,424 53°52′23″N 3°03′09″W / 53.873182°N 3.052444°W / 53.873182; -3.052444),[5][10][11] very close to the remains of the Abana.

[12] The passengers and crew lifted off the ship arrived at Blackpool Airport at 22:00, and two of them were taken to hospital suffering from mild hypothermia, but were not admitted.

[16] Like the Athina B at Brighton in 1980, Riverdance was a temporary tourist attraction, with local traders reporting that they were as busy as they would normally be during the Blackpool Illuminations.

[19] The Tourist Information Centre at Cleveleys reported a large increase in enquiries in the weeks after Riverdance grounded.

[20] Local residents complained that the influx of visitors "made their lives hell", raising parking, traffic and litter issues.

[22] The owner of an ice-cream parlour in Cleveleys prepared a display of photographs of the stricken ferry and used them to raise funds for the local Fleetwood branch of the RNLI, in appreciation of their work in rescuing the passengers and crew.

[24] The crew of the helicopter from RAF Valley involved in the rescue were given the 2008 Defence Helicopter SAR award for their part in the rescue: Flight Lieutenant Lee Turner, Flight Lieutenant Giles Ratcliffe, Sergeant John Stevens and MACR Rich Taylor.

Flt Lt Lee Turner was also awarded the Air Force Cross by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

[6][11] A salvage team from Smit International assessed the ship on 2 February, and a 400-metre (440 yd) exclusion zone was set up.

[27][28] Liverpool Coastguard warned that refloating the ship would take another two or three days, depending on weather and tide conditions,[29] although another source stated the salvage operation could take weeks.

[31] The salvage team assembled the equipment needed to refloat the ship, including a rigid inflatable boat suitable for use in shallow water.

[35] The imposition of the exclusion zone on grounds of public safety was proved to be correct when several trucks fell off on the afternoon of 5 February, caused by the ship moving at high tide.

[38] On 8 February, shackles holding the remaining trailers were released, allowing the vehicles on the top deck to fall overboard.

[43] Sightseers continued to breach the exclusion zone, including two jet skiers who approached the ship from the sea.

[53] Attempts to right her were abandoned on 12 March after storms battered her with 78-knot (144 km/h) winds, causing her to sink further into the sand and the list to increase to 100 degrees.

[55] On 21 March 2008, it was revealed that she had been declared a "constructive total loss" due to further damage inflicted by the storms earlier in the month.

[59] The scrapping of Riverdance was carried out by Hancock's, with initial work to remove the remaining fuel, oil and cargo from the vessel.

[61] By early May the work was underway, with the removal of handrails and the funnel to enable easier access to the interior.

[66] The Marine Accident Investigation Branch conducted an enquiry into the incident, and the final report was published on 3 September 2009.

[68] 'Riverdance' appears in the 2006 film 'Ghosts', directed by Nick Broomfield, based on the 2004 Morecambe Bay cockling disaster.

Chinese immigrant Ai Qin is smuggled from Calais to Dover hidden inside a van aboard the ship.