Town’s festivals join forces ahead of the Fair’s 50th

THE COMMITTEES of Enniscorthy Strawberry Fair and Enniscorthy Street Rhythms Festival are delighted to announce that they are joining forces and pooling ideas and energies to make the 50th anniversary of the town’s most famous festival a memorable success.

Strawberry Fair chairman Cyril Wheelock welcomed the merger, which will see the town host the 50th Strawberry Fair Street Rhythms Festival over the June Bank Holiday weekend in 2017. Cyril said: ‘ The town needs to pull out all the stops for the 50th anniversary of one of the country’s best known festivals, and with Street Rhythms on board providing their very varied and acclaimed daytime entertainment, Strawberry Fair can concentrate on taking the festival back to its roots and back on to the streets of Enniscorthy’.

Street Rhythms chairwoman Bernie Morrissey said that her committee is ‘ happy to come onboard for the 50th anniversary’. She said: ‘We would be endeavouring to make it a huge success and perhaps even re-invent or inject new life into the historic fair that we all love and grew up with’.

Town manager Pádraig O’Gorman pointed out that there were very few festivals running as long as Strawberry Fair: ‘Only two come to mind, the Rose of Tralee and the Lisdoonvarna Bachelor Festival, so we certainly have something to celebrate in 2017, and with the All-Ireland Farmers Market adding the very popular food dimension to the mix there is no reason why it can’t be a mega weekend for the town and the 50th anniversary’, he said.

Many ideas are already being floated for the momentous festival including celebrity opening, special souvenir brochure with complete history of the fair, 7-aside soccer tournament, pub talent and charades, steam train, photographic exhibition, vintage cars and steam engine, shop window display competition, duck race, Slaney regatta, 12 pubs of Strawberry Fair, barman’s race and of course music, music, music.

One of the most exciting ideas to emerge is the plan to invite the 49 previous Strawberry Queens back on stage at Market Square.

This is a call out to all of you former Strawberry Queens out there to get in touch and let us know if you would be available on Saturday, June 3, 2017. You can reach us on our website or on our Facebook page, or message me at 087 6644603 with your name and the year you were the Strawberry Queen.

This is a wonderful chance for everyone in the town to get behind a festival that has many happy and treasured memories.