Bumper crowds expected for Strawberry Fair
WITH JUST two weeks to go before the start of the 50th anniversary Strawberry Fair, advance planning has stepped up a gear with the organising committee now satisfied all is in place for what promises to be a super weekend in Enniscorthy. Traditionally, the June Bank Holiday weekend kick starts the summer season in the town and with the Strawberry Fair and Street Rhythms Festival sure to attract huge crowds, 2017 is set to see a return of the halcyon days of tourist numbers visiting Enniscorthy.
A total of 12 Strawberry Princesses have been nominated by various business concerns as interest in who will become the golden anniversary Strawberry Queen intensifies.
The 12 young ladies will be introduced to the public for the first time at the Golden Anniversary Ball in The Riverside Park Hotel on Wednesday, May 31, but the new queen will not be crowned until the closing night of the Fair on June 4, when her name is announced from the bandstand in the Market Square.
The new queen is sure to receive a rapturous reception given that immediately following her selection ‘Cry Before Dawn’ will play their only concert of the summer season in County Wexford before an estimated audience of several thousand fans.
The All-Ireland Farmers Market which takes place on Sunday, June 4 in The Abbey Square is continuing to attract entries from all over Ireland and with a €2,000 cheque for the winning entry, this event is certain to be keenly contested. Two of the three judges for the All-Ireland Farmers Market have been announced with Mairead Laverly from Limerick appointed Chairperson of the judging panel.
Mairead will be well known to readers of The Farmers Journal where she contributes a weekly column. She also regularly broadcasts on Newstalk FM radio and is a leading authority of food matters at national level. Joining her will be Jean Quigley, a graduate of the Cathal Brugha School of Catering and Management. A cookery demonstrator for Roma Foods, Jean is a member of the Food Writers Guild and a contributer of cookery articles to Women’s Way Magazine. In addition to judging this year’s All Ireland Farmers Market here in Enniscorthy, Jean is also a judge in the Gold Medal Hospitality Awards, the winners of which will be announced shortly.
Entertainment will play an important role in this year’s festival with much of it featured in licensed premises throughout the town. The Strawberry Roots element of the Fair will see a variety of top class acts performing in as many as 12 pubs over the bank holiday weekend. A special programme for the Roots has been produced by organiser-in-chief Richie Cotter and it contains some of the hottest acts in music right now. Among the groups taking part this year is up and coming Wexford band ‘Backbeats’ who are steadily gaining a huge reputation both in County Wexford and much further afield. Enniscorthy band ‘Kerme’ and ‘Highway 5’ from Kilkenny are just two more of the many outfits taking part in this year’s Roots Gig Trail’.
The hugely popular Carlsberg Pub Talent Competition is already under way and the indications from adjudicators, Norma and Andy Doyle is that picking a winner is going to prove most difficult. Doyle’s, The Still, Enniscorthy, The Slaney Inn, Oylegate and Ryan’s of Galbally, all previous winners, are among the entrants still to perform with the Slaney Inn, in particular, going all out to make it three wins in a row after their success of the previous two years.
Children are being well catered for in this year’s 50th anniversary fair. The Street Rhythms Committee have put together an incredible programme of events to suit children of all ages and their programme of music, song and dance is sure to find favour with a whole new generation of teeny-boppers.
Overall the programme is designed to appeal to all age groups from the young to the not so young and it is this wide appeal which the organisers are banking on to fill the streets of Enniscorthy with visitors and local alike over the upcoming June Bank Holiday weekend.