Still no clarity on Puck Fair 2020 as announcement due
THE future of Killorglin’s historic Puck Fair in 2020 remains “up in the air” according to committee chairperson Declan Falvey following a preliminary meeting between committee members last week.
Mr Falvey told The Kerryman that no decision has been made as to what will happen this year’s festival, although an announcement on the matter will be issued shortly, most likely next week. He added that no dates other than the traditional slot of August 10, 11, and 12 are being considered.
The festival is not thought to have ever been cancelled during its 400+ year existence, but that record was thrown into doubt due to COVID-19 regulations banning crowds of more than 5,000 until at least September 1.
The pressure would have surely ratcheted up on the committee with the recent cancellation of Tralee’s biggest festival, The Rose of Tralee International Festival, for 2020, but no certainty has arisen from the recent committee meeting.
“We discussed it in general, where we’re going, what we’re doing,” Mr Falvey said. “It’s all up in the air. It was just a general conversation.
“It’s looking kind of glum, but you’ll never know what might happen.”
If cancelled, it would represent a blow of millions of Euro to the Killorglin area, but it would also prove a huge psychological blow to Mid Kerry, Mr Falvey conceded.
“The same as the Rose is in Tralee, our calendar is based on before Puck and after Puck,” he said. “At the moment we don’t know what day of the week we have, but if there’s no Puck we won’t know if it’s August or September ever.
“It’s worth a good few million. They say it’s about €6million, but they’re saying that with 20 years. It would be very hard to estimate.
“You’d also have a lot of young students who would get jobs around Puck time, so you can imagine what it would be like for them as well with so little work available elsewhere as it is.
“I don’t see any supports [being available], but our treasurer is probably looking into what assistance could be there financially or otherwise.”