How the expanded contest will work

THIS year’s new look, expanded Rose of Tralee means long time festival fans will have to get used to a raft of changes in how the competition plays out.

The return of the qualifying heats to Tralee - and the resultant addition of 33 extra Roses - means the festival’s long established running order has undergone a fairly radical overhaul.

For those who have previously attended the semi finals in Portlaoise the format will be relatively familiar, however anyone not au fait with the Rose’s old regional qualifier system may find themselves scratching their heads.

The first obvious change was the earlier start date. Traditionally the festival kicked off on the Friday afternoon with the Rose’s arrival but this year the fun and games kicked off considerably earlier.

While today (Wednesday August 17) is the official start of the festival the action actually began yesterday with a welcome reception for the 65 Roses and their centres.

As only half of the Roses can be accommodated during the televised selection nights on Monday and Tuesday the 65 contenders now have to be whittled down to 32.

That process starts tonight with the first of two qualifying heats in the Dome.

Only the Kerry Rose Danielle O’Sullivan is guaranteed a spot in the televised selection and this means that all 64 remaining roses will have to battle it out for a place in the televised live finals. Both qualifying nights will be hosted by TV compere Dáithí Ó Sé and the contenders will be judged by two separate judging panels, one to judge the Irish Roses and one for the International contestants.

These panels will then select a specific number of finalists from various regions. The finalists will include 12 Irish Roses (including the Kerry Rose); three British Roses; two Canadian Roses; seven from the United States; three from Australia and three from the rest of the world. Each judging panel will also select a wild card finalist.

The 32 finalists will be named on Sunday night.

While not all Roses will make it to the televised final the good news is that for the first time in decades every single Rose that’s involved in the competition is in Tralee to take part in the festival. Every Rose will take part in all the parades, attend the Rose Ball and the various Festival functions.

Such is the continued success of the Rose of Tralee on TV, RTÉ are also introducing a third Rose of Tralee TV programme from this year onwards - The Road to the Dome will be aired on RTÉ One at 6.30pm on Monday August 22. The Televised Selections will be broadcast as usual from 8pm on Monday and Tuesday August 22 and 23 on RTÉ One.