The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
This year’s Rose Ball was the biggest in the Festival’s history
IT’S the glitziest night on Tralee’s social calendar and as ever the Rose Ball lived up to expectations. This year’s ball – with an astonishing 1,500 guests – was one of the biggest in festival history with only the ball in 2009, during the festival’s 50th anniversary celebrations, coming close in recent years.
Demand for tickets for the €125 a head event had been enormous and the Ball was sold out months in advance with a massive waiting list for tickets in run up to the gala celebration.
The presence of 65 Roses, their families and friends, supporters and escorts added huge numbers to the traditionally bulging guest list and the Dome had to be considerably extended to accommodate the additional numbers.
The world famous venue has come a long way since the days of the windy tent in the Brandon car park and you’d be hard pressed to find a permanent venue anywhere in the country that can match it.
As always the Dome interior looked amazing – the crew drafted in to deck it out do a phenomenal job - and save for the wind ruffling the material on the ceiling there was little indication the glittering gala was taking place in a what is essentially a massive marquee.
Friday’s entertainment kicked off in the adjacent Rose Hotel where guests – decked out in the sleekest and most stylish of fashions – met for a champagne reception.
From there it was on to the Dome for a sumptuous five course feast, and introduction to this year’s Roses and long night of top quality entertainment. Hats off too to Brook Catering whose military precision and small army of waiting staff saw to it that every one of the 1,500 guests was served their meal in double quick time.
That meal – whipped up on site by a battalion of chefs involved a medley of starters – including smoked salmon, a fried black pudding and some goats cheese before main course of steak or salmon. Desert was a further medley of small but very tasty treats.
There’s usually a few free gifts to be had too – though nothing on the level of the gift bags doled out at the fashion show. This year if you see someone with a Bon Secours memory stick there’s a fair chance they were either at the Ball or work in the hospital. A slightly odd freebie, but a useful one.
Plenty of wine was at every table and at the bar the restricted selection of previous years was gone – thanks to Diageos new involvement as sponsors – and there was a full range of drinks available with most costing in or around a fiver.
Basically for those who have never attended the Rose Ball it can be described as night of two halves.
Think of the biggest and best wedding you’ve ever been at and multiply that by 100.
The first half is the dinner, speeches and other formalities which typically last until around 11pm. The second is a raucous night on the dancefloor that typically lasts well into the small hours and long after the Roses have been dispatched to their beds.
The fun isn’t confined to The Dome either with large crowds usually moving over to the hotel bar to keep the party going after the marquee doors are shut.
If there was one complaint from guests it was the toilet arrangements.
As anyone who was in Tralee on Friday night will know the weather was absolutely appalling with the town battered by gales and lashing rain. Sadly when this year’s Dome was being erected its designers seem not to have factored in all the potential pitfalls such apocalyptic weather.
The roof canopies didn’t stretch out over the entrances of the toilets leading to the unfortunate situation where many guests in their finery had to dash through a sheet of freezing rainwater to get into the toilets.
This certainly appeared to be more of an issue for the female guests with expensive hairdos and fake tan treatments falling victim to the Dome toilet’s unexpected cold showers.
The elements were also an issue in the smoking area where the torrential rain and howling gales made the atmosphere a little bleak.
Incidentally the Ball’s organisers clearly believe people have been quitting smoking in huge numbers as the smoking area which is always a bustling hive, was much, much smaller than in previous years.
In the night’s overall context these are very small complaints and ones which I have no doubt will be addressed in the future.
Once again The Rose Ball lived up to all expectations and as ever the most glamorous night of the year in Kerry left its guests hungry formore.