Traders and tourists from all over expected
It is a tradition that stretches back over 200 years, and now the community in Tubbercurry is getting set to host another edition of the town’s famous Old Fair Day next week.
It is all part of the Tubbercurry Old Fair Day festival, which runs from August 6th to 10th, attracting an enormous number of people to the south Sligo town. It will be five days of action and entertainment, with a number of heritage- based activities planned, as well as live music, craft demonstrations and a family fun day.
The centre piece is the actual Old Fair Day, which takes place on Wednesday August 10th, the final day of the festival. The whole event is set to bring a significant boost to local businesses, while also keeping the 250- year- old tradition alive. It is understood that the first patent for a fair day to be held in Tubbercurry was granted in 1750.
“It will bring 10- 15000 people to Tubbercurry,” says chairman of the Old Fair Day festival committee, Sean McDonagh.
“There are a lot of tourists among that number, people who come over from England and America. We had one family last year who planned a family reunion around the festival last year, where 15 of them came back from the States.”
This year’s festival kicks off with a night of music in St Brigid’s Hall with the up and coming Lee Matthews and a late bar in the hall to accommodate the crowd. That will be followed by a jam- packed family fun day on Sunday, with a huge variety of events both new and existing planned for the town with Arts and Crafts, Fancy Dress competitions, fun races and games and the renowned Fanzini Brothers performing two 45- minute shows during the day. Monday and Tuesday sees events on during the afternoon and evening for kids, with the festival culminating in the big Fair Day on Wednesday.
“There will be 150- plus stalls, from the Garda Barracks right up to the top of the hill [ Tubbercurry’s main street]. There will be a mixture of arts, craft, heritage, vintage the RSA are in with a road shuttle, a 1916 display in the hall and the Irish War museum are bringing down an exhibition.” Sean says.
1916 will play a big role in this year’s festival, where there will be a number different talks and exhibitions revolving around the historic events 100 ago. On Fair Day, an entire exhibition dedicated to 1916 will be on display in St Brigid’s Hall and will also examine the musical and cultural elements of the Rising. “It is hard to quantify how much it brings to the town in materials terms, but all the restaurants are full with queues out the door, it is the biggest day of the year for most of them.” Sean says.
“It costs nearly 50000 to put on the Fair, there is a lot together with marquees, bands, music, barriers and everything like that so there is a lot there and it’s all from fundraising. We fundraise, but we also donate half of what we raise to charities and this year the bucket collection on the day will go towards the North West Hospice.” The organisation of the festival itself takes a significant amount of effort, and the hard- working committee say it is a yearround job, but that they get great help from the local community. PRO of the committee, Marie Brouder said: “From a people point of view, we have a committee of about 13 and on the fair day and throughout the festival we pull in about 100 volunteers from all of south Sligo. On Fair Day, they would be there from 5 in the morning until 11 at night.”
The festival continues to grow, and since its reinvigoration in 1985 it has become the go- to event in the south Sligo summer calendar. “Jackie Coogan, Eddie Walsh and Phyllis Surlis got together to get a festival in the town, so they revived it in 1985, and the only year it stopped was during the Foot and Mouth outbreak. Padraic Neary and Maeve Walsh took it on after that,” says vice- chairman Tommy McGuinness.
It has also become an event renowned nationally, and rivals other festivals and Fair Days around the country. Traders come from all over the country to set up their stalls in Tubbercurry on the day. “I am treasurer now for about eight years now, and I can notice it every year. Financially it is getting bigger and as the money gets bigger, so does the festival,” commented treasurer David Brennan. Emphasising the progression of the Tubbercurry Old Fair Day, Tommy says that it is now right up there with the Puck Fair in Kerry, which garners international attention “There are people now who leave the Puck Fair down in Kerry, which is the biggest, and come up to Tubbercurry for a day.” Those people coming from the south will be joined by thousands more in the coming days.