Cry Before Dawn and Corner Boy playing Strawberry Fair

ANTICIPATION is building that the 50th anniversary of the Strawberry Fair in Enniscorthy is going to be a welcome return to the glory days of the festival, with confirmation that former RTE News broadcaster Anne Doyle will be opening the festival and high-profile bands Cry Before Dawn and Corner Boy are among the acts booked to play in the Market Square over the June Bank Holiday weekend.

The Strawberry Fair, like all lovely ladies, is getting a facelift for her 50th birthday. This is all thanks to the small hard-working committee under chairman Cyril Wheelock, the amalgamation with the Street Rhythms Festival and to the intervention of the town’s newly appointed manager Liz Hore who has volunteered herself as secretary to the committee.

Former RTE news presenter and Wexford ambassador Anne Doyle has very kindly agreed to open the Fair at Market Square on the Friday of the June Bank Holiday weekend and she will be joined on stage by former queens of the festival. To date the committee are halfway there with approximately 25 names confirmed to be part of the 2017 celebrations. The former queens will be guests of honour at the Strawberry Ball on Wednesday, May 31, at the Riverside Park Hotel, interviewed by Anne Doyle on the bandstand on opening night and guests of honour at an afternoon tea civic reception hosted by Enniscorthy Municipal District Council at Enniscorthy Castle on Saturday June 3.

Cry Before Dawn, Corner Boy and Gentlemen Callers are currently booked to perform in the Market Square with Strawberry Roots happening all over town every night along with the winner of the pub talent competition performing on stage at Market Square on Friday June 2.

The innovative Street Rhythms committee under chair Bernie Morrissey are looking after the children’s daytime entertainment at Market Square and at Enniscorthy Castle a Strawberry Memory Tree will be housed for all to place their treasured memories of 50 years of the festival.