STAGE SET FOR A VERY GOOD YEAR

WITH lots of new features, this year’s Guinness Singing and Swinging Pubs competition could be the best yet.

The competition was launched at Gaynors Bar last week and if the enthusiastic response there was anything to go by, there will be plenty to shout about once the competition gets under way on October 20.

Now in its 65 th year, 30 pubs and hostelries are taking part in the competition which has been sponsored by Guinness and Diageo since it started in 1952.

Apart from the fact that this is an Over 18s event, there are no written rules beyond an appropriate time period.

The main sections in the competition are Singing, Swinging, Variety and Traditional Style. Adjudicator Paul Kavanagh will visit each of the pubs and judge their 30-minute performances.

Following tradition, the results will be posted in the Bull Ring around 12 midnight on Thursday, November 2.

To mark the 65th year of the competition, some new awards will be presented in 2017, including:

• A ‘Guinness Wexford Singing and Swing Pubs Peoples Choice award’. This award will be voted on by the public and the show with the highest number of texts will win the award. This will give the audience an opportunity to have an influence. How it works: Text the name of the pub to 085 8706488. Texts charged at the normal network rate. Text lines opens from 9 a.m. on October 20 to 11.30 p.m. on Thursday, November 2. You can vote at any stage during that period for your local show.

• A Guinness Wexford Singing and Swinging Pubs Competition Best Guitarist award for 2017. The winner of this award will win a specially-commissioned guitar made by Martin Murphy in Menapia Guitars.

• Two awards in memory of two great supporters of the Guinness Wexford Singing and Swinging Pubs Competition who have passed away this year: The Tony O’Neill Best Decorated Pub award and The Jimmy Barron Best Unaccompanied award.

• A new Guinness Wexford Singing and Swinging Pubs Golden Harp Award for the person or act the adjudicator deems to be the best of the Festival. The winner will also win a day’s recording in the Orchard Recording Studios Enniscorthy.

• A Guinness Wexford Singing and Swinging Pubs 2017 Overall 65th Award for the show deemed by the adjudicator to be the best of all.

• A Performance of the Night scroll presented by the adjudicator to the act he enjoyed the most on the night. This will happen at every one of the 30 shows

Johnny Gaynor, commitee; Brian Cantwell, Diageo; Alan Corcoran, MC; Annette Gaynor; Azaria Starfire; Cllr George Lawlor, Deputy Mayor; Ger Lawlor, Chairman, Wexford Festival Opera; Bonnie Boux ; Paul Kavanagh, adjudicator; and Foxy Pcox, at front.

Brian Cantwell made a presentation to Lisa Furlong, daughter of the late Tony O’Neill, of The Shambles, and announced a new category this year, ‘The Tony O’Neill Best Decorated Pub Award’.

Eddie Carty, Mairead Carty, Eugene Fortune and Dick Walsh at the launch.

Photographer Ger Hore receives a presentation from Brian Cantwell of Diageo in recognition of Ger’s coverage of the Singing and Swinging Pubs competition for the Wexford People.

Brian Cantwell (Diageo) with luthier Martin Murphy and the guitar he made as a prize for the best guitarist of the competition.

Diageo’s Brian Cantwell makes a presentation to Marie Barron,daughter of the late Jimmy Barron, to mark a new category this year: The Jimmy Barron Best Unaccompanied Award.

Andy Doyle and Jim McGee at the launch in Gaynor’s.