Once bitten, twice shy as Festival gets application for fireworks in early

FOLLOWING LAST year’s debacle in relation to the opening night of the Wexford Opera Festival, the organisers are getting their application for an event licence into Wexford County Council with plenty of time to spare.

Wexford Festival Trust has applied to the Planning Department for permission to host the annual opening night festivities on Wexford’s quayfront, which open the prestigious festival every year.

This year, opening night will fall on a Friday night.

Because the event attracts more than 5,000 people, a licence is required and, in general, it takes about 16 weeks for it to be granted.

The opening night fireworks display usually attracts upwards of 15,000 people to the quayfront where the fireworks take place ahead of the opening night opera’s start time of 8 p.m.

Last year, the Festival Trust came under serious fire when it was announced that the fireworks would be a ticketed event, citing health and safety reasons and saying the new measures had been undertaken on a trial basis.

However, it later transpired that the Trust had failed to apply for a licence in enough time and were left with the choice of either hiring an event management company and issuing tickets, or cancelling the fireworks altogether.

As if to compound the backlash, the opening night display was subsequently postponed due to inclement weather relating to Storm Ophelia, and rescheduled for the final night of the festival instead.

That night went off without a hitch, and with no ticket enforcement in place, but with a considerably reduced crowd.