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THE FIRST ever Friday night (October 19) opening of Wexford Festival Opera is expected to bring an even bigger crowd than usual onto the quayfront this year to witness the spectacular annual fireworks display.
The 67th Festival will be officially launched by the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Josepha Madigan TD with the opening ceremony starting at 7pm and the pyrotechnic explosion over the harbour beginning at approximately 7.40 p.m. The international Opera Festival will continue over three weekends until Sunday, November 4, with opera performances every night except Mondays.
The Mayor of Wexford Cllr. Tony Dempsey and the chairman of Wexford Festival Ger Lawlor will also address the attendance.
Traffic restrictions will be in place and Wexford Bridge and the quays will be closed to traffic from 5pm with both routes expected to be re-opened by 8.30 p.m.
A designated disabled car park will be set aside on Crescent Quay and gardai will be available to allow access to anyone wishing to use the facility. A sign language interpretor will sign the speeches.
As this year’s Festival is opening on a Friday night, a larger than usual crowd is anticipated and people attending the quayside ceremony are asked to obey the instructions of the stewards and gardai.
Drones are not permitted during the fireworks display and all boats and fishing trawlers must be outside a 200-metre exclusion zone 15 minutes before the fireworks begin.
There will be free, unrestricted access to all members of the public onto the
quayfront for the opening ceremony which was dogged by controversy last year due to a failure to apply on time for a licence
from Wexford County Council to hold an event attended by a crowd of more than 5,000 people.
The fireworks display is one of the fringe highlights of the Festival and the subsequent decision to make it a ticketed event for health and safety reasons in 2017, was greeted with widespread disappointment and criticism.
An event licence is in place for this year’s opening night festivities and according to one of the conditions imposed by local authority planners, there will be unrestricted entry onto the quayfront ‘until the capacity determined by the Event Controller of the event site, in consultation with An Garda Síochána is reached’.
A Central Control Room is being set up with a direct view of the quayfront and during the fireworks display, the Safety Ofrficer must ensure that all aerial explosions take place over a zone free of people and all potential fire hazards.
The safety of the public is one of the primary considerations of the licence with a condition stating: ‘The display should be stopped immediately if safety is compromised by any unforeseen situation, for example, insufficient crowd control, people or vehicles straying into danger zones or sudden adverse weather change or change in wind direction.’
An Event Management Plan has been put in place for the opening ceremony. According to the licence application, the antic- ipated number of people expected to attend is 10,000, based on attendances in previous years.