IT HAS been a tough few years for arts organisations around the country with budgets slashed and funding in short supply.

The age of 21 is a milestone, so this year the fireworks will be brighter as the Spraoi festival in Waterford comes of age.

COME summer time, there’s never a shortage of things to do around Ireland. Sometimes the best of festivals tended to go unnoticed but these days it’s easy to pick them on www.discoverireland.ie

IT’S known as the sunny South East — and not without justification, but there’s more to this corner of Ireland than beaches and a pleasant climate. The South East embraces five counties and four rivers; it’s famous for heritage, vibrant cities and towns and a scenic landscape.

Almost 200,000 people are expected to flock to Waterford’s carnival-style Spraoi Festival which begins today.

WATERFORD’S Spraoi parade will go ahead as planned next Sunday, albeit a bit later than originally scheduled.

FINAL preparations are being made in Waterford ahead of what promises to be the biggest, best and brightest Spraoi festival to take place in the city.

WATERFORD City Council has agreed an arts funding package that will see €173,000 shared by 29 organisations in the city.

SPRAOI, the production company behind Saturday night’s riverside extravaganza in Cork city has received widespread praise from as far afield as Europe and America.

THE long promised sunshine finally arrived just in time for the bank holiday weekend as people took to the streets at summer festivals up and down the county.