Cathy Desmond rounds up the best opera and classical events coming up in Ireland and further afield

Hot on the heels of its cool cousin Winterval, a new sizzling summer festival is making its way to Waterford.

Carol O’Callaghan discovers how Waterford’s most famous craft tradition is reborn and thriving once more. 

A Waterford city trader said yesterday he had laid off nine of his 24 staff after CIÉ Tours International instructed drivers to boycott his business.

Ireland’s oldest city is to get a €10m facelift to make it more “people-centred” and to create world-class public spaces at its heart.

Regeneration of Waterford receives a boost with recognition of its Medieval Museum, says Marjorie Brennan.

The fourth annual WLRfm Waterford Viking Marathon takes place on Saturday, June 27 next year. Pieta House Waterford is the nominated charity to benefit from the event, which is aiming to attract record numbers in 2015.

There’s several auction deadlines looming in the coming weeks, in the run-up to the expiry of the CGT exemption reliefs at year’s end.

Jazz aficianados can add a new date to their festival calendar with the news that the Viking Triangle in Waterford City is to host its first ever jazz weekend next month.

Its the city best known for its Blaa, but archaeologists in Waterford are saying “yabadabadoo” today after the fossilised remains of a new type of dinosaur believed to date back 62 million years were discovered there over the weekend.

Billing itself as a top Waterford city four-star hotel, the modern-build Fitzwilton comes for sale with a €2 million price guide, just in time for the city’s 1100-year anniversary celebrations.

Under the light of the same North Star that guided the Vikings on their expeditions of conquest and terror over a millennium ago, Waterford came out in force on Saturday night to mark the start of 1,100 years since the city’s foundation.

Waterford City Council is planning to develop the so-called Viking Triangle at the Mall, Waterford by erecting monuments to Strongbow and Aoife, and John Condon (the youngest soldier in the British army to die in World War I).

IT’S one of the most magical hotel arrivals in Ireland. There you are, driving across the country with the weight of the world on your shoulders, when all of a sudden, you pull up at a little slipway dipping into the River Suir.

ON MONDAY evening Waterford City’s manager, Michael Walsh, suspended the council meeting to address an article which had appeared in the Irish Examiner.

Waterford City Council will spend €2.2m to buy 11 houses it was informed were worth considerably less than half that amount.

For the first time in more than 1,000 years a foreign invader made his way onto our shores via longboat yesterday — but, unlike the Vikings, this one was welcomed with cheers and waves by the natives.

Over 12,000 people took to the streets of Waterford in an unusual show of solidarity last week.

Funding has been announced by the Government to upgrade one of the country’s oldest urban areas, which can trace its history back to 914AD.

Waterford company Zolk C was the first to enter the market with an electronic hand-held tourist guide, bringing heritage sites to life and is now turning its attentions to the lucrative North American tourism market, writes Trish Dromey.

WATERFORD was a sea of colour yesterday as crowds arrived in large numbers into the oldest city in the country for one of the biggest outdoor festivals in the land.

WATERFORD will celebrate its architectural Viking and crystal-making history this weekend when up to 3,000 visitors are expected to attend a festival based on craftsmanship.

WATERFORD’S city manager yesterday told an urban regeneration conference that the “onus and responsibility” for growth opportunities “falls on ourselves”.

A MAJOR conference on urban regeneration this week in Waterford will hear about the importance of vibrant city centres to economic recovery.

THE city of Waterford should be making the most of its 1,100-year history to build sustainable economic growth and an enhanced quality of life, according to a British heritage expert.

A MASSIVE redevelopment and rebranding of Waterford’s Viking Triangle and an iconic pedestrian bridge connecting the Clock Tower with the city’s north quays are the centre-pieces of Waterford’s pitch to the Government under the Gateway Innovation Fund.