Weather rains on festivals’ parade

MISERABLE summer weather grounded the planes, halted the trains but left tractors in a field of their own during a rain-drenched festival weekend.

Despite last week’s brief return to sunshine, the clouds opened throughout Saturday night giving a host of organising committees little option but to call off activities.

First up, the planned air-show at Bray Summerfest had its wings clipped, organisers postponing the event until September 2.

Laois’s National Stradbally Steam Rally, with its diesel locomotive engine ride and antique threshers, also fell foul of the conditions.

And today’s Dun Laoghaire International Horse Show was cancelled because the venue was too waterlogged to allow it to proceed.

Other events were able to survive, such as the Celtic Festival of Music in Co Kerry and the Tractor Sunday event in the Co Louth resort of Cooley.

The latter saw a new world record set for the number of vintage tractors working simultaneously in one place. A total of 4,572 tractors were assembled from 22 countries, beating the previous world record of 2,141.

The Monaghan Farm Show also persevered and 5,000 people braved the showers to revel at the Ballyshannon Folk and Traditional Music Festival.

The die-hard racing enthusiasts arrived in Ballybrit for Mad Hatter’s day and enjoyed the seven-race finale to the Galway Races festival.

In Portlaoise, the organisers of the World Fleadh were rewarded for forward planning with a 5,000 seater big-top ordered to take the outdoor acts under the tarpaulin protection.

Meanwhile, Waterford celebrated its hurling victory in style last night, with the annual Spraoi parade in the city becoming something of a victory celebration.

The event had been staged a little later than usual this year, to allow Waterford fans time to travel home from Croke Park, for what has become one of the highlights of the city’s calendar.

While the prospect of rain might have scared off some spectators, there were still crowds lining the banks of the River Suir to watch the stagecoaches, wagons, puritans, cowboys and Indians in this Wild West-themed jamboree.

The spectacle took one hour to pass down the Waterford quay, where families stood with waterproof gear and umbrellas at the ready, as the 250 volunteers staged a street extravaganza all would remember.

The event was crowned with a spectacular fireworks display that lit up the dark Waterford skies, bringing an end to a weekend of free street theatre and performance that marks it out in the crowded calendar of summer festivals.

“We had to move some of the street performances indoors because of the weather,” said Spraoi programme director Miriam Dunne. “But Spraoi doesn’t cancel events,” she said.

But if ever the weather did its best to destroy an event, the appalling downpours of the weekend came close to making Spraoi a washout. And yet the sunshine broke through yesterday afternoon on cue, as luck shone on Co Waterford.

Still, over the festival weekend outdoor shows like Storm Bringers, in Lombard Street car park, relied so heavily on water as a stage effect that it was made almost redundant by the water tumbling on everyone from the heavens above. And, indeed, the show drew only a dedicated fraction of the potential audience, a hard core that braved the weather and stuck with the show until its conclusion.

Many of the other Spraoi shows also suffered.

But judging by the craic had all over Waterford city in the past few days, it seems only a biblical flood could stop this city from having a good time — particularly now that the county has a ticket to the All-Ireland hurling semi-final under its belt.