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Thursday, October 16, 2008

Wexford goes bang as opera festival explodes into life

Every year Wexford’s World famous festival opera starts with a dramatic fireworks display along Wexford’s seafront. Today the Quays were packed with about 25,000 people to watch a magnificent display masterminded as usual by Wexford’s own KC Whelan to mark the start of the 57th Wexford Festival Opera. What surprises me is that it has never been webcast or it's not available on Youtube. Given the dramatic atmosphere on the night I think its something that should be shared. In an effort to reverse this I've uploaded footage of Fireworks 'O8.

There are few public fireworks displays in Ireland so Wexford’s annual display proves a favourite with the locals. It started at about 6.30 and lasted 15 minutes. Click the attached videos for the highlights and enjoy. If you like what you see come to Wexford next year for Festival Opera 2009 and enjoy the full display!

The opera music in the background was simultaneously played on South East Radio. This years opreas are "The Snow Maiden", "The Mines of Sulphur" & "Tutti In Maschera". The festival ends on Sunday November 2nd.

2 comments:

francis mahon said...

Joe,

Where did you shoot that footage from? I was at the RNLI station, too far away to hear the music - never though of bringing a radio to tune in to SER!

Unknown said...

I was in the temporary WBC offices at Crescent Quay and I thought it would be an ideal opportunity to shoot it put on the internet and let Wexfordians particularly outside the town see it on the internet. I've alway believed that it should be a live webcast and that it would be popular abroad. I've mentioned this to the powers that be so maybe next year!