Cultural Ireland - Spraoi Festival

• Posted by: Editor
• On: 07/07/2008 17:56:11
• In: Ireland Car Hire

The Spraoi Festival is held over the August Bank holiday weekend, which this year is the 1st, 2nd and 3rd of August. This festival was placed in the top 5 festivals of Ireland by the Irish Independent, so you can be sure that you will be having the best craic during your visit to the Festival.

The festival takes place on the streets of Waterford and they will all be transformed with a huge amount of street theatre and other outdoor entertainment. The first day of the festival will be launched with a fantastically colourful street parade. The best thing about the on-the-street nature of the festival is that it is all for Free!

The full programme for the event will be released on July 14th, but there are few things you can be sure of and that is that the festival will include the highest quality of music, the best of street acts and a number of premieres and showcases.

One of the premieres to be featured in the festival on the opening day is a large scale street theatre performance called Hydromania. Some other Irish Premieres include Sienta La Cabeza from Spain, the USA Break Dancers, The Silly People from Canada, Mimbre from the U.K., and the Bash Street Theatre with a specially commissioned production called The Station.

Some of the music acts you can expect at the festival include Jason Issacs, Dave Connelly, Fat 45s and the Guinness Rhythm Route. But one of the most unusual acts is the Latin Dub Sound System which consists of mixing a South American orchestra and an eclectic mix from a sound system; quite weird and exciting.

This festival is preceded by sprÓg, which is basically the same type of festival but directed at a younger audience and the closing of the Spraoi Festival is marked with a magnificent fireworks display.

How to get there: Waterford is Ireland’s oldest city and is located between Cork in the west and Rosslare (one of the countries major ports) in the east. Heading south on the N7, after about 74kms you will come to Junction 17 near Portlaoise which you can take towards Cork. Stay heading south on the N8 for 20kms until you turn left onto the N77 towards Kilkenny City. Continue heading in this direction as the road becomes the N10 and then the N9 until you finally come to Waterford. The whole journey is only about 180 kms long.

For more thoughts on activities in Ireland take a look through our other Ireland Blogs. As you may want to drive to this event, don’t forget to have a look at our Ireland Car Rental options.

Just remember to enjoy your trip to Ireland and if you have any tips or questions of your own, why not post a comment below?