Clarenbridge Oyster Festival, Biggest Turnout to Date!

Festival 2007 has been a watershed for the Clarenbridge Oyster Festival. According to Festival Chairperson Brian Costigan “ Our mission was to re define the Festival as the social event of the year. This was not without risk – it required fundamental changes to the way we have done business for 53 years. While building on our proud history we re- looked at all aspects of the Festival with a view to improving the Customer experience. This included building the largest Festival Pavilion ever, introducing a dedicated dining area, running the Saturday Gala non stop for 10 hours, developing our broadest menus ever and making that food available to our Patrons on a completely free and all day basis.

I’m delighted to say that these changes seemed to have met with widespread acceptance and we take great encouragement from this fact. It is not our intention to rest on our laurels – we have already identified some ways in which we can make Festival 2008 even better. My personal thanks go to all involved in making the Festival such a success, including our sponsors, our staff, the festival committee, our beautiful queen Carina Smith and of course the people of Clarenbridge who make the village and the festival what it is today.”

Thousands turned out to what was truly a remarkable week long event in Clarenbridge beginning with the traditional market day and culminating in the entertainment highlight that is the festival weekend.

Style and glamour have always been an integral part of the Festival weekend and again this year the bar was raised on the fashion stakes. The best dressed lady competition, sponsored by Ail Ruin Design Centre was won by Yvonne Lally from Barna with Olivia Mahon from Loughrea winning the most creative headpiece award sponsored by Ruth Quinn of Q Beauty; Kilcolgan with Seamus Stewart from Oranmore was awarded the title of best dressed man. In addition Kinneys Jewellers Corbett Court, sponsors of the diamond encrusted Tahitian Pearl pendant, presented this beautiful prize to Caroline Gannon also from Barna.

Brian Costigan placed special emphasis on the vital role of Guinness as main sponsor and the seven key sponsors whose support is vital to the viability and success of the festival. The 2007 Festival key sponsors are Paddy Burkes, Cotton Box, Michael Fitzgerald & Sons Ltd., Curleys Furniture & Carpets Ltd., HC Financial Services and Oyster Homes. The support of the local business community and the local people once again displayed the importance placed on this festival as an extremely important revenue source for the village of Clarenbridge.