Carrick-on-Suir's castle to be focal point for Tractors & Tudors Christmas Festival

Carrick-on-Suir’s Ormond Castle will take centre stage in a new day long Christmas festival that will culminate with the town’s annual parade of illuminated tractors on Saturday, December 14.

The Tractors & Tudors Christmas Festival will feature a packed programme of events ranging from free tours of Ormond Castle, a Christmas craft fair, amusements and Santa’s grotto to the official unveiling of a sculpture, a BEAT FM street party and launch of a new tourist map for Carrick-on-Suir and its hinterland.

The Christmas Tractors of Carrick pageant, organised by the Crop Cruisers group, has for over a decade brought thousands of people to Carrick-on-Suir after dark to enjoy the spectacle of a fleet of tractors festooned in thousands of fairy lights travelling in convoy through the town.

This new festival incorporating the parade will give people a reason to come earlier in the day to enjoy the town and its most historic visitor attraction .

Christmas Market

The Tudor Manor house will be the centre piece for the festivities that will kick off at 11am with a Christmas craft fair with some food stalls in a marquee in the castle grounds, a Santa’s grotto at nearby Camphill Carrick-on-Suir and amusements, food stalls in front of Camphill.

Designers and craft makers from the Tudor Artisan Hub Arts Collective at 42 Main Street, Carrick-on-Suir will showcase a wonderful, curated selection of locally crafted one-of-a-kind creations at the festival’s Christmas Market.

Tudor wreath making workshops will take place in the castle’s audio visual room from 11am to 4.30pm. There will also be special free Tudor Christmas guided tours of Ormond Castle focusing on what Christmas was like during that period in history between 11am and 4.30pm.

Dr Evan Bourke of Maynooth University will give a talk on the MacMorris Project and Ormond Castle’s Role in Early Modern Arts at the castle at 12 noon.

And the historian will officially unveil a new Carrick-on-Suir Regeneration Scheme sculpture at Castle Park at 3pm.

This will be followed by the invitation only Carrick-on-Suir Miscellany: Echoes from the Great Hall event at the Castle from 4.30pm to 5.30pm.

After this event, crowds will begin gathering along the streets of Carrick-on-Suir town centre to watch the annual Christmas Tractors parade organised by the Crop Cruisers tractor owners and drivers.

The fleet of illuminated tractors will depart from the Piltown area around 5pm and travel through Fiddown, Portlaw, Clonea-Power and Rathgormack before heading to Carrick-on-Suir.

A Kiddies Tractor Parade featuring children travelling on pedal tractors from Main Street to Kickham Street will take place between 5.40pm and 6pm.

Check out the Christmas Tractors of Carrick-on-Suir Facebook page for information on how to enrol for the Kiddies Tractor Parade.

BEAT STREET PARTY
Meanwhile, over in Kickham Street a BEAT FM street party of music entertainment will get underway at 6pm and continue until 8pm.

The Christmas Tractors parade will finish at Kickham Street and families will have an opportunity to view the parked tractors and their dazzing lights up close.

During these festivities, the Crop Cruisers will officially launch Explore Carrick-on-Suir’s online and physical Quest map that showcases the many and varied tourist attractions in Carrick-on-Suir and its hinterland.

The Tractors & Tudors Festival is a collaboration between Carrick-on-Suir Municipal District, the OPW, Ormond Castle, Explore Carrick-on-Suir, the Christmas Tractors of Carrick parade organisers, Carrick-on-Suir Fire & Rescue Service, the Tudor Artisan Hub Meet the Makers, Tipperary Museum of Hidden History and Carrick-on-Suir businesses.

Explore Carrick-on-Suir Commercial & Tourism Manager Sarah-Jane Cleary said the festival was something for families to visit and enjoy in the run up to Christmas and an opportunity to promote Ormond Castle to visitors who will hopefully spread the word to others about the historic attraction and town.

She said the organisers have contacted hospitality businesses in the town encouraging them to offer special family meal deals for the day and to host live music for visitors.

The new festival was welcomed by councillors at Carrick-on-Suir Municipal District's monthly meeting.

Carrick-on-Suir MD Administrator Marie Cox told the meeting a huge amount of work and collaboration has gone into organising the festival which was about increasing the “footfall” of visitors to Carrick through tourism by showing what is available in the town. “We are all very excited about it,” she said.

In addition to the festival, she pointed out that the windows of Ormond Castle will be lit up at night in the run up to Christmas for the first time in 20 years.

Carrick MD Director of Services Brian Beck said the Christmas Tractors of Carrick-on-Suir is a really wonderful event and what they want to do with Tractors & Tudors is build on that.

He indicated they would try to run the festival again next year and hoped it would become an event that would encourage people to visit Carrick-on-Suir for a long weekend.

The full programme of Tractors & Tudors Christmas Festival events is available to view on the Explore Carrick-on-Suir website.