Carrick-on-Suir gears up for parade of 50 illuminated tractors this weekend

Thousands of people will line the streets of Carrick-on-Suir and several communities in its hinterland this Saturday evening to watch a fleet of 50 fairy light illuminated tractors travel in convoy through them.

The 11th annual Christmas Tractors of Carrick-on-Suir Parade will mark the climax of the town’s inaugural Tractors & Tudors Christmas Festival that will take place throughout the day with many of its events centred around Ormond Castle.

The Crop Cruisers tractor drivers, who organise the annual tractors parade, are currently busy carpeting their mighty machines in preparation for the pageant inspired by the famous Christmas television ad featuring a Coca Cola truck covered in lights.

“There were 40,000 lights on my tractor alone last year but other tractors had twice as many as I had,” said the parade’s founder Stuart Downie, a farmer from Tybroughney, Carrick-on-Suir.

He reported that most of this year’s parade participants are local tractor owners and drivers.

Stuart welcomed the return of the kids Christmas tractor run that is taking place for the first time since before the Covid pandemic.

The parade for young pedal tractor riders will depart from Main Street at 5.40pm and finish at Kickham Street, the new finish point for the Christmas Tractors of Carrick Parade.

Parents can enter their children in the tractor run via the Eventbrite website where they will be issued with a ticket.

Meanwhile, the cavalcade of dazzling tractors driven by the Crop Cruisers and other tractor owners will depart from the Piltown area around 5pm and head to Fiddown cross the River Suir and travel to Portlaw before heading to Clonea-Power village.

Then it’s onto Rathgormack where the tractors will turn right at Larkins in the village for the final leg of their journey to Carrick-on-Suir.

Stuart said the convoy is expected to reach Carrick-on-Suir around 7pm. It will enter Carrick via Seskin Hill and Carrickbeg.

The Christmas tractors will cross Dillon Bridge and take the parade’s usual route through the town, down Main Street, through Sean Kelly Square and onto the N24 finishing at Kickham Street where a BEAT FM street party will be taking place as part of the Tudors & Tractors Christmas Festival.

The tractors will park on Kickham Street where visitors will have an opportunity to see them up close.

Tudors & Tractors Festival

Stuart is delighted the Crop Cruisers are teaming up with Explore Carrick-on-Suir, the OPW, Tipperary County Council, Carrick-on-Suir businesses, Tipperary Museum of Hidden History, the Tudor Artisan Hub and Carrick Fire & Rescue Service to run the parade as part of the new Tractors & Tudors Christmas Festival.

He said the Crop Cruisers had always wanted to stage their parade in conjunction with a wider Christmas festival but never got the backing until now.

The festival will kick off with a Christmas Craft Market at Ormond Castle, offering a unique selection of handmade gifts and delicious treats in the Castle Courtyard from 11am.

Families can enjoy free Tudor Christmas tours of the Castle, and there will be a Santa’s Grotto at Camphill on Castle Street where children can participate in arts and crafts while they wait to visit Santa.

Visit of South East Bikers

There will be Christmas wreath-making workshops hosted by the Tipperary Museum of Hidden History, a talk on the MacMorris Project at Ormond Castle at 12 noon and the unveiling of a sculpture at Castle Park at 3pm.

More than 100 motorbikes taking part in the South East Bikers 28th Toy Run will visit the town in the afternoon.

The bikes will park in Kickham Street between 2pm and 3pm, filling the town with the roar of engines and the spirit of giving as they make their way to University Hospital Waterford Paediatric Ward.

The full programme of events for the Tudors & Tractors Festival is listed on the Explore Carrick-on-Suir website.