Huge crowd at the Hope Festival Street Festival.

A huge crowd packed into the town on Saturday as the Street Fest in aid of the Hope Cancer Support Centre took centre stage for the afternoon. The event, which took place over the course of about five hours raised over €3,000 for the Hope Centre.
The Fest was organised by musician Stephen Murphy who was launching his new CD single I Hope I See the Day. The local musician chose to run the Street Fest day as a departure from the standard launch event: “I wanted to do something different to launch the latest single and it was for a good cause.”
Rafter Street proved to be the epicentre of the festivities but there was also activity in Market Square, Court Street and some buskers up on Weafer Street also, helping to create a true festival atmosphere in the town.
The crowd were entertained throughout the day by musicians, singers, buskers, street dancing, face painters and street karaoke. Stephen himself had a go at the busking and street karaoke, something he hadn’t taken part in before: “I got a kick out of the busking; I’d never done it before.”
A special balloon release took place in the afternoon with funds raised donated to Hope. Richard Gleeson read a very moving poem before Stephen and the crowd sang You Raise Me Up and released the balloons in what the organiser called a “spectacular and emotional tribute.”
Despite the washout summer the country has had, the weather managed to hold up for the day, something Stephen says was a huge plus: “We were blessed with the weather. We had one bad shower that lasted about ten minutes but everyone came back after it.”
He added: “I was very glad I launched the CD that way. I was delighted with how the day went and it gave a great boost to the town too.”
“I’d like to thank all of those who helped out on the day – everyone wanted to help and was on board from the word ‘go’. Also, I want to extend huge thanks to the crowds who attended and enjoyed the event. It went fantastic.”
The final amount raised was not known at the time of writing but Stephen said it was in excess of €3,000. His CD is on sale in the usual outlets in Enniscorthy and across Wexford.