David McLoughlin, CEO Wexford Festival Opera expressed his delight that the 2017 Wexford Opera Festival will return to an 18-day festival. Pic: Jim Campbell.
IN YET another sign of a recovering economy, Wexford Festival Opera has announced that from 2017, the annual festival will be extended from a 12-day event to an 18-day event, a return to the pre-Recessionary format.
For the first time since 2008, next year’s festival will run across three weekends, with the 66th Festival opening on October 19 and closing on Sunday, November 5.
Festival CEO David McLoughlin remarked: “It’s a very welcome development. It’s great to see the festival return to the pre-Recession format. It’s a good for everybody and it’s a sign of the improving market and economy.”
He remarked that with an extended festival more people would be visiting the town and that would have a knock on benefit to many other businesses.
He said that demand for tickets had been growing over the past few years and this year’s festival is very close to being sold out five months in advance of the festival.
“The notion of ‘ticket scarcity’ has taken hold so we are back to the good ol’ days. During the difficult years, tickets would still be available in September and October but now we’re seeing tickets snapped up well before then.”
He said it had always been the aspiration of the board to get the festival back to an 18-day event but said they would only make that commitment if they felt the market was right.
“It’s demand driven but over the last two years we have seen very promising signs. We’ve also carried out very comprehensive cost-benefit analysis. It’s been an aspiration for a while but it’s in the last year or two that we’ve felt the demand justifies the expansion and we’re delighted to push on with it for 2017.”
