SPRAOI parade

As always, the three-days long festival culminates in a spectacular creative parade Sunday night. Every parade has a theme. Source To Sea is the theme for this year’s 25th anniversary Parade. It is all about River Suir.

I have written about River Suir on many occasions, and I know I will write again :).

River Suir is 185 km ( 115 mi) long with the average flow rate of 76.9 cubic metres per second – and we love every drop of it! River Suir begins on the slopes of Devil’s Bit Mountain in County Tipperary and flows south to Waterford Harbour where she enters the Atlantic Ocean.

River Suir flows past many castles, and she has witnessed many bloody battles.

Snaking through the countryside, River Suir grows in size and beauty. She is a home to many creatures, real and mystical, and her secrets are well kept, some of them hidden in the thick of her islands.

Here is everything you need to know about River Suir – animals, fowl, fairies and humans living here since the world began.

It is literally raining on our parade, but the rain is not going to bring our spirit down.

Heron is one of my Suir favorites. These birds are perfect for slow shutter speed shots since they can stay motionless for hours. This one has caught a rainbow trout and now is trying to swallow it whole.

Some walking exercises after a great lunch.

They have a heron here too. No fish eating demonstrations though.

They even have an otter! I don’t have any picture of a live otter…

Many floats represent fishing.

And of course there is a fish. A gigantic Rainbow trout.

This mechanical swan looks very real.

An army of dragonflies and their Queen.

And of course nothing of this would have happened without 200 artists and volunteers.

The Parade ended at a quarter to 11 pm concluded with firework finale which I never take pictures of. Fireworks are for watching.

Thank you for visiting SPRAOI and River Suir!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Visiting Saltee Island was a pleasure, but it is the time to return and check out what we have missed while we were away. There are some street scenes and the events that took place in Clonmel and Waterford.

Clonmel Junction festival is the most eventful week in July, filled with live music, street performance, theatre and visual art. Installations of the works A Child for sale by a world renowned artist and Kilsheelan resident Gottfried Helnwein could be seen in various places in the streets of Clonmel.

In my blog post Cry for the Last Child, I wrote about Gottfried and his beautiful castle. His granddaughters Croí and Éala are regular models for his paintings.

Lords of Strut – very talented and very positive comedians from Cork gave a brilliant performance in Clonmel.

‘Over styled and under dressed’, silly but charming characters Strut brothers Sean and Seamus, won the hearts of young and old with their hilarious show, acrobatics, satire and dance.

The streets of Waterford were not always as deserted as you might think after looking at this picture.

Historical reenactment of 1916 Easter Rising gathered quite a crowd and took us a hundred years back.

There is a video of the Reenactment I found on Youtube – I even caught a glimpse of myself in it 🙂

All sorts of transportation in The Quay, side by side. I love this street, and I think that most of my Waterford pictures were taken there.

Irish United Nations Veteran meeting was held in Cathedral Square, just a minute walk from The Quay. Thank you for your service!

Waterford Spraoi festival is one of a kind. Theatre, music, art, dance and much more is happening in the streets of Waterford on the first weekend of August. Here is my Spraoi 2015 post. I will share only a few pictures this time.

Spraoi orchestra string quartet.

Morbid&Sons, a brand new undertaker business. Way to go, guys!

Tango for all! Dance until dark!

The sun is setting down and it looks like we are having a rainy day tomorrow 🙂

Melting gold of the setting sun flows behind the horizon. Darkness comes instead.

It is a perfect time to see the famous Spraoi monsters in the streets of Waterford City…

… and listen to the monster style music 🙂

Don’t be afraid of Spraoi monsters. They are a little bit crazy, but all they want is to have fun. The only really scary and ugly thing in this world is hate.

Thank you for stopping by and for your interest in Ireland. In my next blog post, we will return to the Ocean and take a very unusual walk 🙂

Have a wonderful weekend!