Wexford Festival Opera: The Opening Salvo.

I had a dream of being able to get the passes needed to get in and shoot the Wexford Festival Opera, which is being held for the 74th year. It was a dream that failed to happen. For some reason, my emails to those involved did not elicit a response.

Such is the way with things.

But rather than sit around socking my head and lamenting the lack of response, and how it put an end to my desired photographic project of showing the opera festival from inside, I decided to focus on the way the event touched on the local community through various pop-up arrangements.

These being free requires no pass, and so I would shoot the performers and the viewers in a bid to show how the festival was affecting locals and winning them over to an art form many consider too highbrow for them. I could also talk to people, take their photos and let them know I was a photographer, giving them my card in case they ever needed a photographer.

One way the event tries to reach the locals and create a buzz in the town is to arrange a spectacular fireworks display, which is preceded by the usual local dignitaries giving speeches and applauding their efforts to make the town a special place. I always smile during the speeches because, really, it is the artists who do all of this and those who work behind the scenes planning it. But you have to give local politicians their moment in the spotlight, too, since they give the permits necessary to have these things.

But the people only want the big fireworks, or they want the music, if they are like me and truly love orchestral and operatic music. So here’s the fireworks.

After that it was drinks and mingling as people do. Finding cozy comfy places to park up and enjoy life. And all the while they sit there, I will turn a passing moment of cozy candlelit conversation into a beautiful picture which in time will be a work of art.

My next post will share some of the images I took at the pop up performances that happened around town. My ambition will be to get into the festival and shoot it from the inside. But this year I will stake my case for that job by shooting what I can and hopefully giving you compelling images that shows you, dear reader what an amazing event this is and why I’m the one to photograph it.

©️ Vincent S Coster 2025