Festival's maritime parade is designed to mesmerise

Giant sea serpents, boat-devouring squids, pirate ships, voodoo priests, cannibals and general mayhem . . . dare you venture on to Waterford's quays this Sunday night?

It can mean only one thing: it's the August bank holiday weekend, better known in Waterford as the Spraoi weekend.

It's a festival unlike any other: three days of free, open air theatrical events and live music in 45 venues, culminating in a spectacular night-time parade that will bring up to 50,000 people to the quayside.

Not even the small band of dreamers who founded the festival a decade ago envisaged it would grow as big as this. After inviting the Galway group Macnas to stage events in 1991 and 1992, they decided to go it alone the following year and Spraoi was born.

"The main reason we went for the name Spraoi was because it rhymed with '93," said the programme director and one of the founders, Ms Miriam Dunne. "I remember remarking that it's going to be 2003 before it rhymes again and we all laughed."

While the street theatre is an integral part of the event, its overall success depends on a good parade. This year's theme is By Hook or By Crook, the means by which Cromwell allegedly vowed he would take Ireland. The parade will feature an array of maritime characters from mermaids to deep sea divers to pirate queens.

"We took the theme of all things nautical and sometimes perhaps a little naughty as well. It's a representation of port life, sea life, dock life and all kinds of things related to the sea," said Ms Sile Penkert, the education outreach officer with Garter Lane Arts Centre, who has taken on the new role of parade director.

Spraoi parades always tell a story, she said. "And we're not afraid to be slightly eerie or menacing, it being a night-time event. It's a very good quality that Spraoi have, that they're not afraid to go into that kind of story-telling."

This week an army of Spraoi staff, FAS trainees and volunteers were hammering, painting, sawing and putting the finishing touches to the floats. Alongside the giant boat-eating squid, pirate boat and ghost ship stood a 70ft sea serpent which, when illuminated and let loose on the quays, will leave onlookers breathless.

"This year we have a lot of floats which are going to be lit from the inside, and it really changes the shape of things completely. You see it [the sea serpent] in the day time and it's beautiful, it catches the light to an extent, but when it's lit it's incredible. It actually takes on a different form," Ms Penkert said.

The open-air theatre events get under way on Friday at 2 p.m. and take place at venues around the city centre including John Roberts Square, Barronstrand Street, Gladstine Street, Hanover Street, Blackfriars, Michael Street, Bally bricken and the new William Vincent Wallace Plaza.

The parade, at 9.30 p.m. on Sunday, begins this year at the Tower Hotel and travels the length of the quay to Rice Bridge, the opposite direction to last year. People are advised to get there early and drivers should park away from the city centre and walk to the quay. The festival ends with a fireworks finale over the Suir river.

Three years ago heavy rain forced the organisers to postpone the parade by 24 hours, but that won't happen this year, regardless of the weather. "The parade crew have said that hail, rain or snow, it's going ahead on Sunday night," said Ms Dunne.

Snow in August? With the Spraoi parade, anything is possible.

For more information on travel and festivals around Ireland, see Explore Ireland at www.ireland.com/explore