WEXFORD OPERA FESTIVAL

JONATHAN BAUM,

JONATHAN BAUM,

Madam, - Lindsay Armstrong complains (October 25th) that the Wexford Festival imports its artistic director, conductors, soloists, designers, chorus and orchestra.

One more item must be added to his list of "festival imports": more than half the audience, who ensure that for the two-and-a-half weeks of the festival you cannot find a hotel room or a table at a restaurant in Wexford for love nor money. And all this at a time of year when there wouldn't otherwise be many visitors to Wexford and its environs.

"Where else but in Ireland could it happen?" he wonders. Well, in any small town anywhere in the world that stages a large festival. Glynebourne, Spoleto, Aix-en-Provence. . .The list is long, and the equation is simple: the artistic forces come from outside (thus ensuring the highest possible artistic standards), and they bring the crowds with them to fill up the town. - Yours, etc.,

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JONATHAN BAUM, Dargle Road, Blackrock, Co Dublin.