It's festival time in Waterford but which is more popular - All Together Now or Spraoi?

The August bank holiday weekend has for over thirty years been locally known as the Spraoi weekend. In recent years, the festival has shared the weekend with All Together Now.

In many ways both are vastly different offerings whilst both contributing greatly to Waterford, bringing visitors to experience the city and countryside of the county.

Locals were asked this week which of the two great Waterford festivals they personally prefer and if both should share the same weekend.

Ann Marie Lally said: “All Together Now, I’d have to go to that, but they shouldn’t be on the same weekend. I think ATN would take crowds away from Spraoi, which is a shame because Spraoi has been on a lot longer and I love it too. But then again you’re paying a lot to buy a ticket to go to All Together now, but at Spraoi you have a lot of free entertainment here in the city.” 

John Paul McDonagh, Cian Lokky, Johnny Connors and Tom O'Reilly added: "At Spraoi it’s more family friendly I think and it brings people together in the city. You can bring your family in and around Spraoi, enjoy yourself and go home, but you cant do that at All Together Now.

Sarah Reid and Wiktor Szpilka said: “They shouldn’t be on the same weekend. I think it takes away from both of them having them at the same time.

“We’re at the part of the summer where all the schools are closed and teachers are on holiday mode, so to have both the festivals on their own week would be a lot better because people will want to go to both.

"Spraoi always had the August bank holiday weekend, but then again All Together Now would also need to make use of the bank holiday because more people will be able to stay on Sunday without having to go to work on Monday. They are great and we’d love to be able to go to both".