Record crowds gathered in Carrick-on-Suir for Christmas tractors parade and festival

The biggest crowd in the Christmas Tractors of Carrick-on-Suir’s 11-year history turned out to watch the fleet of tractors carpeted in lights trundle through the streets of the town and several surrounding communities last Saturday.

And they weren’t disappointed.

Fifty tractors covered all over in dazzling fairy lights created a special festive spectacle for the thousands that gathered in Carrick-on-Suir town centre and elsewhere to watch the pageant.

For the first time, the parade was part of a wider Christmas celebration in the town – the inaugural Tractors & Tudors Christmas Festival - that along with the fine weather contributed to the record turnout of visitors.

“The crowd was enormous, the biggest we have ever seen,” said Stuart Downie of the Crop Cruisers tractor drivers who organise the annual tractors parade.

He said the streets of Carrick were thronged for the occasion and there was also a great turnout of spectators in Piltown, Fiddown, Portlaw, Clonea-Power and Rathgormack where the convoy also passed through.

“Any crossroads we passed through at all there were people there. The minute we turned up to the new bridge in Carrick it was just a sea of people before us.”

Caption for photo above: The Quinn boys and spiderman McSherry all set for their journey from the Heritage Centre to Kickham Street during the Christmas Tractors of Carrick-on-Suir Parade.

The children’s pedal tractor parade made a welcome return.

The youngsters showed they could decorate their mighty machines as grandly as the adults. Over 30 children and their tractors took part in this section of the parade that started from Carrick Heritage Centre.

The parade finished at Kickham Street where a BEAT FM street party entertained the crowd gathered to see the illuminated tractors up close.

Earlier in the day, Ormond Castle was the star as OPW staff hosted free Tudor Christmas tours of the historic site and its courtyard was transformed into a Christmas craft market. There was a Santa’s grotto at nearby Camphill and a sculpture of the castle’s most famous resident Black Tom was unveiled in Castle Park.

The festivities concluded with the official launch of the Explore Carrick-on-Suir Quest Map at the BEAT FM party.

Check out more photos from the Christmas Tractors of Carrick-on-Suir Parade in this week's edition of The Nationalist now on sale in local shops.  There will be more coverage of Carrick-on-Suir's Tractors & Tudors Festival in the Christmas edition of the paper next week.