Hello! No sooner had it started when it seemed to be ending. It only feels like yesterday when I was writing about opening night. But yes, we are winding up our 2009 Festival on Sunday night with the final performance of Maria Padilla. There have been lots of highs and very few lows, thankfully. Everyone who works on the Festival works really hard and of course you have your off days and days that never seem to end and the pressure can make you snap at those around you but it’s because you want the best all the time. We strive for the optimum standards across the board and that is evident in the success and smooth running of this year’s Festival. Anyone who attended this year will undoubtedly concur.

The storage boxes can be seen dotted around offices and corridors waiting to be filled with paraphernalia to be put away for another year. Props and furniture will be bubble wrapped over the next days to be stacked on trucks heading far and yonder. The crew will be busy taking sets apart and finding a way to maximise their packing up. The Wardrobe Dept. will be inundated with wash cycles and steam cleaning to have all in-house costumes ready for another body, sometime in the future. Hair and Make-Up will be sanitising brushes and sponges, undressing wigs and returning hired pieces (sales of baby wipes will plummet). The schedules from Company Management will get blanker and the office packed up for its next tenant at the Opera House. Media Relations will be freed up from organising photo shoots and interviews and greeting guests as there won’t be many hands to shake now, a VIP less is a hand free.  Pianos will go back to their rightful owners, chairs will be stacked, glasses polished and stored, signs will come down, notice boards cleared,  lamps de-rigged; you get the picture.

Some people will have some time free after the Festival to unwind and catch up with family and friends; others will go straight from Wexford to their next engagement, including me. Some, especially those who came from the US will see a bit of Ireland before returning home, well they’ve come so far, may as well do it while they’re here. So enjoy whatever you do!
The first lot of people will depart tomorrow morning after their final Ghosts performance tonight and the last minute din of online check-ins and overheating printers can be heard around the building. Transport has been organised for their pick-ups around the town, keys exchanged for that last rent payment and frustrated faces abound as people try to get that suitcase closed. I’m hearing the Bégearss aria playing over the Tannoy in my office, with the Stage Manager’s calls coming through backstage, the lights are dim and the tumble dryer next door is finishing a load…of buttons by the sound of the rattles!
So as the lights go out along the corridors over the next few days, may I just say a huge thank you to everyone who made Wexford Festival Opera the success it was. Here’s hoping we are all healthy and happy for the season to come! Whether you were employed here or just a good hearted land lady who drove their Festival tenant to the Opera House on a wet night; THANK YOU!
Ironically, in the background a song plays on my computer- ‘I Made It Through The Rain’. Yes we did that too!

Justin