THE SUMMER Fair may be long gone, but the festival spirit was well and truly rekindled in Gorey at the weekend.

Thousands of people flocked to the town for the Market House Craft and Design Festival. Town Clerk Ger Mackey yesterday (Tuesday) hailed the festival a great success. He said there was a European air to proceedings as people drank and enjoyed live music on the closed Main Street, children kicked balls about and everyone enjoyed the family fun late into the night.

' There was great attendance levels at all exhibitions and events, no incidents or problems and it generated a great buzz and family friendly atmosphere,' said a spokesman. GOREY got into the festival spirit at the weekend as thousands of people flocked to the town.

The Gorey Market House Craft And Design saw a huge number of people coming out to visit the various exhibitions, enjoy the Ceilí, the fun day, the market day and to see live entertainment on the Main Street among many other events.

Town Clerk Ger Mackey yesterday (Tuesday) hailed the festival a great success and said the public really responded to it.

Mr Mackey felt there was a European air to proceedings as people drank on the closed Main Street, children kicked balls about on it and everyone enjoyed the family orientated fun late into the night.

The Town Clerk was particularly delighted to report that the busy weekend yielded no unsavoury incidents of note and he paid tribute to the 'spirit and generosity' of the thousands of people in attendance over the course of the weekend.

Gorey Town Council Chairman Robbie Ireton launched the craft and design element of the festival on Thursday night and this featured A craft trail through the town. This trail displayed the work of artists in shop windows and led to the Civic Square where the craft exhibition was on display. There were also a number of photography exhibitions and an art exhibition.

On Friday night, Gorey's Main Street was closed off for a traditional Irish night with a Ceilí taking place, featuring local musicians and dancers and the Ballycallane Mummers.

Such were the crowds for the Ceili that the Irish dancers on the night were asked to perform a second time further up the Main Street from the stage to allow more people to see their performance.

Children were the focus of festival events on Saturday, with a play day taking place at Gorey Community School. The event was due to have taken place in the new Civic Square, but the open space couldn't be completed in time.

A train provided by Pirates Cove brought children (and the odd parent!) around the school while the Gorey Fire Brigade displayed their fire engine and fire extinguishing skills at the front of the school.

There was also a range or arts and crafts activities at the school, as well as acrobatic displays, face painting, clowns, balloon modelling, a DJ and even a rock climbing wall! Stafford's Bakery and Dominos provided the cakes and pizzas respectively.

Saturday night saw a return to the old Summer Fair days on Gorey's Main Street. A massive crowd turned up for the live music acts, Lynda Cullen and Band, Cathal 'Elvis' Byrne and the Tasmanian Dust.

There was a traditional Market Day on Sunday, with stalls form the local Farmers Market lining the streets and vintage cars and tractors parked as they would have done at the turn of the century.

The was also a range of livestock on display, however these weren't for sale, but just to entertain the kids who took a keen interest in the calves, donkeys, sheep, goats and fowl.

There was more great live music on the Main Street on Sunday night, with Rumours Of A Rift, Jimi Cullen And The Jobless and the Imelda May Tribute playing to another good crowd.

A festival spokesperson expressed their thanks to Grant Masterson who managed the live music element of the festival; the Gorey Red Cross; the Civil Defence; the Gardai; Town Clerk Ger Mackey and all the County Council staff and volunteer stewards who gave up their Bank Holiday Weekend to work at the festival.