Tullamore festival to go ahead with or without cannonball

The Tullamore Festival is set to go ahead next year, regardless of whether the Cannonball returns to Tullamore, the chairman of the festival organising committee confirmed this week.
Michael McDermott told the Offaly Independent that the Tullamore Festival will go ahead next year and that the popular soapbox derby will be the highlight. He said there were 33 entries in this year’s derby, which he said attracted a crowd of about 10,000 spectators. Next year organisers are hoping to triple the number of entries to 100.
“The whole festival was brilliant,” said Michael, who added that he estimated the crowd who came out to see the Cannonball come into Tullamore to be in the region of 25,000 to 30,000.
He said it was not clear whether Cannonball would return to Tullamore next year as the route for 2015 has not yet been selected, but regardless the festival will go ahead.
“The Cannonball has taken place for six years now. It’s never finished in the same town twice before now so it’s highly unlikely it’ll finish in Tullamore for a third time,” said Michael, but added it was possible that the Cannonball could still pass through the town. “Regardless of whether Cannonball comes through next year we’ll have the festival.”
There was some criticism of the event, however, with some spectators complaining about the delay in the cars reaching Tullamore. Michael told the Offaly Independent that this was outside the control of the organisers and explained the delay was due to the huge numbers of people who had come out to see Cannonball in Cahir in Tipperary.
He said it was disappointing to have criticism but that the majority of people enjoyed the festival.
“It was a festival put on for people for free, at no cost to the public,” added Michael, while praising the hard-working volunteers who ensured the festival went so smoothly.
“There is a committee of about a dozen people but the real work was from the volunteers over the couple of days. There were 50 marshalls, about 20 to 30 putting together barriers and bales of hay. On the Thursday night there were eight or nine lads taking out the bales of hay from a farm for the soap box derby and they were out again putting them back after the festival,” he said.
He also thanked the gardai, the council, those who judged the derby and all who helped out with the clean-up after.