Tails and dicky-bows in Dublin's Pearse Street Station on a Thursday evening - it could only mean one thing. The train bound for the opening night of Wexford Festival Opera was about to depart. It was a particularly good night for the Gate Theatre's Marie Rooney, who was spotted on the platform and promptly awarded the Guinness prize for the "most appropriately attired woman". RTE took over a whole carriage. Kevin Healy, along with his partner, novelist Deirdre Purcell; Cathal McCabe, head of music and Bernadette Comerford of The Arts Show all piled on at Dublin, while Carrie Crowley joined the train at Dun Laoghaire.
Down at the Theatre Royal in Wexford, the atmosphere was warming up; presidential candidates Mary Banotti and Derek Nally arrived, and with TDs Avril Doyle, Ivan Yates, Brendan Howlin and junior Minister Tom Kitt ensured the evening began on a truly political note. The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, was there of course, and said that while he wasn't what could be called an "opera man", he had made it to Wexford for the past 10 years and enjoyed it immensely. He admired the fact there were so many volunteers involved and agreed with a laugh when I said it might be a model for government: "Now there's an idea indeed!"
Jerome Hynes, the chief executive of the festival, was full of enthusiasm for the festival's plans for expansion, and also about news he had received earlier in the day - the dinky little brochure for the festival had won an international award in Montreal, beating 1,100 entries from around the world - and that was before the festival had even started.
Looking around the bar at the intervals of Elena Da Feltre, there could be no better proof that the Wexford Festival Opera attracts the most diverse of audiences, such as Gerard Mortier, general director of the prestigious Salzburg Festival; John Neill, the new Church of Ireland bishop of Cashel and Ossory; Brendan Comiskey, bishop of Ferns; Eddie O'Connor, mayor of Wexford; British banker Max Ulfane; artist Guggi; writers Anne Haverty and Anthony Cronin, and David Davies, chief executive of John Matty PLC, to name but a few.