International Miss macra festival
Proudly Presented by Clonoulty Rossmore Macra na Feirme
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About UsThis year celebrates the 49th anniversary of the International Miss Macra festival. This festival is run by Clonoulty/Rossmore Macra na Feirme club, over the Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights of the August Bank Holiday weekend. There is a strong tradition of this festival in Clonoulty, it shows what one Macra club can achieve. Once again this year’s festival will see girls travelling from all over the country and beyond to Tipperary to compete for the honour of being crowned International Miss Macra 2020, succeeding the very admired, 2019 winner Margaret Byrne.
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Our History |
The history of the prestigious, International Miss Macra Festival is an example of a personality competition, very similar to the Rose of Tralee but on a minor scale. This festival was founded by Paddy Heffernan, Tom Horan and Michael Slattery in 1972 and it has been going strong ever since. In the very beginning after approaching Macra national headquarters, the founding members received little support but they were determined to succeed and therefore they decided to organise the competition on their own. In 1987, for the twenty-fifth anniversary former winners from every year attended the celebrations to mark the occasion. In the 80s it began to attract participation from rural youth and agricultural organisations abroad, such as the 4H clubs in America, the Scottish Young Farmers youth exchange programmes in France, Russia and many more. The International Miss Macra competition is very unique in the fact that it is organised by a local Macra club and not a county executive.
The Miss Macra festival has a huge community base, with the contestants staying with host families from around the locality for the duration of the festival. The tradition of the contestants staying with host families is very strong within the local community. The contestants are adopted into the heart of their host family’s homes for the duration of the festival, where a warm welcome is guaranteed. Many contestants forge lifelong friendships with their host families returning for weddings and other gatherings for many years. The host families are a very important part of this community based festival and the committee are as always very grateful of their support, generosity, commitment and loyalty year after year. |
Marking System |
Our adjudicating panel have the tough job of choosing just one winner. The winner will be chosen using the following marking system:
Personality 30 marks Involvement in Macra 25 marks Hobbies and Interests 15 marks Knowledge of Macra 10 marks General knowledge 10 marks Beauty and deportment 10 marks _______ Total 100 marks |