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The Lismore Music Festival t/a, the Blackwater Opera Festival operates an annual opera festival in Lismore Castle and Dromore Yard every June since 2009. It is operated by a voluntary committee that has become a well-structured organization.
The festival compliments both in timing and location the Wexford Opera Festival. The festival has focused on providing a quality product in a rural location (similar to Clybourne in England), has opened up access to the great houses of the Blackwater Valley for that week, has a co-existing education programme for local young people to introduce them to the nuts and bolts of music and has opened up the Valley to a group of people who would not normally travel to rural areas.
The LEADER Programme part funded the venue rental, logistics, i.e., Marquees, Seating, Sound, H & S, and pianos.