Kenmare Fair Day
Held on 15 August every year, the Feast of the Assumption. Henry Street and Main Street close to traffic from 8am to 7pm on the day.
Runs every year
Kenmare's fair day is one of the last genuinely old-style fairs still running in the south west. It falls on 15 August every year, the Feast of the Assumption, and it has been held here since the 1760s.
It began as two fairs rather than one: 15 August for cattle and livestock, the 16th for materials and everything that was not an animal. Taxation on livestock sales pushed the two together into a single day, and what is left carries traces of both: traders come in from across Munster, and the stalls run to tools, food, clothes and general merchandise rather than the craft-and-candle fare of a tourist market. Fortune tellers set up along the route. It is workaday rather than picturesque, which is exactly the point, and it is free.
Getting in on the day. Kerry County Council closes the town centre to traffic from 8am to 7pm: there is no vehicular access to Henry Street or Main Street, diversions are signposted around by the Pat Scarteen link road, and a one-way system operates on Park Place to carry it. The Local Link bus stop moves for the day. Park on the edge of town and walk in, and expect the approach roads to be slow from mid-morning.
If you are driving the Ring on 15 August, plan to pass through Kenmare early or late, or make a half day of it. Kenmare is the best eating town on the loop, and fair day is the one day of the year the streets belong to people rather than cars.
