International Miss macra festival
Proudly Presented by Clonoulty Rossmore Macra na Feirme
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About UsThis year celebrates the 50th anniversary of the International Miss Macra festival.
The International Miss Macra Festival is a 3-day personality competition- like the Rose of the Tralee on a minor scale! This festival is run by Clonoulty/Rossmore Macra na Feirme club over the Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights of the August Bank Holiday weekend. Once again this year’s festival will see contestants travelling from all over the country and beyond to Tipperary to compete for the honour of being crowned International Miss Macra 2022, succeeding the very admired winner, Margaret Byrne. |
Our History |
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. This festival was founded by Paddy Heffernan, Tom Horan and Michael Slattery in 1972. In the very beginning, the club approached Macra national headquarters but received little support. However, they didn't let that deter them and were determined to succeed and proceeded to organise the competition on their own. It has been going strong ever since; 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,Germany and many more.
The Miss Macra festival has a huge community base, with the contestants staying with host families in the locality for the duration of the festival. This 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 an integral 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 3-person adjudicating panel have the tough job of choosing just one winner every year.
The winner is 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 |