THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT!

The Saw Doctors, Tweed, Rob Strong, Jimmy Crowley, Christie Hennessy, and Smokie make up just part of the world of entertainment which is keeping a date with the Rose of Tralee for the milestone 35th festival in the Kerry capital starting from Friday, August 20th.

While television viewers in their homes and in the US will be tuning in to Gay Byrne and his live dates with 32 Rose contestants on Tuesday and Wednesday, August 24th and 25th, festival crowds will be tuning into all kinds of music and entertainment.
The Guinness Festival Dome will provide a stage for The Saw Doctors on the Saturday, August 21st, official festival opening night and the line-up for the after-midnight late gigs in the Dome includes Smokie, Declan Nerney and Linda Martin.
RTE's *The Big Top* returns to Tralee for its final show of the series with top liners including Christie Hennessy, Frank Patterson, Red Hurley, Frances Black plus Foster ... Allen on the Thursday, August 26th bill, and Christie Hennessy will also lead the line-up at the Sunday, August 22nd, entertainment free for all provided by Kerry Group in Tralee town Park with an afternoon of fun and excitement. On separate stages will be local hero, Christie for a welcome home appearance after his national tour; Louise Morrissey; comic Shawn Cuddy and local favourite, Hector Pickaxe with his Floating Crowbars back-up. The Town Park Show will also have the summer sounds of a steel band as well as rodeo and motorbike stunt displays, bungee jumping, and family fare from donkey derby to street theatre.
Guinness, the major festival sponsors since 1960, will return with the Guinness Gig Rig mobile sound stage which will be one of the platforms for free street entertainment which has been bolstered by the success of the 'Music International' talent contest launched last year.
The launching pad for *Christina Calls* in 1992, Garvey's Super Valu of Tralee stepped in as sponsors this year and enabled heats to be staged in 19 regions around the country for his Midlands heats, Jimmy Swarbrigg got some 90 entries, and standards reached such a peak i the Wicklow finals that the judges decided to top up its Tralee-bound nominations from three to five.
Country-wide heats will now send 60 acts - Rock, Pop, Solo and Instrumental as well as Traditional and Folk - to Tralee for heats on the streets in the early part of festival week leading to a Thursday night semi-final at the Ashe Hall stage, and a £25,000-value final at the Festival Dome fronted by 2FM's Ian Dempsey.
Winning act gets £5,000 cash, a Waterford Crystal trophy, tv spot, recording time worth £1,500 from Xeric Studios in Limerick plus 250 CDs. And the finalists will share a £2,000 fund.
The Tralee festival which provided a stairway to stardom for the Fureys, the Morrisseys and the Wolfe Tones, has already proven a winner for some of the acts which were in last year's 'Music International'.
Poitin Still, who have recorded Liam Reilly's Boston Rose, are back again as one of the street entertainment outfits engaged by the Festival and says 'Music International' Chairman, Joe
McElligott : *some acts which did not even make it to last year's semi finals have been brought back this year. We liked them and we decided to give them a paid encore*.