Enniscorthy through the year: the Rockin' weekend, strawberries and Christmas

Enniscorthy is a working market town of the Model County, not a resort, so its year is shaped by a few fixed points: a bank holiday weekend in May, strawberry season, the hurling, and a Christmas that starts at the end of November. Here is what each season actually holds, and what to check before you come.

Spring: the Rockin' weekend

The year's big weekend is the Rockin' Food and Fruit Festival over the May Bank Holiday. In 2026 the organisers' site gave Friday 1 to Sunday 3 May, the eleventh edition, opened with fireworks on the Friday night. The food half is a free Food Marquee in the grounds of Enniscorthy Castle with chef demonstrations from eleven on the Saturday and Sunday, and an artisan market the organisers put at more than eighty producers. The rock half is a gig trail through the pubs: WexfordLocal's report of the 2026 launch counted 45 live gigs between the Friday and the Bank Holiday Monday, put on by the South East Rock n' Roll Club. The festival's own history traces the town's rockabilly scene back to the early 1980s. Watch the organisers' site for the 2027 dates.

Spring is also when the castle's guided tours start up again. Its sister-site page says the scheduled tours at one and three run at weekends and on bank holidays from Easter to September.

Summer: strawberries and the hill

Wexford strawberries are the county's calling card, and the Village at Wheelocks, the Wheelock family's fruit farm about three and a half kilometres east of the town, lets you pick your own in the polytunnels from May to October. A guide shows you how the plants are grown before you start. The farm opens Wednesday to Sunday, from nine (quarter past on Sundays) to four, and has a café, a farm shop and walks through the woods and along the river.

Long evenings are the time for Vinegar Hill. The car park at the foot of the hill is free and the paved path to the windmill is a few minutes' climb; from the castle on foot it is about 2.3 kilometres each way over the Seamus Rafter Bridge. From the summit on a clear evening you can see west to the Blackstairs Mountains, and back across the Slaney to the castle, whose rooftop is open to visitors every day.

Enniscorthy is also a hurling town, and the Rackard brothers' pub on Rafter Street is where to watch a Wexford match.

Autumn: indoors and the arts centre

When the weather turns, the castle's three floors of exhibitions and the Presentation Arts Centre carry the town. The arts centre, in the old Presentation Convent chapel on Convent Road, runs free exhibitions in its foyer and a programme of plays and gigs. In November 2026 the castle ran its Stone Sessions craft workshops on weekend afternoons. The National 1798 Rebellion Centre is closed for the rest of 2026 and says it reopens in January 2027, so the castle is the place for history this autumn.

Winter: Santa and the switch-on

Christmas starts early. In 2025 the Christmas lights switch-on and parade was on the last Friday of November, 28 November at half five, with the parade going from the castle down Church Street and Rafter Street to Market Square and a live broadcast from South East Radio. The 2026 date had not been published when we checked, so watch Enjoy Enniscorthy, the town's visitor site. For Christmas 2026 the 1798 Centre becomes Santa HQ for Santa's Enchanted Christmas, opening on 28 November, with every ticket bought online in advance and no walk-ins. At the Presentation Arts Centre, Blackstairs Mountain Theatre's new play Sky Road runs for four nights from 2 to 5 December 2026.

The Saturday farmers' market at Abbey Square runs all year, nine to two, and is the steadiest fixture in the town's calendar: vegetables, meat, baking and Kilmore Quay fish, every week.