News & Press Room

France’s Canelle Beuze, a 20 year old student, has been crowned the 2013 Blue Jean Country Queen in Athboy, Co. Meath at the end of a very exciting festival weekend.

Canelle, a member of the Autonne Village Twinning Association, beat off competition from 28 other girls from all over Ireland and overseas to take the title at the Macra na Feirme festival last weekend where she received €1000 worth of prizes sponsored by Stephens Cooke &Co. She was crowned on Sunday night of the June Bank Holiday weekend much to the delight of the many French supporters attending as part of The Gathering 2013.

Runner up was Longford girl Sinead Duffy a member of South Longford Macra who was presented with €600 sponsored by O’Reilly Hoofcare and in third place was Orla Murphy from Ardrahan Macra in Galway who won €300 sponsored by Gilsenan Brothers.

Celebrating its 26th festival, members of Meath Macra na Feirme, organisers of the event, were delighted with all aspects of the weekend. With just the right amount of sunshine, huge crowds and a massive array of events organised over the weekend, it was just the recipe to turn this year's festival into one of the largest and most successful to date.

Kicking off Friday night, when the Queens were interviewed on stage in front of an enthusiastic audience, the fun and craic flowed until Monday afternoon as live music was still playing throughout the town of Athboy, the home of the festival.

Speaking at the Festival Banquet, Chairperson Celine Smyth praised and thanked the community of Athboy for their enormous support throughout the year in preparing for the event. She thanked festival secretary Caoimhe Leavy and all the organising committee for the endless hours of work they had carried out to ensure the weekend was a success. She also welcomed the many visitors from overseas who are visiting due to the Gathering events held over the weekend, including the huge contingent from the Autonne Region of France who were obviously ecstatic with the French win.

Plans are already underway to ensure that the Blue Jean Country Queen Festival 2014 will be even bigger and better!