Wexford man and writer Colm Tóibín:"The old building was my first experience of live classical music and the memory of that old atmosphere is filled with the pleasure of discovering something you love.

"The new building is beautiful and I hope to be worthy of the music I will hear there.

"[The festival is] one of the few things in Irish public life that has insisted on a sense of excellence, of doing things properly year in year out. It is a pity that bankers, to name just one group, have not followed its example."

Wexford native, adult education tutor and poet Jim Maguire:Maguire was hugely praised when he sang the part of the boy Miles in the 1976 production of Benjamin Britten's Turn of the Screw. He was 14 at the time. The festival "was like the circus coming to town," he recalls. "There was a whole magic around it. There was an exoticism in the air with exotic foreign opera singers walking around. I remember seeing men with shoulder bags."

Singing for that month in the opera "had a profound effect on my life," he recalls. "It opened up a whole window to me. It was a month of being in paradise. It was a fantasy come true but that's a dangerous thing . . . Then my voice broke. I knew that something so intense and magical wasn't going to happen again."

"In my writing I have recaptured some of the intensity and the freedom I would have felt when I was in the opera."

He believes the festival "is great for Wexford and for Wexford people", but, he adds, "there are still pockets of communities that the festival doesn't reach . . . Not everybody is in the position to go to the opera."

Arts consultant Tony Ó Dálaigh:The first festival he was at was in 1953, when the venue was "really tiny" but, he adds, "There was amazing excitement. At that time the singers used to sing at night in the hotels until Tom Walsh put an end to it because he was afraid they would damage their voices in the smoke."

He says there was "amazement" too that Walsh managed to get such an extraordinary level of top singers at that time.

He hopes the tradition of staging rarely-seen operas continues. It was part of Tom Walshs genius to attract world-class singers by offering them ideal roles which they had not sung before: Mirella Freni in I Puritani, Graziella Sciutti in La Figlia del Reggimento and Fiorenza Cossotto in Anna Bolena.

The festival "means a flagship of excellence in Ireland," he says. "It's the most prestigious arts event in the country in terms of international recognition. It's taken very seriously by opera buffs around the world".

Soprano Lesley Garrett:Garrett made her professional debut at the festival when she sang the part of Dorinda in Handel's Orlando in 1980. She recalls it as a "fantastic experience".

"I owe my entire career to the Wexford festival . . . When I got to Wexford it was a delight. I had no idea what to expect. I had never sung in Ireland before. I had never been to the south before. I was bowled over by the history, the traditions that surrounded it, the incredible importance it has in the opera world. It was the most amazing shop-window for me."

She recalls producers and directors come "from all over Europe and at the heart of it, Wexford is a local festival and you become part of this fantastic Wexford family. We felt so taken to their bosom . . .

"I had my first plate of mussels, my first Guinness, my first hot toddy in Wexford. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. It was a fantastic experience and a high-quality experience."

She recalls singing with the legendary Bernadette Greevy. Garrett knelt at the late singer's feet as she sang the aria, listening in amazement and wondered how she could achieve such a beautiful sound, she says.

"It was a glorious time. The reason I felt so at home there and sang so well... was the feeling of community. That's what was so special." She hopes the festival continues to keep that spirit alive.

"It reminded me of being in south Yorkshire where I'm from," she recalls.