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06 Sept 2025

Fancy becoming the next Rose of Tralee? Applications now open for 2024 festival

Selections will take place across 32 centres nationally and worldwide

Fancy becoming the next Rose of Tralee?  Applications now open for 2024 festival

| PICTURE: Instagram/@roseoftraleefestival

Do you fancy becoming the next International Rose of Tralee well applications are now open for the 2024 festival.

Selections will take place across 32 centres nationally and worldwide and this year's Roses gathered at The Jeanie Johnston, a historical landmark in Dublin to launch this year’s search for Roses.

Sharing a post on Instagram to the Rose of Tralee Festival page, New York Rose of Tralee Róisín Wiley encouraged people to apply saying: “What a surreal and exciting moment to be here launching the 2024 International Rose of Tralee Festival with some of my fellow Roses and Rose Escorts. Although it may sound cliché, applying to be the New York Rose (twice!) has been the best decision I’ve ever made. Participating in the festival has beyond exceeded my expectations in terms of the friendships you make, fun you have, and opportunities that come your way,” she said.

Applications are also open for escorts for 2024. 

Kildare man Tommy Cunningham, the 2023 Benetti Menswear Rose Escort of the Year, was on hand with Róisín Wiley to launch this year’s search for Roses and Benetti Menswear Rose Escorts and promised all those thinking of entering “a lifechanging opportunity, one that you won’t regret."

In an Instagram post Tommy said: “For me, The Rose of Tralee came at a time where it felt like everyone I ever knew had decided to move abroad. Being in my twenties, I faced the dilemma of packing up like all of my friends, saying goodbye to my family and looking at life abroad indefinitely, or to stay at home in Ireland and watch online as it seemed like everyone I knew was living it up in the sun down under. The Rose of Tralee gave me a year that I will never forget.

“The past year has been an enriching, life-enhancing experience which has shaped the man I am today. I am reminded of all that I have gained from the Rose of Tralee this year in the proud pat on the back from my father when I leave the house for a Rose Escort duty, the kiss on the cheek my Granny gives me every time we meet and I greet her as though she is my Rose, and the support of my community as they welcomed the 2023 Roses and Rose Escorts back to Kildare for my homecoming. I will hold on to the memories from the Rose of Tralee for the rest of my life.”
For more information on the application process or find out where to apply visit HERE.

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