Coverage of the Rose of Tralee is to be expanded to a third night on RTÉ this year with a special one hour documentary being screened the night before the start of the live shows.
The documentary is part of a shake up in the format of the Rose contest which, this year, will see all 68 Roses who qualify travelling to Tralee. However only 32 will make it onto the live shows.
The documentary to be screened on RTÉ on Sunday August 21st will trace the journey of all the qualifying Roses to the Festival and tell viewers which contestants have been selected to take part in the televised selections.
The live shows, presented by Daithí Ó Sé, will then take place as normal over the following two evenings August 22nd and 23rd from the Festival Dome.
For over a decade all the qualifying Roses had to take part in a selection process in May to try and make it through to the televised stages. The selection will now take part in Tralee during an expanded Festival which will move from a five day to a seven day event.
Last year's winning Rose, Elysha Brennan from Meath welcomed the change in the format.
“This is great news for anyone who considers entering the 2016 Rose selection in their regions. Whoever is picked as their 2016 county, city or country Rose will travel to Tralee in August," she said.
She has now begun a month long nationwide tour, beginning in Northern Ireland, to promote the festival and encourage women to take part.
Host Daithí Ó Sé told 2FM that he expects the competition to be even more intense this year, given the significance of the 2016 Centenary celebrations.
"The International Rose of Tralee for 2016 will definitely stand out and will probably have more responsibilies than the past few Roses - but its going to be a great event", he said.
In a statement RTÉ said "The Rose of Tralee continues to be a huge success story on RTÉ One and we’re looking forward to having it back on our screens in the summer. This year we will have an extra hour-long behind-the-scenes show which will go out on the Sunday before the finals."
The Rose of Tralee's popularity certainly shows no sign of fading with a peak audience of 760,300 tuning in to see Elysha take the crown last year.
