This year may well see a triple Galway victory as the Galway Rose, Ms Ruth Smith, heads the bookies' favourites for the Rose of Tralee title, along with the co-favourite, Ulster Rose Ms Sheila Patton.
The county that has already secured a place in the All-Ireland hurling and football finals will surely take it as a good omen if 21-yearold Ruth captures the crown tonight.
The last time Galway won the All-Ireland in football it also won the Rose of Tralee. That was in 1998 with Ms Mindi O'Sullivan.
If you believe in such auguries, the numbers also seem to portend well for Ms Smith.
She was the first of the 28 Roses to touch the soil of Kerry, when in glorious sunshine the Rose Coach pulled in to the Earl of Desmond Hotel outside Tralee on Friday last.
And Ms Smith, who has just completed her third year of a degree course in music, drama and theatre studies at Trinity College Dublin, will be last on the RTE interviews tonight.
Ms Patton is, however, giving Ms Smith a close run and is actually ahead with some bookmakers.
Ms Patton (22), from Letterkenny, Co Donegal, is a primary teacher.
This year's Roses are "a very professional bunch", Mr Kevin McCarthy, president of the Festival of Kerry, said.
For the most part, they are going to bed early each night "completely of their own accord".
For the first time, the festival has included a "Ros Fodhla", an Irish-speaking Rose. Ms Rosemarie Leathlobhair is a primary teacher from Ballyheigue in Co Kerry and teaches at a Gaelscoil in Cork.
Yesterday, after the traditional visit to the town's hospitals, it was hair-dos and makeup for the 14 Roses for part one of the RTE show with interviewer Marty Whelan.
The sunshine and the packed programme are combining to create "a very special festival atmosphere" this year, say organisers.