While the music has always been the centerpiece of the Great American Irish Festival, it is by no means the only attraction.
Language workshops, dance instruction, cooking demonstrations, athletic contests and shopping for souvenirs are just a part of the festival as the sound of bagpipes, bodhrans, fiddles and tin whistles.
Not to mention the food, beer and wine tents.
“It’s an opportunity for people to learn something that they’re not going to learn somewhere else,” said Thomas O’Malley, who led Irish language and genealogy workshops with Ann Brunnett in the festival’s Irish Cultural Center of the Mohawk Valley Building. “There’s something for everyone.”
“We’ve been doing this for five or six years,” said George Bracken, of Ilion, from behind the counter of his family’s Irish cooking booth. “It becomes more of a challenge each year, but that’s what keeps it interesting. The key is have samples ready before we begin cooking. Samples attract the crowd.”
The ideas for the dishes that were prepared for festival goers, which included potato and leek soup, chicken pot pie and small Irish candies, were gathered from family recipes and cookbooks.
“This kitchen is just like a real family kitchen,” said Bracken. “We go from one meal to the other.”
The Great American Irish Festival started as one-day festival drawing approximately 6,000 spectators to the Herkimer County Fairgrounds in 2004. It has not stopped growing since, as an estimated crowd of 54,000 passed through the gates last year, cementing the Great American Irish Festivals’ reputation as being one of the best Irish festivals in the Northeast, if not the country.
“I’m hoping that we get at least as many as last year when we were over 50,000 for the first time,” said festival director Matt Sullivan. “We’ve grown every year, so we’re hoping it grows again.”
With three days of non-stop entertainment, organizers do their best to make sure there is something for everyone. “You don’t have to be Irish to have a good time,” said Sullivan.
The Seventh Annual Great American Irish Festival was produced by a nonprofit organization comprised solely of volunteers — approximately 800 this year — whose goal is to establish the Irish Cultural Center of the Mohawk Valley. Proceeds from the event will be dedicated to obtaining this goal, and Sullivan said he hopes to break ground on the building this year. The center will be built on the site of the former St. Patrick’s Church on the corner of Columbia and Varick streets in Utica.
Eileen Ivers, Derek Warfield, Enter The Haggis, The Elders, Andy Cooney, Hair of the Dog, the Glengarry Bhoys, the Prodiguls and The Blarney Rebel Band were among this year’s performers.
Frankfort, N.Y. —
