Because 2020 pretty much sucks, Irish Fest – and nearly every other fun thing – has been canceled.
Or has it?
Irish Fest has pivoted to a live stream version called Milwaukee Irish Fest At Home, which takes place the dates of the original festival, Aug. 13-16, at your house instead of the Summerfest grounds.
The 33-hour event starts at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 13.
The Irish Fest you're hosting in your home will include performances by Gaelic Storm, Altan, Wallis Bird, The Henry Girls, Eileen Ivers, We Banjo 3, The High Seas and many more from their homes.
Plus, there will be archived shows from previous Irish Fests, including The Beatles - Celtic Style Tribute show from 2017 and Liam Clancy’s show at the 2005 festival.
And because the cultural areas are so important to Irish Fest, there will be interviews with Irish authors, Gaelic language lessons for beginners, cooking classes from Chef Brian McDermott (Donegal), Chef Padraic Og Gallagher (Dublin), and Chef Brian Ward (Milwaukee), a CiderBoys Hard Cider cocktail show, children’s entertainment and three Celtic music and dance power hours, with national and international artists, and more.
You can watch in the Irish Fest Facebook page, its YouTube Channel and its website, too.
The program will be available to tune in for free on Milwaukee Irish Fest’s YouTube channel, Facebook page and on the website.
Donations to Irish Fest during the event (or even not during the event) are welcomed, to help organizer CelticMKE as it promotes and preserves Celtic culture all year 'round.
You can also support Milwaukee Irish Fest by shopping the online merchandise store.m posts!
So, póg mo thóin 2020.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
