Milwaukee Irish Fest (locally known as Irish Fest) is a yearly Irish-American festival held at the Henry Maier Festival Park, on Lake Michigan, United States, every third weekend in August. Over 130,000 people attend the Fest each year to watch nearly 250 acts on 17 stages. The four-day festival started in 1981, founded by Edward J. Ward.[1] Irish Fest is the largest of the ethnic festivals held at the Summerfest grounds which report attendance,[2] and holds claim to the largest celebration of Irish Culture in the world.[3]
Festival highlights include:
Performances from local Milwaukee Irish Dance troupes
Music from nearly 250 artists from around the world, sung in both English and Irish
Liturgy for Peace and Justice held in the Marcus Amphitheater on Sunday morning
The annual closing event is the Scattering, a gathering of many of the festival's musicians playing together in one combined session, with fifty or more musicians on the stage at one time not uncommon.
Irish Fest celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2005, which saw the opening of the new Celtic Roots stage. President of Ireland, Mary McAleese also attended that year's fest. There was no Irish Fest in 2020 as officials cited the COVID-19 pandemic as grounds for scrapping most events & moving others online.
Each year, an Irish family name (clan) is honoured at the festival. Some which have been honoured:
1987: Mangin
1995: Conarchy/Conachy
1999: Cummings/Cummins
2000: Delaney/Delany
2001: McAteer
2004: Murphy
2005: All festival Volunteers (in honor of 25th anniversary)
2006: Toomey/Twomey (O'Tuama)
2007: Gogin/Goggins
2008: Carroll
2009: O'Donoghue
2011: Fitzgerald
2012: Higgins
2013: Gallagher
2014: O'Loughlin
Referencesedit
^"Ed Ward, who created the world-class Irish Fest, has died". October 15, 2019.
^"Milwaukee Irish Fest Celebrates 37 Years with Best in Celtic Music and Culture". Shepherd Express, August 7, 2017.
^"Traditional Irish Sports - Gaelic Football and Hurling". GaelicMatters.com. Retrieved 2018-09-19.
External linksedit
Official Milwaukee Irish Fest website
Official Milwaukee Irish Fest Mobile website
January 01, 1970
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