It was a hot one this year. and humid; unusually so for Minnesota, but all those poor Minnesotans took it standing up to enjoy some really great music this year with bands like Altan, Doolan’ and WeBano3 taking center stage.
For my part I played with two other bands- both traditional Irish ensembles, and did a couple of solo things on top of that, and rather than try to fight the heat (as pointless as fighting an incoming tide) we all pretty much decided to just kick back, play at a more relaxed clip. and treat the whole thing as just a fun hang as opposed to a “performance”, and I think the audiences were pretty much on our wavelength, so if there is such a thing as a laid-back festival state of mind, that’s what we achieved.
St Paul Irish Fair is one of those great FREE festivals that does a great job representing the various aspects of Irish culture pretty evenly, from the music to the dancing, sport, cuisine, history and literature-a presentation with an eye for detail that has always impressed me. And it’s only fair (not an intentional pun – promise) to mention the setting – on the banks of the mighty Mississippi on a hot summer day, the whoel experiance is really stunning. Anyway, enough gushing – suffice to say you should go there some day…..:)