The city of Dublin wanted to make sure there would be an in-person aspect to the Dublin Irish Festival this year, even among the uncertainties of 2021 summer activities. And so, enter Dublin Irish Days.
“We wanted to make sure we could provide some form of an experience for visitors and residents to enjoy,” says Shirley Blaine, public information officer for the city of Dublin.
“One of the things about the Irish Festival is our volunteers and our committee members are such a family. It was really hard not to be together last year,” says Alison LeRoy, director of events for the city of Dublin. “This way, we know that we can all get together safely and still be able to bring something fun and have that same spirit.”
The plans for Dublin Irish Days are constantly evolving and adapting to guidelines and safety measures as COVID-19 protocols are updated. All plans being made are consistent with the COVID-19 guidelines in place as of the end of April, when the interview for this story took place.
“What we wanted to do is make sure that we had an event that we could plan, hoping that the regulations don’t get stricter, but that we could do now even with the current guidelines,” says LeRoy.
To kick off the Irish Days on Aug. 5, runners will take to the streets for the annual Dublin Irish Festival 5K on its usual course throughout historic Dublin, starting and ending on South High Street. After the run, folks can head downtown to participate in the annual Dub Crawl that evening.
Then, instead of all the festival hubbub and hoopla taking place solely in the traditional Coffman Park expanse, the Irish Days events and activities will be all over the (Dublin) map.
“For the first time, we’re bringing the Irish Festival into downtown Dublin,” LeRoy says. “In the last two years, downtown Dublin has really grown a lot and it’s going to be a fun hybrid to actually be able to take it downtown and get those businesses involved.”
Festival goers can expect to see some of their favorite bands and artists play mini concerts downtown, eat and drink Irish foods at their favorite local restaurants, and, of course, watch the Irish dancers perform.
“We’re definitely going to have dancers in a lot of different places,” says LeRoy. “The dance schools and the kids really look forward to it and we want to make sure that we provide them an outlet to be able to get out and perform for the public.”
The festivities will extend not just to historic Dublin but across the river and into Bridge Park.
Fest favorite tents like the Wee Folk Pavilion and Irish goods vendors will still have a place to set up shop this year, too. The Wee Folk Pavilion will be located at Riverside Crossing Park, and the vendors selling goods like soap, jewelry, Irish garb, hand-carved wood signs, leather goods and more will be at the Darby Street Marketplace in the parking lot beside the library.
“We’re going to turn that into a little version of the Irish Festival marketplace so people can still come in and visit some of their favorite vendors from all over the country,” says LeRoy.
Unlike previous years, the last day of the Irish Fest will not include church services nor entry tickets via food pantry donations. That doesn’t mean, however, that Dublin Irish Days will not be supporting the Dublin Food Pantry.
“We’re looking at ways that we can support them in another way,” says LeRoy. “That really has been their biggest summer collection time, and so we’re looking at other ways that people can help support the Dublin Food Pantry this year.”
The Dublin Irish Days will be supporting high school sports teams through drink tents set up at Coffman Park amphitheater for the showing of The Irish and How They Got That Way and near the Celtic Rock stage for the various performances.
For students and community members looking to boost their service hours, Dublin Irish Days will need lots of help, so volunteers are welcome with open arms.
So, this summer, in true Irish spirit, raise a glass to the Dublin Irish Days and get ready for a Celtic connection throughout the city. Slàinte!
Shamrocks and Rockin’ On
As different countries and states have varying rules and restrictions in terms of COVID-19, hosting the visiting bands and musicians is difficult.
“We don’t know exactly what our lineup is going to be at this point, but we do know, and we’ve known for a couple of months now, that the chance of getting any of the bands over from Ireland is really not looking very good, … but we’re lucky to have a lot of talent in the United States,” says LeRoy. “Gaelic Storm is actually in the United States, so they are someone that we are working on getting.”
While many of the bands and musicians will be setting up shop at local restaurants, there will be larger concerts held on the south field where the Celtic Rock tent normally stands. Friday and Saturday evenings and Sunday afternoon, you’ll be able to enjoy music in quasi-normal Irish Fest fashion.
“We’re going to actually use that entire field for that one stage,” says LeRoy. “We are going to have an LED screen, so the people will be able to see it from further back, and we’ll change the sound of it – we’re not putting up a tent. Normally, the Celtic Rock stage has a tent over it, but it’s going to be all open air.”
If you can’t catch the performances in person, have no fear: the entire show will be livestreamed.
New this year to the Irish Fest agenda is a theater production put on by the Abbey Theater of Dublin. The Irish and How They Got That Way will be presented at the Coffman Park amphitheater in a way that audience members will feel like they’re part of the action.
“The play actually itself takes place in the pub, … so we’re going to make it feel like the rest of the audience is sitting in that pub,” says LeRoy. “We’re going to have pub tables and we’re going to have beer and whiskey available there.”
While the Dublin Irish Festival typically isn’t able to put on a full theater production, the circumstances of 2021 have allowed for more flexibility than expected.
“It’s hard for us to put on a full production during Irish Festival just because there’s so much other stuff going on,” says LeRoy. “This really lends itself to it this year because it’s something we wouldn’t normally be able to do.”
Ticket sales for the Celtic Rock concerts and the theater production put on by the Abbey Theater of Dublin will be online, and Dublin residents will have first dibs before sales are opened to visitors, so grab your tickets while you can.
Sarah Robinson is an associate editor. Feedback welcome at srobinson@cityscenemediagroup.com.
