You may not realize it, but September is the biggest Irish month in the Philly region after March. You could call it Irish Festival Month.
For example, you can immerse yourself in traditional Irish music this weekend as the 34th annual Philadelphia Ceili Group festival concludes on Saturday night or you can head up to Gloucester, NJ, for the yearly Shamrock Festival (Black 47 is on the bill—this New York-based band has a huge fan base here too). Closer to home: The BoothandLowe~Stock Festival will be held at the Knights of Columbus De La Salle division in Springfield, Delaware County, to raise money for MusicWorks, an organization that provides music therapy sessions for children and young adults with autism and special needs. Among the groups on hand: the King Brothers (they’re great, even though they’re not really brothers), Scanlin and O’Leary, and John Lee. The Festival runs from noon till 6:30, then an hour later, Blackthorn takes the stage for another MusicWorks fundraiser.
Or maybe you’d rather watch some athletic women bend it like Beckham. The US National Women’s Soccer Team is taking on the Irish women’s team Saturday night at the Linc, home of the Eagles.
Wow – way too many choices. Lucky for me I have a broken leg. I can’t go to anything. There’s something to be said for having no choice.
On Monday, September 15, you can do a good deed while getting in a round of golf. That’s the date of the third annual Ciara Kelly Higgins for CP Golf, Dinner and Auction at the Plymouth Country Club in Norristown. Five-year-old Ciara was born prematurely at 26 weeks and has Cerebral Palsy (CP) with Spastic Displasia in both legs, requiring years of physical therapy and medical treatment.
This annual fundraiser will help her parents defray some of their costs. There are a couple of tee times and a dinner later, even for nongolfers, and the local group, Paddy’s Well, will play. There will also be both as silent and live auction.
That evening, the High Kings of Dublin are peforming at the Perelman Theater in Philadelphia. You may have seen them on one of their PBS specials: four good-looking Irishmen who play instruments and have fantastic singing voices. As a bit of a music snob, I didn’t want to like them but I did.
Then you’ll need to get ready for the Cape May AOH’s Irish Weekend in North Wildwood, starting on September 18, where you can sample every variation of Irish music known to man, including Paddy’s Well (check out their new CD, First Friday), Canada’s Searson, crowd-pleasers Derek Warfield and the Wolfetones, as well perennial favorites, The Bogside Rogues, The Sean Fleming Band, The Glensiders, The Broken Shillelaghs, and The Highland Rovers. The weekend kicks off with some Irish boxing on Thursday night, then there’s nonstop music, killer food, vendors hawking everything from clever t-shirts and silly shamrock deely bobbers to pretty jewelry and crafts.
If you’re in Philly on Thursday, you can catch Gaelic Storm at World Cafe Live. It’s been 10 years since they played for our poor doomed people in steerage in that great scene from the movie, “Titantic.”They can still make a bad time seem good.
A week later, head up to Bethlehem for the 2008 Celtic Classic where you can listen to even more music, from pipe bands to Celtic rock, or you can watch grown men toss telephone polls (a Celtic sport known as the caber toss) or beautiful dogs that are too smart for their own good herd sheep.
