Your weekend starts out with a full day of Irish dance. If you’ve never taken in the Intercollegiate Irish Dance Festival at Villanova, now’s your chance to see some of the best college-level Irish dance teams strut their stuff. Saturday marks the sixth festival hosted by Villanova’s dance team. We’ve gone, spent the day, gotten the T-shirt. It’s incredibly fun to see how creative the competitors can be. This year, there will be 10 teams.
The festival takes place in the Jake Nevin Field House, 800 East Lancaster Avenue on the ‘Nova campus in Radnor. The competition starts at 9:30 a.m., with a Grand Irish Show starting at 4:30 p.m. Tickets available in advance for $10 on VUTix, and $12 at the door. Kids and student admission, $5.
On Sunday, two big events.
The AOH/LAOH Annual Fundraiser takes place from 3 to 7 p.m. at Philadelphia FOP Lodge 5—a great venue, if you’ve never been—at 11630 Caroline Road in Northeast Philly. The event benefits charities and educational organizations in the North of Ireland. Carmel Quinn of Relatives for Justice is the guest speaker. Your $35 donation gets you admission, a buffet, beer and soft drinks. Tickets will be available at the door. Contact Pearse Kerr for group table reservations at 267-253-9001.
Also on Sunday, get your eardrums ready for bagpipe-driven Celtic hard rock when Céltica, with First Highland Watch, takes the stage at Sellersville Theater 1894, 24 W Temple Ave, Sellersville, PA 18960. Tickets are $21.50 to $29.50. All the details here.
Next Sunday, November 18, the Delaware Valley Irish Hall of Fame hosts its annual award ceremony. Honored this year are my colleague and pal, Irish Philadelphia founding editor Denise Foley, Pearse Kerr and Sister Frances Kirk, SSJ. Receiving the Commodore John Barry Award is Sr. James Anne, IHM. You’ll find all of their profiles on irishphiladelphia.com this week. All the details are here.
The dinner will be held at the Commodore John Barry Arts and Cultural Center (The Irish Center), 6815 Emlen St., Philadelphia, PA, 19119, in the Mount Airy section of Philadelphia, just off Lincoln Drive. The dinner starts at 5 p.m.
Tickets are available from Sean McMenamin at 215-663-2328.
You can find more events, including traditional Irish music sessions—we get asked about them—on our events calendar: http://irishinphilly.com/calendar
And if you have a Philly-area Irish-related event, feel free to add your own to the calendar. You can do that here: http://irishinphilly.com/submit. Things start to pick up around the holidays, so be sure to let the world know.
We’d love to share your event with the Irish Philly audience. It’s free!
