It’s never too late to be spontaneous, right?
So, even if you didn’t book a room in advance, why don’t you consider heading down to North Wildwood and Wildwood this weekend for a double dose of Irish: the Cape May County Ancient Order of Hibernians 16th Annual Irish Fall Festival and Blackthorn’s 16th Annual Wildwood Weekend. Hey, it’s a day trip, and you can pick up the last of the Jersey tomatoes at a farm stand along the way.
The AOH event rockets into high gear with three days of music and dancing, including a ceili Friday night at the North Wildwood Recreation Community Center starting at 10 PM, the Brian Riley Pipe Exhibition on Saturday morning at 8th and Central Avenues, and a great concert Saturday night by the Dublin City Ramblers (and they’re really from Dublin). They’ll be accompanied by the Gibson School of Irish Dance.
Among the acts you’ll see (and we’re talking music here–behavior is something else entirely) are Paul Moore and Paddy’s Well, Scythian, Bogside Rogues, Killen Thyme, the Sean Fleming Band, Searson (cute Celtic Canadians), and 2U (a great U2 tribute band that packs them in at the Sellersville Theater), among others, appearing at the Irish Music Tent at the Pointe on Friday, Saturday and Sunday (see the entire lineup for times at www.paddyswell.com). There’s free live entertainment along Olde New Jersey Avenue (including the amazing and adorable little singer, Timmy Kelly, who is grand marshal of Sunday’s parade). And all the pubs and taverns have scheduled performers so there’s absolutely no escape.
If you’re at all capable of moving, there’s also a 5K run on Saturday morning (early–8 AM).
In the next town over, Blackthorn will be playing tirelessly all weekend at The Bolero Resort, 3320 Atlantic Avenue, with an incredible array of guest performers, including Timlin and Kane, Black 47, the Eileen Ivers Band (not to be missed), Random Blond, the Danny Boys, and, fresh from being smooched at a Phillies game by the Phanatic, singer and band leader Vince Gallagher.
(If you do miss Eileen Ivers, we’re offering a pair of tickets for her November 9 performance at the Sellersville Theater as part of our first contest to increase subscriptions to our free e-newsletter, mickmail, which is your best source for all the Irish goings-on in the Philadelphia area. To enter, you need to subscribe–just put your email address in the little “Get our E-mail Newsletter” box in the upper right hand corner of the site or, if you’re already a subscriber, just forward your mickmail to someone you think might be interested. New subscribers will get an email invite to put their name on the list–you have to respond to that email get mickmail, which comes out two or three times a month when things are hopping. Or jigging, as the case may be.)
The crazy Irish weekend at the shore is also famous for its bottomless mug of beer, so we at irishphiladelphia.com urge you to be careful out there. We’re going to be.
Staying home? Then check out the play, the Lonesome West, at St. Stephen’s Theater at 10th and Ludlow in Philadelphia. All of playwright Martin McDonagh’s work is edgy and hilarious. You won’t be sorry. Keep it Irish by heading over to Fergie’s at 1214 Sansom Street for Saturday’s session. Fergie’s is a former Bavarian bar that has made a graceful conversion to Celtic. The session is great, and so is the food.
