Paul Moore of Paddy's Well.
The weather forecast on Sunday, the day of the Penn’s Landing Irish Festival, looked chancy. Early in the day, as Mass was celebrated for the first time at the Irish Famine Memorial a few blocks away, a sudden shower forced congregants at the open-air service to pop their umbrellas … and for a group of middle-aged “altar boys” to hastily move a canopy over the altar.
Turns out, that was pretty much it. Though there were moments when the skies threatened to open up again and give us all a sampling of true Irish weather, mostly we got a sampling of Irish luck—from the moment Paul Moore and Paddy’s Well hit the stage down on the Great Plaza along the Delaware to the big finale featuring Blackthorn.
“Not a drop,” remarked organizer and Philadelphia St. Patrick’s Day Parade Director Michael Bradley. “Rain slid just north, so bad that parts of I-95 in the city were closed, but we were blessed.”
Like most of the festivals in the PECO Multicultural Series, the Irish fest offered up a wide-ranging display of music, dance, food and drink, and other aspects of this particular culture. Festival-goers do seem to be seriously drawn to the Paddy rock bands—and Philly has some of the very best of that breed—but for the first time, they also heard some of the unplugged traditional music in the form of the Pat the Budgie Ceili Band.
As always, just about every Irish dance school you could think of was on hand to perform between the musical acts—and, sometimes, during the musical acts, as Michael Bradley coaxed the Celtic Flame dancers up onto their feet to prance about as Paddy’s Well played. (Not that Irish dancers ever need much coaxing.)
Vendors sold the usual shirts, hats and other tchochkes, volunteers painted many little faces, and the people selling beer and other liquid refreshments did land-office business on what turned out to be a hot, hot early summer Philly day.
If you couldn’t be there, no worries. We were on hand to take lots and lots of photos.
The first Mass ever was celebrated at the Irish Memorial at Penns Landing before the festival began.
