Good news for all the Celtic music fans - the Louisville Irish Fest has returned! Mark your calendars for September 19-21 for the 9th Annual Irish Fest at Bellarmine University. On Friday night, September 19, from 7:30 - 10 p.m. the kick-off musical event will be a ceili/dance featuring Ten Penny Bit. On Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. is the Family Fest itself - with lots of music, dancing, ethnic food and beverages, games, puppets, an Irish shopping village and a children's area. On Sunday, the Fest continues at 11 a.m. with an Irish Catholic Mass in Frazier Hall at Bellarmine. Then the Fest resumes at noon and lasts until 6 p.m. Music both days will be provided by a variety of Louisville groups and will feature the talents of a Chicago-based band that hails from Dublin: bohola. And from County Cork will be Mick Daly & Anna Falkenau. Admission is $5 for adults, free for children under age 12.
Don't miss the chance to catch all the wonderful things the Fest has to offer and the opportunity to hear bohola. Bohola, pronounced "bow" (as in fiddle bow) "ho" (as in Santa ho-ho-ho) and "la," features accordion virtuoso Jimmy Keane, fiddler Sean Cleland and dordan player Pat Broaders. Don't know what a dordan is? Don't be ashamed to admit it, there are only two of them in existence! It was made by a luthier and friend of Pat Broaders and is a larger version of the Irish-style bouzouki. The band is known for playing traditional reels, jigs, slides, polkas and barndances with a driving sound and for playing tunes in a jam session style that can last twenty minutes or more.
If you are an Irish Fest fan who would like to volunteer to help at the event, call the Irish Arts Foundation of Kentucky, Inc. at (502) 245-6676. If you would like to help by being a sponsor and having your name appear in the Fest program, sponsorships range from $10 up to $250. For more information on sponsorships, call the Irish Arts Foundation, or email
briole@msn.com.