News

Rain Can't Dampen Spirits at GAIF 2008

August 5, 2008

Well, the Great American Irish Festival managed to do it again. As the festival has every year of its five-year existence, the event shattered attendance records over the July 25-27 weekend. With a 25 percent increase over last year's attendance, the 2008 Great American Irish Festival cemented its reputation as the fastest growing event of its kind in the world and staked a strong claim on being the best Irish festival in the Northeast, if not the country.

Huge crowds took advantage of beautiful weather throughout the first night of the Great American Irish Festival, as Friday's turnout easily broke all records for attendance. Festival Treasurer Linda Voce reported an increase of nearly 80% over Friday night revenue last year, and Richard Elthorp of the Herkimer County Fair Association, who estimated Friday's crowd at 20,000, said it was by far the largest crowd on the grounds at one time in the 50 year history of the fairgrounds.

From the opening sets on Friday until the last notes died out on Sunday the level of world-class entertainment never let up. Saturday started off brilliantly with the inaugural 5k Ranger Run, which drew a field of close to 250, unheard of for a first year run. Despite frequent intervals of rain, including some heavy downpours and lightning strikes that caused short stoppages, the entertainment once again kept the audience screaming throughout the day, highlighted by a pair of sets by the most successful Irish American act in history, Cherish The Ladies, as well as brilliant sets from festival favorites Rathkeltair, the Prodigals and the Glengarry Bhoys. If there is any doubt about how well our crowd weathered the storm(s), check out this YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlNbsM8YW-0 Unfortunately, finally even the Great American Irish Festival had to take a back seat to Mother Nature, as forecasts of 80-mph winds and golf-ball size hail forced the closing of the festival just before the last scheduled sets of the evening. Still, other than the early closing, the storms didn't seem to bother anyone and the Great American Irish Festival volunteers - singled out by many of the performers as the best they had ever seen at any event - once again proved their mettle, as sawdust, squeegees and brooms left little trace of the tremendous storms as Sunday opened. The 10:30 mass again proved to be hugely successful and the previous two days had done nothing to diminish the Sunday crowd's energy, as the Elders and Enter the Haggis once again had the contemporary stage crowd jumping and first-time festival attendees the Barra McNeils brought the traditional stage to a rousing close.