Festival Legends, Songs and Stories

I've mentioned a few times the informal organization of Irish Festivals whose conferences we've attended the past couple years. The connections we've made through this fraternity have been incredibly valuable and we've met some great people as we've gotten to know our counterparts across the country. Some those folks will be here in September for the Kansas City Irish Fest and we're always happy to host them.

I hope you'll make a point of meeting one of those friends during Irish Fest. John O'Brien, Jr. is the Assistant Director of Operations at Cleveland's Irish Cultural Festival and has written the first in a series of books about his experiences in over 20 years in the Irish Fest business. He'll be here signing copies of that book, Festival Legends, Songs and Stories . The book is a rare behind the scenes look into the lives and music of some of the legendary performers that have played the Cleveland stages over the past 23 years.

Future books in the series are titled Festival Legends: Trads & Ceilis, Festival Legends: The Balladeers, and Festival Legends: Safe in the Hands of a New Generation. This is truly a labor of love from one of the people who've built the Cleveland festival into one of the country's best.

Please welcome John to our town and pick up a copy of his book during your Irish Fest weekend.