Economics

My friend Marc was telling me the other night about his trip to Texas recently for the Austin City Limits Festival. He bought a weekend pass down there, three days of music, $120. When I expressed a little surprise at the high cost, he said the way he figured, it worked out about a buck and a half per band. To his mind, a steal.

That got me thinking about Irish Fest. Now don't panic, we're not going to start charging $120 for the weekend. But every year, we get a handful of comments from disgruntled people complaining about the price of a ticket to Irish Fest. So I did me some cipherin'. By my estimation, a weekend pass to Irish Fest this year would have worked out to about $1.35 per band. Now, I realize that you can't see every band. But seriously. Is there a better entertainment deal in town?

Let me take that one.

No, there's not.

Tonight you could see 2006 Irish Fest performers Gaelic Storm in Washington for $20 a ticket. Next Tuesday, you could head to Denver and see Enter The Haggis for $10. By themselves, no other bands. Tonight, if you can get to England, you can catch Hothouse Flowers, alone, for £17.50, which in American money is...um, a lot I bet. All of them and more, here at the Kansas City Irish Fest, for twenty bucks for the whole weekend? A weekend of entertainment that costs us close to six figures to bring here?

I'd call that a bargain.