Nostalgia

I was running early this morning through the parking lot in downtown Brookside where we used to hold the dear, departed Brookside Irish Fest. I was, as it happens, wearing a Brookside Irish Fest 1999 T-shirt. As I passed the site of all that defunct fun, Brookside Irish Fest performer Flogging Molly's Factory Girl came up on my little iPod shuffle.

I think that's what they call a Zen moment.

It got me thinking. About what a long strange trip it's been from that summer of 1999 to now. What the incredible group of people who have built this event has accomplished in 8 years. In Brookside we survived 108 degree temps one year and torrential rain the next. Hell, we survived Flogging Molly, if barely. At the Westport Irish Festival, founded the same year, we baked on our blacktop and weathered small Father's Day crowds until moving to Memorial Day. I worked at every single one of the 12 Irish Festivals that have taken place in Kansas City (I'm not counting the Weston Irish Fest or the Celtic Block Party) and I bet a lot of other people out there did too. And today we're up for the award for Kansas City's best festival and outdoor event. Amazing.

All the more reason to join us at O'Dowd's tomorrow night. The 2007 Kansas City Irish Fest, one of the largest and fastest growing Irish Festivals in the country, and possibly the best festival of any kind in our city opens in 101 days.