Eastward

Good morning Festkeeers. I’m across the great state of Missouri today, visiting our second city, St. Louis. And yet the fest business follows me like a lonesome pup. The cover story of the Pitch-type alternative news weekly is “The I-70 Series of Beer” which pits local brew Schlafly against our neighborhood nectar and Irish Fest sponsor Boulevard. This story should have been one sentence long. Are you kidding me.? I wouldn’t run my lawnmower on Schlafly.

Just down the street from my hotel the St. Louis Strassenfest is taking place this weekend. It appears from my early morning run through the grounds to be a German thing. There are giant pretzels on the stage, so I put two and two together. I’m smart like that.

And most relevant to us at the Kansas City Irish Fest, the front page of the Post Dispatch this morning has a story headlined “It’s Not Easy Being Green” with the subhead “Local festivals generate tons of trash, but almost none gets recycled.” Of course, we’re trying to buck that trend as we go green(er) this year with Recycling Empress Natalie and her crew. This effort of course depends largely on you to succeed. When you get to Irish Fest, next to each and every trash can you’ll see a bright blue recycling bin. Place your Pepsi, water and other plastic beverage bottles in those blue things. As you leave, you’ll see a place to recycle any paper you may have accumulated during your stay. If you don’t use these things, our recycling effort will fail, poor Natalie will take the blame and be ostracized, and the Earth will suffer. You want all that on your conscience? I didn’t think so.

Have a great weekend. I’m off to see the arch, which of course identifies St. Louis to visitors from around the world as the Gateway To Kansas City.