The Sizzle

Today, Saturday, there's a festival in Kansas City. Bacon Fest. Yes, bacon. It lasts all of three hours, features one performer and lots and lots of bacon. A ticket will cost you $30 and you have to be 21 for some reason. Adults only bacon?

Now I'm not dissing Bacon Fest. It's a great idea. It's a fundraiser for The Rehabilitation Institute, a good cause, and I love bacon. I fully intend to eat some this morning. I'm sure Bacon Fest will be a great event and I wish them all the success in the world. You should all go. I only mention it to make a point about what a steal Irish Fest is here in our recessionary times.

Ten bucks...less if you buy in advance...gets you 12 hours of Irish Fest. That's 83¢ an hour. All those bands. All that history. All that heritage. All that fun. Our admission ticket prices were last raised in...oh wait, never. Not once in our 7 years. And leave us not forget that you can get in free altogether and get a free t-shirt just by volunteering. Our beer prices? The same. Pop and water? Unchanged. Been to a concert lately? What did you pay for a ticket? What did you pay to park? We've got 5000 covered patrolled parking spaces that will cost you exactly nothing.

Irish Fest's ticket prices will go up some time. It's a certainty. This is an incredibly expensive event to put on, even run by volunteers as it is. But while you're watching those pennies and being wisely judicious about how you spend your entertainment dollar, there's no better deal in town this summer than the Kansas City Irish Fest. And I'm not bacon that up.