5 Score and 7 Days

With just 107 days to go until we swing open the big sparkly green gates of Irish Fest version 9.0, the time is upon us to really start getting serious about prep work. That means a lot of different things to different people. Here's what it means to you, Mr. and Mrs. Citizen: VOLUNTEER!

Volunteer sign up begins online in just two weeks. And we need you. Badly. You and 1100 of your friends if they're not busy. Now I'm not going to bore you with all the altruistic reasons you should join us. All that stuff about helping better your community, promote and preserve Celtic heritage and culture, blahdity blah blah. I'm not going to try to bribe you by listing all the tangible benefits to you when you volunteer. You know, the awesome free t-shirt, the comp tickets, yadda yadda yadda. No, here's why you should volunteer: it's a really good time. Serious fun. That's why I work here.

Think about it. The people who put this thing on every year are doing what, when you get right down to it? Throwing a huge party. For three days. With 500 kegs of beer, a couple dozen bands, and 100,000 friends. Why would you not want to be part of that?

So listen, when that June 1 launch gets here do not hesitate. Sign up. It's quick, it's easy, it's painless. And when September 2 gets here, get ready to have some fun. Oh yeah and preserve, promote, history, culture, t-shirt, whatever. That stuff is good too.

PS...if you just can't wait, remember you can sign up early at the Royals' game tomorrow night. Look for the Irish Fest table on the concourse beyond the right field fence.