Well, as we said, the First Annual Annapolis Irish Festival was an incredible success! This event was produced by Ray Murphy and Eddie McGowan of the local Irish band, The Rovers. We caught up with Eddie McGowan, the co-organizer of the festival to get his thoughts–after he recovered of course.
McGowan said that there were slightly over 9,000 adults in attendance plus the kids–kids under 12 were free. This puts the attendance over 10,000! The festival was set up to benefit the Hospice of the Chesapeake and the Annapolis Irish Festival will be presenting a check for $5000 to the Hospice shortly. But specifically, we had some questions:
Eye On Annapolis: It was a first attempt at a festival like this and it resonated well. Were you surprised?
Eddie McGowan: I am overwhlemed by all of the wonderful comments people have sent me and posted. I was thinking 5,000 would be a great success.
EOA: I assume there will be a next year? Same venue? What will be different?
EM: Yes, thee will be another next year,. We are already working on securing entertainment. We believe it will be at the same venue. We are going to send out surveys to see who the attendees would like to see back (bands, vendors, entertainers, kids area, etc) and also, to see how they think the festival can be improved. We feel that this is a community event and want to make sure we are always improving based onwhat we see and what the attendees see.
EOA: What happened to the Guinness and Jameson? Killians?
EM: I love Guinness like any other person that has an ounce of Irish in the blood. We asked Guinness to get on-board early on and it didn’t work out. Budweiser believed in our plan! They stepped up and fully supported the event in MANY ways. Its important to note that the largest Irish festivals in the country; Dublin Ohio and Milwaukee, are sponsored by Coors Light and Miller Lite. We will see what happens next year.
EOA: Was there anything about the event that disappointed you?
EM: I would say that nothing disappointed me. I will tell you that I saw many ways that we can make this festival bigger and better. I appreciate all of the fantastic comments we have received just as much as all of the opinions on how to improve the AIF. We are already in the process of securing entertainment for 2012!
If you missed the show this year, make sure you keep your eye out for the event next year. And to keep your appetite whetted, here is a video from this year. The Rovers closed the show and got the crowd moving with The Devil Went Down To Georgia (14:10).
