by Irish Arts Minnesota held its annual St. Patrick Day festival last Monday at St. Paul’s Landmark Center.
The St. Patrick’s Day Irish Celebration featured multiple stages performing live music, seminars and dancing throughout the day.
For some like Legacy band Member Kevin Carroll, the festival is a way to share traditional Irish songs and stories.
“It’s a way to convey Irish culture,” Carroll said. “It’s easy to do that through the songs because all the songs have a topic and it’s often about something historical about the Irish lifestyle, things people experienced in Ireland so it’s kinda way for people to get to know the country through its music.”
For performers like Emmalee Grams, a member of Green Fire Irish Dancers, the festival is an opportunity to share and celebrate the artistic side of their culture.
“I think it is a really good community, a lot of times we don’t set time aside for art and music and cultural dance because we are so busy with our day to day lives so having a holiday like this and the landmark center,” Grams said. “A specific place where you can watch all these events and see wood carving or bagpipes or how to make or play the instruments, it’s utterly beautiful.”
Grams says the festival builds support and connection with her community.
“You always end up getting a lot of support afterwards,” Grams said. “You always get flowers or just like people coming into the back to hug you and talk to you about it. It’s really really supportive, even if you’re brand new to it, everyone’s always so into it.”
For over 40 years now, the St. Patrick’s Day festival has brought people together to celebrate Irish culture through music and art.
“It’s interesting to me cause you have a lot of different aspects of Irish culture all together at the same place at the same time so it’s one of our favorite events,” Carroll said.” We play multiple other places but we like the audiences here cause they’re very knowledgeable about Irish music and they’re very appreciative and it’s a good time.”
Irish Arts Minnesota is a non-profit arts organization which supports traditional arts and culture of Ireland. Along with the St. Patrick’s Day Irish Celebration, Irish Arts Minnesota put on an event called Day of Irish Dance on Sunday.
