After a year without festivals on Falls River Square in Cuyahoga Falls due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Riverfront Irish Festival returned to kick off the 2021 season downtown, running Friday, June 11th-Sunday, June 13th.
Attendees donned their clever Irish-themed t-shirts to stroll along Front St. and drink local beer while enjoying the culinary delights of the old country: pizza, Stromboli, and lemonade.
Wait…what?
It’s true, there isn’t all that much about the Irish Festival that seems especially Irish beyond the grown men using the event as an opportunity to wear the kilt they bought ironically during one of the festival’s previous years and the seemingly-required-by-law rendition of “Danny Boy,” courtesy of Brigid’s Cross, which repeats each day. Still, watching West Side Steve play along with a drum track on a sidewalk while belting out songs about beer might just have brought a tear to your eye if you’d missed festivals in 2020.
One area where the festival does attempt to maintain some of its cultural ties, in fact, is the entertainment. Irish dancers and singers graced the stage all weekend long, allowing attendees to immerse themselves in Irish-ness in at least that way. However, eating a so-called “Irish pizza” seemed wrong on some level, what with its ranch dressing base on what seemed like naan, followed by red potatoes and “rashers” (bacon). Not into that combo? Standard pizzas were available, and one could also step onto Front Street for a nice southern sweet tea or calzone. Cue the pipes!
We kid. There was at least one food vendor selling the Irish goodness attendees were there for, as evidenced by the long line in front. Elsewhere, local hurling enthusiasts worked their way through the crowd, and Brigid’s Cross did not disappoint those of us looking to hear some Irish fiddle.
What seemed to affect everyone in attendance, though, was the nostalgia in the air. Standing back from the food trucks, beer tents, and kids squealing with joy at the splash pad, it was easy to get a little emotional. The pandemic deflated us all a little bit, and it didn’t help that festivals like this one were nowhere to be found. Now here we all were: beer drinkers, people watchers, kids, dogs, Stromboli, “Irish” pizza…
It’s enough to bring a tear to your eye.
