Fiddles and Skirts

The North Texas Irish Festival was in Dallas this weekend. I made my way to Fair Park this afternoon and had a fun, grand time (partly because I didn’t partake in the Festival food as it reminded me to much of the State Fair).

Five hours were spent to watching kids learn Irish dancing, begging dad for swords bigger than they were at vendors throughout the Festival, and old and young alike getting lessons on old Irish hunting methods…the bow and arrow. The Festival is dog friendly so there were canines everywhere.

And the skirts (aka Kilts)….

We had men of Irish, Scotish, British, and Walsh backgrounds showing leg everywhere (and we’re not talking cargo shorts here).

Most enjoyable however was listening to 6-7 different Irish-music bands. Translated,
that means a whole lot of toe-tapping, leg dancing while sitting, and head bopping to drums, guitars, drums, and fiddles…oh yeah, mix in some heavy-accented Irish vocals, you know the kind where you don’t understand about half of they’re singing, but you don’t really care because it’s really pretty good. Now my Irish decent may be giving a bias slant to this, but I think not.

The last band listened to simply sucked me in with the music, harmonies, instrumentation, and energy (and I think my mouth was open too). The band is out of Kansas City, The Elders: Arse Kicking Music From the Heartland. If you ever get a chance to hear these guys in person, GO!

After their set, they came out and signed CD’s ( yes, I had to buy one). I told Ian, the lead singer, as he was signing my copy “it is so easy to enjoy your music when the guys on the stage are having so much fun”. He smiled and in a bit of an Irish
grin at me and said in an Irish brogue responded, “ya can’t fake that kind of fun lad”. With that, he finished his signature and gave me one of those manly hand grabs to the shoulder and said “thanks”. I’m sold!