Celebrate ‘green’ heritage with music and more

WHAT: 12th Annual Irish Fest
WHERE: Military Park, downtown Indianapolis
WHEN: Friday, Sept. 14 (NUVO’s college night), 4:30 p.m.-11:30 p.m.; Saturday, Sept. 15, 11:30 a.m.-11:30 p.m.; Sunday, Sept. 16, 10:30 a..m.-7 p.m.
TICKETS: $13 adults, $10 students with ID ($5 on college night with college apparel), free for children, $20 weekend pass
WEB: www.indyirishfest.com

Irish Fest celebrates Indiana’s Irish heritage once again this weekend in Military Park. The festival, entering its 12th year, will host events and musical performances Friday, Sept. 14 through Sunday, Sept. 16. The festival opens Friday with a college night sponsored by NUVO. Students arriving with a valid student I. and wearing college apparel will be admitted for only $5. “It’s a really exciting promotion,” says Terry Sweeney, a member of the Irish Fest committee since 1998. “It’s a great way to get college students involved and have them ‘show their colors.’”

Featured opening night events include a performance by Seven Nations, the Irish Festival 5K Night Run and Walk and the Irish Toast Contest semi-final round (with the winner crowned Saturday night).  

Sweeney points to the many cultural exhibits and demonstrations on display at the festival this year. “New this year is an artisans’ area, which features Irish ceramic making, silversmithing and wood carving,” he says.

Other events include a Celtic canine area where visitors can see Irish breeds of dogs like Irish Wolfhounds and Irish Water Spaniels. An Irish market boasts 30 vendors, as well as food and drinks from local restaurants and pubs. Other events include soccer and rugby matches on Saturday at the IUPUI Soccer Stadium and Lake Sullivan Field, sheep herding exhibitions and a Celtic Mass on Sunday morning.

Local and national Celtic musical acts will perform throughout the weekend. Thirteen total acts will be on hand, including New York City’s Gael Force and last year’s 2006 People’s Choice Award winners, Brigid’s Cross. Read more on some of the musical performers below.

Alair
O’Brien Automotive Family Stage
Friday, Sept. 14, 5:15 p.m.
Bushmills & Baileys Stage
Saturday, Sept. 15, 2:15 p.m.
www.alairmusic.com

Vicki Waterman, flutist, and Emily Ann Thompson, violinist and fiddler, came together as musicians mutually enchanted by Celtic instruments. “We enjoyed this style of music so much that we wanted to form a band, so we added other players and became Alair,” Waterman says. This weekend, Alair returns to Irish Fest for two performances: Friday evening at 5:15 and Saturday afternoon at 2:15.

With the addition of Yoonhae Kim on cello, and Jennifer Midkiff playing harp, the four classically trained musicians found many opportunities awaiting them. They’ve played accompanied by the Anderson Symphony Orchestra and opened for Gaelic Storm at the Music Mill. Last summer they completed their first album, “Alair: Celtic Quartet.” “It was easy to see how our four instruments would work well together in this style,” Waterman says. “Also, we all clicked as friends as well as musicians. We felt especially blessed by that.”

While many groups create a hybrid of traditional Celtic music and modern rock or folk, Alair creates classical arrangements of Celtic and original compositions with a bit of jazz and world music added in. “We put a fresh, modern and highly energetic feel to our arrangements of traditional tunes, as well as creatively adapting music from groups such as Solas, The Corrs, Natalie MacMaster and Loreena McKennitt,” Waterman explains. “We have fun together, and I think that comes across to the audience.” 

Seven Nations
Hibernian Stage
Friday, Sept. 14, 8 p.m.
www.sevennations.com

Seven Nations boasts an impressive resume. They’ve played the torch-lighting ceremony at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, and performed in front of 40,000 people at a New Year’s Eve celebration on Scotland’s Royal Mile. They’ve held concerts around the world and also have been backed by the Jacksonville and Atlanta Symphony Orchestras. Friday night, Sept. 14, the band headlines NUVO’s college night in Indianapolis during the 12th Annual Irish Fest.

The mixture of rock and traditional Celtic music that has made the band so successful wasn’t an easy discovery initially. “We originally formed the band as a standard rock set-up because that was all we knew how to do,” says bassist Jim Struble. “We never heard of mixing bagpipes with rock as a main theme for a band. We always looked at them as two separate worlds of music. It was an experiment. It was just something that we tried out to see how it would work. I remember hearing the bagpipes play along with a rock drummer for the first time and loving it. The energy the two created when combined was so cool.”  

The band, performing under the name of One19, decided to experiment more with incorporating traditional Celtic instruments when lead singer Kirk McLeod wrote a song called “Scream” with a built-in melody meant for bagpipes. When the experiment was a success, they decided to bring a full-time bagpipe player into the band. This led to the creation of a second group, Clan Na Gael, which played traditional Celtic folk music. “With Clan Na Gael, we tried to put our own stamp on the music,” Struble says. “We would change the traditional songs just a bit to give them a little more contemporary sound. For the most part, that went over well. Some people thought we shouldn’t spice up the traditional stuff, but we wanted to do it our way. As time went on, the boundary between One19 and Clan Na Gael became harder to see. At a certain point we became Clan Na Gael full time — a Celtic folk band with a rock feel.”  

The band, which officially changed their name to Seven Nations in 1997 due to copyright issues, is excited to arrive in Indianapolis and perform at Irish Fest. “From what we have heard it will be great,” Struble says. “Anytime we are able to play in front of a ton of people on a big stage, we are up for it.”

Brigid’s Cross
Hibernian Stage
Friday, Sept. 14, 9:15 p.m.
Fionn MacCool’s Irish Pub Stage
Saturday, Sept. 15, 4:45 p.m. and 10 p.m.
Hibernian Stage
Sunday, Sept. 16, 5:30 p.m.
www.brigidscross.com

Brigid’s Cross left the 2006 Irish Fest with the People’s Choice Award for best musical performance. “It was a total shock,” Paul Baker says. “We shared the stage with Gaelic Storm and other really great acts. For us to have been voted the best was a ‘pinch-me’ moment.” This year, the Ohio trio — consisting of the husband and wife tandem of Baker and Peggy Goonan-Baker and their nephew Richie Reece — return to Indianapolis with the honor of closing the festival.

It seems everywhere the band goes, they bring a dedicated fan base with them, one that grows with each performance. Indianapolis is no exception. “We are very fortunate in having several second homes,” Baker says. “Indianapolis has become a cherished spot for us to perform. Watching the Indy Irish fest grow and being a part of that, we’ve made a lot of friends who have become like family along the way. We really are blessed. We’ve been told that part of our success has been due to the fact that because we so enjoy what we do, the effect seems to rub off on the audience. In short: If we’re having fun, they're having fun.”

The fun the band creates comes from a long history of performing Irish music. Baker and Goonan-Baker both performed in several Irish bands before Brigid’s Cross formed in 1996. Eleven years later, Baker is amazed at the success the band has found. “We had no idea where our music would take us,” he says. “It's been a very interesting, very humbling, and very eye-opening experience. It has been a great ride, and I hope it’s far from over. I hope we get many more years.”