The Irish Are Coming

Oh those arrogant Irish! I stumbled across a website yesterday about the 1st Annual Irish Festival of Knoxville. As a drunken Scots-Irish descendant you'd think I'd be excited about a new Celtic celebration, or at least supportive. But I'm rather confused by the whole fest. Do we not already honor their kind with a nationally recognized holiday in March? Is this some kind of reaction to Boston winning the NBA title for the first time in 22 years? Hardly. Apparently this is a fund raiser for the local police and firefighters associations. Ho hum, I guess that is okay, but do we need to have it in the middle of summer in freakin' July? I can see scores, perhaps hundreds of pasty-white "Celts" out on the lawns at World's Fair Park ready to burst into flames. (I hope to have my pasty-white arse on the lake!)

If you visit the site you'll find a brief history of Irish immigrants and public service, ticket information ($10 adults, kids free), vendor and sponsorship opportunities, and how the event will be Green. Get it, green? Irish Green - Environment Green. Whatever. Show me to the beer and whiskey vendors and let me drink - that's my heritage. I just hope the police benefiting from the event will let the crowd have a good time without making their arrest quotas on-site.