Annual St. Patrick Day Irish Fest

Ever since I saw the movie «Titanic» when it first came out, I have wanted to go to a wild Irish party with people dancing on tables to Irish jigs like they did in the movie. I usually go in search of this on St. Patricks Day and am usually disappointed. You find out early on that most people who are out celebrating St. Patricks Day don’t give a rip about Irish music and culture, they just want to drink green beer and ask that the song «the Unicorn» be played over and over. For a number of years I heard about an St. Pat’s day celebration out in Westland and so last year I decided to check it out. It was billed as «the most authentic Irish St. Patrick Day celebration in the Detroit area». Good enough for me. When I got there it turns out it is in the Hellenic Center, and as near as I could figure out they are the sponsers of this event. There was a 10 dollar cover charge at the door and you entered and found a big hall with lots and lots of people. As this is a family friendly event, there was also lots of children. Most of them were dancing to the music. Don’t worry they still have an open bar. It is kind of like being at an Irish wedding reception. Up front there were 7 or 8 musicians seated in a row playing traditional Irish songs. They played almost all day. Throughout the day performers came and went. There were Irish dancers and even a couple of bagpipers fully kilted showed up. Food was available throughout the day. Irish stew or corned beef and cabbage. I thought 5 bucks for a bowl of Irish stew was a little much, but it was delicious. With all that was happening the whole thing seemed a little subdued. It never did break out into dancing on tables, but I have no doubt this is as authentic as you are going to get. In Ireland St. Patrick Day is a religious holdiay for the family and must be similar to this. This is an all day event starting around noon and ending around 10:00 at night. Much of the crowd left around dinnertime. I think this year is the 27^th year in a row thar they have held this. I definetly would come again but I am still looking for that party where they dance on tables.