Sham-Rock Out: Mill City Irish Fest

It's not quite St. Patrick's Day, but according to the Mill City's website, this festival is scheduled early to "kick off the St. Patrick's Day season." And why not? Christmas season is literally beginning to overlap with Halloween, and Halloween season more or less starts sometime during the back-to-school apocalypse. Lengthening a holiday that celebrates Irish culture with colorful parades, dyed-green food products, and binge drinking surely can't be a bad thing, right? So, the season starts this Thursday. Though there will be a cash bar loaded with cocktails and Irish beer, drinking is hardly the focus of the event. Mary Healy will be demonstrating Irish soda bread baking, while pub owner Kieran Folliard will be recounting tales of Ireland, as well as Irish history in Minnesota. Top everything off with appetizers from the Local, and dancing to Van Morrison tunes by St. Dominic's Trio and Terry Walsh. We're lucky the season starts early this year.
Thu., March 6, 6 p.m., 2008