Pittsburgh Irish Festival<\/a> will take place Sept. 11-13 at Carrie Blast Furnaces, a venue Petrone also said is meaningful.<\/p>\n\u201cWe love it,\u201d she said. \u201cWe really think it\u2019s very Pittsburgh of us to take this industrial backdrop and put a very lively and traditional celebration right in front of it. The Furnaces actually played a huge role in Irish immigration to Pittsburgh.\u201d<\/p>\n
This year, the festival will offer live entertainment on four stages throughout the weekend. This will include live music and dance, as well as an additional stage with specific cultural programming.<\/p>\n
\u201cFolks can learn to speak the Irish language; we\u2019ve got instrument demonstrations; we\u2019ve got Gaelic sports demonstrations, a lot of different activities,\u201d Petrone said.<\/p>\n
Musicians this year range from Ally the Piper to BIIRD to Screaming Orphans and dozens of other performers.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur music is really special. I think we showcase a really incredible, diverse offering of Irish music from our roots to modern interpretations. I really feel proud of what we present to our audience,\u201d Petrone said.<\/p>\n
That includes lots of Irish dance. Petrone said the Pittsburgh area is fortunate to have many Irish dance schools that provide amazing talent.<\/p>\n
This is the ninth year that local Celtic rock group The Low Kings will perform at the Pittsburgh Irish Festival.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a bit biased, being from Pittsburgh, but I will go to the mat saying that the Pittsburgh Irish Festival is the best organized one that we\u2019ve done and continued to do,\u201d said Shawn Melvin, lead singer and guitarist for The Low Kings.<\/p>\n
The band is familiar with the Irish festival circuit, bringing its high-energy music with traditional elements to stages all over. But this is a home show for the members, and they love it every year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a bagpiper, Adam Valenti, who\u2019s been winning awards for pipes for years. It\u2019s always really cool to integrate that into a rock band.\u201d<\/p>\n
The band also has a new single, \u201cThe Battle of Bower Hill,\u201d that they\u2019re looking forward to playing at the show. But they\u2019re also looking forward to the fun offstage during that weekend.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll see someone we haven\u2019t seen before. We hang out and have a beer afterwards and meet new folks,\u201d Melvin said.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ll have plenty of opportunities for refreshments. Petrone said the food and drink are among her favorite aspects of the festival.<\/p>\n
\u201cI personally look forward to it every year. We\u2019ve got Irish stew and shepherd\u2019s pie and fish and chips and bread pudding,\u201d she said. \u201cWe do an Irish breakfast. I\u2019m obviously well-fed throughout the weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n
The event is expected to draw between 20,000 and 25,000 attendees over three days. \u201cIt\u2019s big enough to feel like a true community gathering, and I love that,\u201d Petrone said.<\/p>\n
The Pittsburgh Irish Festival is Sept. 11-13 at the Carrie Blast Furnaces. To learn more and see a full schedule of events, visit pghirishfest.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A lucky 17% of Pittsburghers report some Irish heritage, but during the annual Pittsburgh Irish Festival, everyone can…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281339,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74],"class_list":["post-281338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281338\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}