In the aftermath of a TKC post that noted bad reviews and lower attendance for the Irish Fest . . . Organizers have devised a response.
This year's Kansas City Irish Fest Estimates their attendance at around 100k.
Meanwhile, most of the reviews posted online claim lighter crowds, frustration with higher cost at the gate and a subpar line-up. You decide . . . I've always trusted my tipsters and their comments line up with the vast majority of the feedback on my first post while the Irish Fest folks have a financial interest in hyping their event.
With the perfect weather, I thought it was a nice party and it was definitely one of the best events this year.
I was there from 10:30 am to 2:30pm. Saturday. Crowd was light. I did not buy food, but did partake some libations. There was a lot of faux Irish goods. My purse was not tempted.
ReplyDeleteIt was nice. But I doubt 100 thousand.
ReplyDeleteI was there Friday night and Saturday night and they had good crowds. You have to consider that they expanded into Washington Park so past crowds were more spread out. Music was great Red Hot Chili Pipers were awesome. Good food, good music and a good time. Where's you review of Santa Cala Con Days...didn't anybody attend that?
ReplyDeleteYes, and Glenn Beck estimated his crowd at Three Hundred Kabillion.
ReplyDeleteI was there Friday night and the crowd was pretty decent, especially after 8pm.
ReplyDeleteWhat ticked me off was the $10/person admission fee (thankfully, we had 2-for-1 offers) and that you have to purchase "tokens" to use at the beer tents (I understand it, but it still doesn't make it right), not to mention that a "large" (16-18-ounce) beer was $6 and the regular (12 ounce) was $4.
And what the hell---no freakin' actual Irish beers to be found! Boulevard must have paid a butt load of money to have exclusive rights down there (they were also selling Coors Light and Miller Lite). At least the Weston Irish Fest will have the imported stuff!
-Snooze- oh, er, did I miss something important?
ReplyDeleteOh, no I didn't.
L8R.
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ReplyDeleteStill waiting for links to those "bad reviews" you keep talking about. And not to minimize your importance Tony, but the announcement of our numbers wasn't a case of us "organizing a response" to your first post. It was just us announcing the results of a festival we are justifiably very proud of, our best and biggest ever.
ReplyDeleteOur announced attendance is based on crowd count estimates from KCMO PD and Crown Center and most importantly gate receipts, and is pretty accurate. On the other hand, taking crowd estimates from people like Anonymous 5:52, who apparently was there before we even opened at 11:00 AM on Saturday morning and the earlier commenter who said he "drove by a few times" (still trying to figure out exactly where that drive by could have occurred) doesn't seem like the most reliable way to go. But what the hell do I know, I was only there every minute of the entire weekend.
Glad you were able to come by, Tony. Hope you had fun. Look me up next year and I'll buy you a beer. A fresh, local, American Boulevard beer.
I gotta buy me some babies.
ReplyDelete