Really, we must have memories as short as this sentence. Every year March rolls around, in like a lamb -- or is that lion? -- and suddenly we're expecting the St. Patrick's Day celebrations to immediately commence. It's March! Green decorations! Parades! And then we accept, with a sigh, that St. Patrick's has traditionally occurred in the second half of the month, and until some committee wants to bump the 17th to the beginning of March, that's the way it shall always be. Tradition. Guess we've got to go with it. We guess.
Or, you could do what the honchos behind the big-big-big Irish Fair & Music Festival do: you could just get the whole shebang fired up early, forget what the calendar says. We like that sort of creative thinking: calendar down, decorations up. If you're not familiar with this brimming-with-ballads festival, you only need follow the bagpipes and drums and cloggers and storytellers and singers and dancers out to Pomona, where the party is unfurling over the weekend of March 7-8 at the Fairplex in Pomona.
Oh right, the lovely, lovely corned beef. We've been thinking of corned beef for a good week now, the potato-licious sides, that slightly salty tenderness. Cooks dishing up the traditional dish will be on hand at the festival, but ardent fans of the banger, of Irish stew, and of savory Shepherd Pie will find their favorites as well, fear not. After all, how can one jig the day away if not sufficiently fueled by stew and such?
Irish Fair & Music Festival
March 7-8, 10AM-6PM
$16 general; $26 two-day pass
Fairplex in Pomona
1101 W. McKinley Avenue, Pomona
