By attending these events here in my home country, I'm able to check out a new culture without leaving. It's definitely not ideal, I would much rather experience these countries in person, but it's an amazing experience to be involved in celebrating the lifestyles and customs these cultures have to offer.
But you know what's just as cool? Attending festivals in other countries!
Throughout my travels, I have been able to attend 4 festivals: three in Ireland, one in Scotland. Two of these were pre-planned by myself, one was included in the itinerary of the trip I was on, and one just so happened to be going on during some free time my group had in Donegal. It's only the four for now, but hopefully I'll be able to add more in the future.
And now, on with the festivals!
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland
Celebrating: local musicians and performing artists
Duration: the month of August
Attended: 1 full day in 2017
The Fringe Festival began in 1947 when the International Festival was being held and group of performing artists chose to set up their own festival outside this one, essentially being on the "fringe" of the International Festival (Source: This is Edinburgh). This custom continued and became an official festival ever since.
Held on the Royal Mile, the streets are filled with local and independent musicians and singers, and the walls of the city are covered with banners and fliers for shows to be held later in the evening. Shows that are performed, based on my observances, were mostly written by these local aspiring playwrights and authors, while others were dramatic readings, comedy shows, and improv performances.
The musical performances were free and not only held on the Royal Mile, but they were also spread throughout the city, even taking place in parks and museums. While free, they all had tip jars, and some of them even had CDs and links to their band pages where you could purchase their music by download or contribute to their platform, such as Patreon.
Here's one such band performing in the National Museum of Scotland. I didn't get their name, but they were very talented!
Below I've linked a video by a YouTuber I'm subscribed to, an entertaining Scotsman named Shaun, who covered the 2019 Fringe Festival. His video captures the feel of the city as it transforms into a full entertainment venue!
My Experience
One of the first (and funniest) things about the festival I noticed was that Ed Sheeran's "Shape of You" was still hot on the Billboards, so every other artist participating in the festival was covering that song. I may not like that song, but now whenever I hear it, I am reminded of my time at the Fringe. I had hoped to hear more traditional Scottish songs, but most of the artists and musicians out there were doing covers of popular music, with a few doing their own original songs.
I managed to get my hands on a program that had a listing of the comedy shows and plays that would be playing later that evening, and after a very tough decision, I opted for an improv show performed by Bristol Improv and an original one-act play. Unfortunately, due to massive allergy attacks, I was only able to attend the improv show and was refunded for the one-act, which I was super disappointed to miss.
The improv show was a blast! Having spent several years performing short form improv, I had high expectations, and they were met! I tend to be a bit of a nuisance when attending improv shows because I throw out crazy suggestions when the performers ask the audience for them, but they chose my suggestion of "taxidermy" when they performed a short scene on the spot about a first date. I was thanked by the performers after they wrapped, and funnily enough they didn't seem too surprised that the crazy suggestions were coming from an American.
What I Learned from this Festival
The fact that this festival allows local, and sometimes even big-name entertainers, to perform in local and makeshift venues was a genuine delight for me. I love the performing arts, and I love to entertain, so being able to experience an entire city to allow for their country's undiscovered talents showcase all over the city was such a breath of fresh air. The talent on the street varied, but there were some very gifted people to be found on just about every street corner.
This festival is a celebration of the performing arts and gives all their entertainers a chance to showcase their skills. And the fact that it's held in Scotland's capital city shows a serious commitment to the importance of art and the artists.
The effects of Covid may impact future Fringes, but I applaud the Scots for allowing it to continue as long as they have.
Location: Dublin, Ireland
Celebrating: Beers and ciders by local brewers
Duration: first weekend of September
Attended: 2 hours, 2014
Now rebranded as the Dublin Beer Circus, this festival showcases Irish beers other than Guinness and Smithwick's. It is held at the RDS Arena in the Ballsbridge area of Dublin, where they also hold rugby games, conventions, and horse shows, to name a few events. Local and independent brewers bring kegs of their own special blends and offer samples to all the festival goers.
Attendees receive a half pint glass and have the option of buying beer tickets at the main entrance. They could then hand their glass over to the brewer of their choice for a shot-sized pour and have a nice sample while the vendor talked up their business. If the attendee wanted a full glass, they could hand over one of their beer tickets and receive their fill-up.
Every type of beer was available, and there was a handful of ciders, and one or two independent whiskey distillers. There was live music playing by a local cover band, and there were several food trucks outside.
My Experience
This festival was pretty straightforward. BEER EVERYWHERE!
Unlike the other festivals discussed in this post, I attended this one with someone else: my sister. It is also one of two festivals I specifically made plans to attend before arriving in Ireland. This being my first time going to the country, I did some research on what events would be happening in Dublin during our last day and found this. I brought it up to my sister, and she decided it would be fun to check out.
In my previous post, I discussed how hotel employees are often a wealth of information. I learned this when I talked to the concierge at the hotel we were staying at to find the best way to get to the festival because I wasn't about to drive back afterwards. She pointed out that there was a DART station nearby, and helped us find which stop we needed to disembark on to read RDS.
Ta-da! We made it
We made it to the festival in good time and didn't waste time in starting sampling. I personally didn't try quite as many beers because I'm not a big fan of the taste of most beers, though I was able to sample every cider they had available. The few beers I did sample though were more to my liking. I only bought three drink tickets, and I put them to good use with three refreshing ciders.
We got there before it became too crowded
My sister and I wound up chatting with quite a few vendors because they recognized us as Americans. We had experienced this throughout most of our travels, and they continued into the festival. Funnily enough, while I've found that Irish people are super friendly and love chatting with Americans, they seemed more interested in becoming acquainted when my sister and I were together. Maybe they liked getting to know us both together and individually? I have no idea. It was something odd I discovered after attending other festivals in Ireland.
These guys did covers of popular American songs
One thing that she and I both remembered vividly was that there was a group of Irishmen that arrived together wearing sports jackets and green tights. No pants, just green tights. She took the opportunity to snap a picture of them from afar and we debated going up to them to ask about their wardrobe choices, but eventually decided to go outside and buy some dinner instead. I don't remember what I had for dinner, but I remember ordering a fabulous crepe from a dessert truck.
If anyone has any info on these guys in the tights, please leave a comment!
After dinner, we went back inside to see what else was going on and to catch any samples we'd missed the first time but didn't stay much longer. Though as we were prepping to leave, a local distiller came into our path and offered us samples of his whiskey. He was serving them in those tiny plastic communion cups that churches use. She and I both had a sample, and I swear, I still have yet to taste a whiskey so fine and smooth as that one. I only wish I'd taken a brochure from his table!
We took the DART back to the hotel after that. We may have called it a night early but ending our trip with the festival was the perfect way to conclude our first solo adventure together!
What I Learned from this Festival
To be honest? Just how good of beers Ireland has to offer. We here in the States tend to only stock our shelves with the most popular brands of beers and alcohols from around the world, but this festival showed me the huge disservice we're given by not being able to have access to independent brewers. But then again, that also gives incentive to come back just to discover them!
Ireland was hit moderately by the recent Covid spread to the point that for the first time in their history, all their pubs closed. Hopefully, these independent brewers will be able to recover as well as the pubs over there, especially since several have had to close.
Location: Donegal, Republic of Ireland, County Donegal
Celebrating: Local and international foods
Duration: last weekend of August
Attended: 1 hour, 2018
This small festival celebrating Irish and other European cuisines began in 2008. Independent vendors, famers, and restaurant owners come to this festival to promote their drinks, dishes, and products. While normally held on the last weekend in August, Covid concerns caused the 2020 festival to be postponed to April of 2021.
In addition to the foods, there are also chefs who come to do demonstrations of various cooking techniques, wine and alcohol pairings, showing the benefits of cooking utensils, and live music. After all, what would an Irish festival be without live music?
My Experience
This was a spur of the moment choice for me as my tour group was passing through and taking about 90 minutes of free time in the city. The entry fee was only €7, and right away I was met with some outdoor displays of food. All but one of these vendors were Irish, with one vendor being from Australia and offering kangaroo kebabs! I then went into the main venue hall and was met with aisles of food and drink. And I sampled it all!
Everything smelled amazing, looked even better, and was heavenly to taste when they offered samples. And I kid you not when I say I sampled it all, except for a few items with nuts in them (no allergies, just a texture issue). There were fruit spreads, cheeses, breads, biscuits, alcoholic beverages, gluten free options, meats of every kind, seafood, and glorious desserts, among other wonderful things!
Most of the vendors was Irish of course, and in addition to the Australian vendors outside, I also came across one from Belgium and another from Berkeley. Since it was lunchtime, and I was only sampling, I went in search of something more substantial despite already becoming a bit full. Along the way, I came across the Coole Swan Irish Cream booth representative who was selling espresso martinis. He oozed so much charm that he very easily convinced me to try buy one of those martinis. Boy, was it good!
I also found the recipe for this martini here!
After wandering the aisles for a bit, I finally decided to try out some seafood. I stopped at a booth offering hot seafood kebabs of shrimp and monkfish from The Fish Shop. I'd heard of monkfish but had never tried it before, and it was very tasty!
With only a little time left, I started looking for some dessert. One of my favorite memories from this festival was when I passed this booth for Mr. Muffin Man. Two girls stopped right as I was walking by and one of them said to the other, "I'm getting diabetes just by looking at this."
Should've grabbed one of those for the road!
As wonderful as those muffins and cupcakes looked, I chose to go back to the Belgian vendors, whose name I sadly didn't get. They had a chocolate fountain set up and were selling Belgian waffles. I watched the chef prepare waffles for her customers, and I knew I'd made the right choice. And even though I was in Ireland, I loved the idea of trying some Belgian food, mostly because I wasn't sure when I'd have another chance to try genuine Belgian waffles.
Seriously, how could you say no to this?
And I came away with this beautiful dish:
Ain't it glorious?
I had just enough time to finish off that glorious dessert before rejoining my tour group. A few of the other girls group asked where I'd been and expressed some regret in not checking it out.
What I Learned from this Festival
I have been a fan of Irish cuisine from day one, but this one festival blew my mind with the wonderful array of different foods I'd not tried before. All the vendors were friendly and personable, and it made for such a wonderful experience.
There was a real sense on comradery at this festival that I don't often find at festivals and community events. It was more than just a festival; it was a celebration of their foods!
Location: Lisdoonvarna, Republic of Ireland, County Clare
Celebrating: L-O-V-E
Duration: the month of September
Attended: first weekend, 2018
Believe it or not, there actually isn't a lot of information on this festival available online, or even in Ireland itself except in the immediate area! I've mentioned this several times, but I first learned of it through the Gaelic Storm song, "Born to be a Bachelor," which was later expanded upon when I went to Ireland my second time and my tour group drove through.
This small town in County Clare used to be the home of a natural mineral spa that was used for rehabilitation for various physical issues. According to this source, it was when a train station was set up in the neighboring town of Ennistymon in 1887 that increased travel to the Lisdoonvarna spa, which then led to an annual matchmaking event after the farmers' crops had been harvested. The details are a bit sparse, but regardless, this thing has happened every year since then, except for this one (duh, sadly). But don't worry, as of now, the 2021 festival is still on!
The Spa was closed when I passed by
The official matchmaker, Willie Daly, makes himself available to all festival goers and for a fee of $10-$15 USD, he will take down your information and set you up with the person he deems is your soulmate. Thanks to him, what's called at this website as "Europe's Biggest Singles Event," people all over Ireland and Europe flock to this festival to see if he can set them up.
Lisdoonvarna's spa has since been retired and is now a tourist attraction. The town itself is home to just over 700 people according to Wikipedia, a handful of hotels, several restaurants, and one store called Spar, which is, in my opinion, the Irish equivalent of a better quality 7-11. It's a very small town with very little in it, though it's not too far from the Cliffs of Moher, the Doolin Cave, and the Burren. It's a lovely little village, but the only time it's worth visiting is in September, when the festival is going on.
My Experience
When I made the decision to attend, I did as much research as possible, but I couldn't find much more info than what I have just written about. Even when I arrived in Ireland, I asked some of the locals what they knew about it, and many hadn't even heard about it! It was as my tour group started heading toward the West Coast that I was able to find more information on it. Even some of the girls in my group helped me find out more about the festival!
I arrived in the early afternoon on the first day of the festival, and the festivities were limited. The majority of the events were concerts, with several big-name Irish talent in larger venues, while other local artists performed in the hotel lobbies and bars. There was dancing wherever there was music. In the hotel I was staying in, there was also a room where there was traditional Irish dancing was performed. I chatted with some of the people there and was even invited to dance with some of the performers at one point (this happens to me a lot, in case you haven't figured that out yet).
The next morning, I went exploring throughout the town and found little else to it outside of the spa, which was closed. There were some event calendars posted throughout the town, promoting events like outdoor dances, speed dating, community events, palm and tarot readings, but they were all to be done during the weekdays and in the coming weekends. So, I went out dancing instead.
What I found was interesting was that the singles there were, at their youngest, in the mid to late 30s. There were very few 20-somethings attending, and those that were had come in group of friends. What surprised me most was how many couples I saw in attendance. There almost seemed to be an equal split between couples and singles.
As you can see, there's quite a few older folks at this dance
I went out dancing and one older Irish gentleman taught me how to dance in this area. The style was almost like a low-key swing form and country, so I was able to catch on after a while. However, I soon found out that I was standing out more than the other attendees; not because I was American and look young for my age, but because I was dressed up nicer than most of the other women. I was wearing a super cute turquoise dress, while all the other women were dressed more casually.
You don't want to look desperate while you're there!
After having dinner, I returned to my hotel and changed into a pair of black leggings and a flannel peasant top that is very flattering on me. I was descending the stairway to go to one of the concerts, and one Irishman was enjoying a drink at the foot of the stairs. In a scene like you'd expect from a film, he saw me, and his face lit up and he said, "wow!" He then offered to buy me a drink, but I declined and went on to the concert.
The artist performing that night was Barry Kirwan, who was fairly talented. He started out with just a handful of attendees, but as the night went on, more people showed up and danced some more. I stuck around until he finished his set, then went back to my hotel. I had been sick for the last few days, and by the time Barry had left the stage, it was dark and cold, and I didn't want to get any sicker during my last two days in the country.
Barry drummed up quite the audience later
I left the next morning, catching an early bus back to Galway. But what about Willie Daly? Did I meet him? Well, I saw him only once in the lobby of my hotel with that famous book of his. I started to head in his direction, not to be set up with a match, but to ask him more about what he does. That's the closest I got to him before a group of four cougars swarmed him and whisked him away, probably to the bar area. Never saw anything like that before in my life!
What I Learned from this Festival
The first thing that I noticed, that I have already mentioned, was how old the attendees were. Here in the States, many people marry or commit young, so seeing so many never married singles in their late 30s and early 40s was both odd and refreshing. Even when I spoke to people at the festival, they all remarked that I looked too young to be looking for a husband, even though I was there to experience the festival rather than find someone.
You'd think with a town square showing couples together there'd be more info!
I also learned through one of the other girls in my tour group who had had better luck in gathering information about the festival was that if I HAD wanted to land an Irish husband at the festival, I would have two questions I would need to ask. The first question would be for the Irishmen from the Republic; I would have to ask them about their "frontage."
No, that's not an innuendo! In Ireland, the farmers' income is based on how much land they can harvest their crops from, so a man with more frontage would make more money. This is just what had been told me, and I never worked up the courage to ask any of the men there about this.
The second question I was told to ask would be for the Irishmen from Northern Ireland. That question was if they had a car. No joke. And like the other question, I never had the courage to ask!
One of the more fun things I came across in my travels did also come from this festival. Lisdoonvarna is so obsessed with love that you can find hearts everywhere! Similar to the hidden Mickeys you can find in Disneyland, you can find hearts in the most obscure places, like grates, signs, and even manhole covers!
Can you spot the hidden hearts?
While I had a good time, this festival is probably more fun as the month goes on, but for the first weekend, it was mostly about the concerts and dancing. I'd say if you choose to go, go more toward the middle of the month, and rent a car so that you can have the option to visit other nearby towns between events.
The Final Word
Going to these Irish festivals have helped me fall more in love with this country, and the Fringe made me find a deeper appreciation for their culture. In the post-Covid era, festivals around the world are likely going to be vastly different, but I would still highly recommend attending any that are in the area you're staying in. Whether it's for a few hours or a few days, you'll be able to indulge in different parts of the culture that you can't experience in the popular tourist areas.
Or check out a rugby game!
Coming up in the next post: flying solo. A lot of people fly solo for business trips, but let's face it, not everyone has the opportunity to work the kind of job that allows for business trips. So, I'll be covering the topic of taking a plane by yourself, both domestically and internationally.
Also, now is one of the best times to book travel, even though not all countries are open yet. However, many are allowing for companies to schedule trips with flexibility in case of Covid surges. Keep an eye out, maybe you can snag a great deal!
Stay safe, and happy holidays!
All photos were taken by me, my sister, or using my device and are not to be reused. Gifs courtesy of Giphy.
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