Today’s Jeopardy Question

Answer: Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Question: Where is the planet’s largest celebration of Irish culture held?

Milwaukee has hosted the annual Milwaukee Irish Festival for over 30 years, and the festival seems to get bigger and better every year. The 2014 festival in August will have 17 stages, 250 acts, and something like 130,000 patrons. That is more people than can fit inside Michigan Stadium on a Saturday afternoon!

The festival is in the Henry Maier Festival Park on Lake Michigan near downtowns Milwaukee. The dates for 2014 are August 14th to 17th.

Festival attractions include Irish music and dance, clan reunions, sports (including hurling), Jameson’s whiskey tastings, and, I suspect, plenty of beer.

The festival includes three special features in the Cultural Village. These are special because ClanDonnell is included!

The Hedge School offers a series of lectures by leading authorities in Irish history, literature and culture. ClanDonnell has the stage on Saturday at noon.

The Literary Corner offered a wide variety of Irish, Irish-American and children’s books. ClanDonnell was one of them. The Literary Corner is sponsored by Little Read Book of Wauwatosa (Tosa to the locals), which handlef the book sales (leaving ClanDonnell time to spend in the Jameson’s tent).

The Autograph Tree is extra special. Ireland has its own Autograph Tree. It’s in the garden at Coole Park in County Galway. William Butler Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, and many, many others, sat under the tree and shared their writings.  Milwaukee has its own Autograph Tree. And ClanDonnell was there during the festival, pretending to be William Butler Yeats.

Thanks to Cub Radio for publicizing ClanDonnell’s participation in the festival.