Connecticut Irish Festival

Saturday, June 24, 2017 from 11:00 am to 11:00 pm
Sunday, June 25, 2017 from 8:00 am to 7:00 pm
North Haven Fairgrounds, Washington Avenue, Route 5, North Haven, CT

IN THE BEGINNING…

One of the major achievements of the New Haven Gaelic Football and Hurling Club, founded more than 50 years ago, was the inauguration of the annual “Field Day” in 1963. The first Field Day included exhibitions of Irish dancing, a Gaelic football game against County Leitrim, a hurling match (Kilkenny v.Cork), a youth football game, a tug of war and a road race.

The event was repeated annually and, in 1966, Feis competitions were joined with Field Day activities then called the “Feis and Field Day”. That first year almost 400 dancers participated, with the stage lit by automobile headlights for the final competitions. Music, art, singing and language entries grew in numbers and by 1977, it was the largest such competition in the country, with 1,600 entrants from the United States,Canada and Ireland.

In 1989, the Feis and Field Day expanded to a weekend Irish festival (first for 3 days, now 2) changing it’s name to the Connecticut Irish Festival. (However, the Feis, remains to be called “New Haven Feis” with the North American Feis Commission.) Hundreds of club members and friends volunteered to assist and guide cultural exhibitions, music, dance, evening concerts and sports. In addition to the spotlight on national and international step dancing competition there are demonstrations of such skills as bread baking and Irish lace making and information about genealogy, set dancing and music of uileann pipes. Here, more than anywhere, are the children and grandchildren of those founding club members, carrying on the traditions of Irish culture.