Hear Philly: Dancing, Food, And St. Patty's Day Fun At The Newtown Irish Festival
By Andrew Kramer
NEWTOWN, Pa. (CBS) --- It'll be a weekend full of Irish festivities when the Newtown Irish Festival returns to the Green Parrot restaurant in Bucks County, March 14th through 17th.
This is the 4th straight year this lively event has taken over the restaurant, located on Sycamore Street.
"We turn around and open up for a St. Patrick's Day party for people in and around Newtown," explains Bob Lutz, owner of the Green Parrot. "We have entertainment, Irish dancers, Irish food, and we have a tent with live entertainment, inside and outside."
There will be 16 live entertainment groups along with four DJ's over the course of the weekend.
"You can see anything from a Modern Bliss to Tom McHugh to The Naturals," says Lutz. "There's an abundance of different Irish music and entertainment, so it keeps everybody going."
And in addition to Irish music, Green Parrot chef Keith Puima says they will have a full menu full of all your Irish favorites:
"We're going to have a corn beef and cabbage, we're going to have potato soup, we're going to have pot pie, we're going to have an Irish lamb stew."
And all that is just inside the restaurant.
"In our outside tent, we're going to do a corn beef and swiss with a pickled cabbage, we're going to do a hot roast beef sandwich with a horseradish sauce to go with that, we're going to be doing a tomato pie out there," adds Puima.
People of all ages come to the Newtown Irish festival to enjoy the food, music and scene.
"We get everyone from a multitude of ages," says Lutz. "Young, old, they all come here. It's a neat place to come and enjoy Irish festivities.
Lutz adds people come from all over the region as well:
"We get them from all parts of New Jersey, all parts of Pennsylvania. It's become a really good thing. I'd have to estimate last year we probably had over 5,000 people.
Of course, at a St. Patty's celebration like this one, folks will be consuming alcohol, but Lutz says as far as driving goes, they make sure that's one less thing you have to worry about:
"We are set up with a group called 'Maxi Taxi' which will be combing the area with buses to take anybody that feels like they are impaired and can not drive home."
There will many St. Patty's Day celebrations going on that weekend, but Lutz says not too many will be doing it to the extent they are:
"In this area here we've really got people to pay attention to the Irish festivities and it's been a really wonderful thing to see it grow every year."
The festival begins at 10 a.m. all four days and live music starts at noon. For more information you can visit the Green Parrot website or call (215)-504-7277.
Listen to or download the full podcast (runs 3:04)…
Newtown Irish Festival
Listen to podcasts any time at hearphilly.com.
