Live from Peoria, Illinois, it’s Saturday Night, starring this week’s host, the Erin Feis 2015 and featuring the Ready For Prime Beef Player, Marty Wombacher along with a gaggle of guest stars! And now, please welcome this week’s host from Peoria’s scenic riverfront, the Erin Feis 2015!
The Erin Feis is just a short walk down Water Street to...
The Gateway Building which serves as the entrance to the Erin Feis.
I found out you pay your entry fee at the Pepsi Truck over there and Karen and Leslie welcomed me with a couple of wonderful smiles. However the MBIP camera fuzzed out a little on that photo...HATE the MBIP camera!
It’s a perfect night for this Irish festival and right off the bat I see a familiar sign at that booth over there, Kenny’s Westside Pub! Let’s go over and see who’s manning the booth.
It’s Sean Kenny’s parents, Sally and Tim along with the ever-present, Cramer! Sean was over at the Beers and Beards event happening at GAR Hall. I wanted to go to that too, but sadly I can only be at one place at one time. Hopefully next year these two events won’t be on the same night. Great to see Sally, Tim and Cramer!
There’s the Uncle Bob’s Homemade Ice Cream truck over there, we saw them at The Taste of Peoria a while back. Let’s go over and say hi.
Last time we met the owners Bob and Ben Bally, but they’re not here tonight. Kristy and Chelsea are in charge of the ice cream truck tonight and I’m happy they’re here. They’re a lot prettier than Bob and Ben!
There’s more sweet stuff over there, but before I get something to eat...
I think I’ll get something to drink! It is an Irish festival after all! Let’s pop into Malanaphy’s Pub and see if we can score a drink in here.
We have scored the first drink of the evening and here’s Amy serving it up! Actually make that drinks, as I got a Smithwick's and a shot of Jameson to put me in an Irish mood! Cheers!
I drank the whiskey and then took my beer and started wandering around and I ran into Jake who bartends at Jimmy’s Bar and works on the riverfront here. He reminded me that there’s still some events coming up down here, The Blues Festival and the Peoria Oktoberfest. I’ll have to try and check both of those out.
Okay, time to get some food to soak up some of the past and present suds that I’ll be downing. There’s a big line over here...
It's less crowded over at this stand, so let’s go check out the menu...
Wow, lot’s of choices to be had here. I think I’ll keep it simple and get the sausage roll and chips.
And here’s Josh serving it up.
They had barbecue sauce to put on it and it was tasty. The chips were nice and crisp and that concludes the dinner portion of the evening. Let’s go wander around some more.
And I wandered right into two familiar faces, Too Tall who owns Kickback on Fulton and MBIP pal, Molly from Moxie’s ReSale Boutique! Great to see both of them!
This is a vendor booth with lots of interesting and unique items for sale.
There’s Irish-themed t-shirts, jewelry, kilts and more kilts! Praise and Begorrah...or something like that.
This trio of drinkers summoned me over to say hi, so I went over and met Tim, Randy and George. I met Tim a while back at the Red Barn and it turns out that Randy is an old friend of MBIP Contributing Writer and pal, Scott Turley! Time to cue this up! And George gets points for that two-fisted drinking he’s got going on!
I hear a band playing over here at the North Stage, let’s go check that out.
Wow, the place is packed. Let’s go get a little closer so we can see the band in action.
The band on stage is Scythian and I don’t know where the fuck these spots came from on this photo. Hate the MBIP camera. HATE, HATE...HATE the MBIP camera!
The band was playing lively Irish tunes and had the crowd dancing to the music.
After I watched the band for a while, I went back to wandering around and ran into Rita, who was running the Haddad’s food stand. Haddad’s at an Irish festival? You gotta love the mix of cultures offered up here!
I’m getting thirsty again, so let’s stop in at O’Neil’s Pub.
Looks like there’s a lot of other thirsty people that had the same idea!
There’s music in here and the band is, Open The Door For Three and they sound great!
Right after I took that photo I ran into Colleen from Technicraft where I first heard about the Erin Feis. It was great to see her and she gave me a free drink ticket for the plug I gave for the Erin Feis back on that post! Who says it doesn’t pay to blog! Thanks, Colleen!
I cashed in the ticket for a pint of Guinness and here’s Amanda serving it up with a gorgeous smile!
Outside of O’Neil’s Pub I ran into the poster children for the Erin Feis, Allison and Ryan decked out in matching kilts! Love to see people getting into the spirit of things!
And as I was getting ready to call it a night, I noticed there was a full moon in the sky! A perfect ending to a wonderful evening! Thanks to everyone at the Erin Feis for putting on such a great festival, I’m already looking forward to next year’s Erin Feis! May the luck of the Irish be with you and we’ll see you all tomorrow!
Related Posts: The Last Hour @ Taste Of Peoria, Walking Around Junction City On A Friday Afternoon... and Friday Night @ The Heart Of Illinois Fair.