St. Patricks Day
When Dermot Kennedy named his global music festival MISNEACH – meaning “courage” in Gaelic – he did so because he knew, like any first-time endeavor, it could fail. And yet, his mission of celebrating and amplifying Irish music and culture proved stronger than any fear of failure.
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“We’re so proud of our little country and how our artists continue to punch above their weight globally,” he says. “And so on St. Patrick’s Day I wanted to bring together some of Ireland’s best artists and bands to perform for massive crowds in Sydney and Boston, two cities with huge Irish communities.”
On March 16, fans in Sydney, Australia got to see Kennedy’s vision come to life as the first of the “twin festivals” took place. And on March 18 and 19, fans in Boston will get their turn. Kennedy will headline each lineup, alongside talent he curated in partnership with Ireland Music Week including Irish artists and acts such as The Frames, The Swell Season, Matt Corby and Meg Mac. (Kennedy shares that while he was “honored” that Hozier and Snow Patrol responded to his request “in a really positive way,” scheduling didn’t work out this year to book either act.)
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“Because we’re so proud of our rich musical history, we always talk about Irish artists like Sinéad O’Connor, Van Morrison, Thin Lizzy, and the impact they’ve had on music history,” says Kennedy. “And if we want that to continue for generations to come, we need moments like this where we come together and celebrate amazing Irish talent.”
Kennedy’s manager, TaP’s Ed Millett, says the idea for a festival like this started about 3-4 years ago and evolved organically over time. “Around the Sonder campaign [Kennedy’s 2022 second album], we were focused on activations that involved Dermot wanting to interact with fans and reflect back their stories and experiences,” recalls Millett. “We started discussing different ways we could tell his story and also shine a light on Ireland and all the amazing talent coming out of there. St. Patrick’s Day was the perfect opportunity to do this – but how?”Their first step was to discuss the idea with Kennedy’s agents in the U.S. and Australia, along with his promoter in the U.S. “We are always looking for ways for an artist to build out their ideas and identities and the more we talked, the more it turned out there had been an interest in doing this kind of thing for a while,” says Millett. He and Kennedy took two years to refine the concept, deciding along the way to own the festival themselves to ensure its identity would remain as authentic as possible.
“By retaining ownership and controlling the festival end-to-end, this has allowed us to market smartly and direct-to-fan,” says Millett. “Not just [with] tickets, but also issuing fan passes for on-site merchandise discounts, and connecting it with [Kennedy’s] new music coming out at the same time.”
Kennedy’s latest single, “Let Me In,” arrived just before his headlining gigs. He wrote the song in Nashville last summer and says it’s the first of much more new material to come. “2024 was a very productive year for me in terms of making music,” he says. “I’m just so happy with how everything’s feeling and with the sound and the sentiment of all that’s coming.”
Millett is excited about the future, too — and is especially hopeful that MISNEACH will become an “annual fixture” in cities worldwide with a large Irish diaspora. “But,” he says, “the focus right now is getting this year right. Dermot has big ambitions not just to support Irish and diaspora talent, but give back to Ireland and the local community. A festival should do all these things – and we are excited to learn and grow this for years to come.”
Sometimes the stars align and magic happens. But this leap year, the heavens have misaligned and robbed St. Patrick’s Day revelers of the first chance in six years to paint the town green on a Saturday because of the leap year.
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So when a nation needs brave heroes to do the right thing and save them from having to shake their shamrocks on a Sunday, Saturday Night Live “Weekend Update” co-anchors Michael Che and Colin Jost have bravely stepped up to the challenge with a brand-new holiday celebration.
“We’re not making up a holiday, this is a freak occurrence,” Che explains about the decision by the duo to team up with Jameson Irish Whiskey to create a new, totally fabricated holiday they’re calling “Jameson St. Patrick’s Eve.” The faux festival will take place on March 16, complete with a St. Patrick’s Eve countdown in New York’s Times Square hosted by the duo.
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“Why not St. Patrick’s Eve? You’ve got Christmas Eve, you’ve got New Year’s Eve,” Che says. While acknowledging that New Yorkers don’t really need an excuse to start the party before 10 a.m., Che says he and Jost are not recommending that revelers start that early, but “we do recommend you have one or two at, say 10:30 a.m.,” with Jost adding, “if you work until 9 a.m. it’s a very reasonable time to have a drink… [like if you’re a ] longshoremen.”
“Or short shoremen,” Che quipped, with Jost chiming in, “yeah, we don’t discriminate… I’ve always through I really want to start a religion for tax purposes, so starting a holiday is a first step.” The pair, both native New Yorkers, say they take their St. Patrick’s day celebrations very seriously, with the always-on-message Che noting that the holiday reminds him of “friendship, fellowship, and of course, Jameson.”
“When Leap Year skipped over a Saturday St. Patrick’s Day, we did exactly what a Jameson would do: we created a completely new holiday so people can start celebrating St. Patrick’s Day a little early,” says the brand’s VP of marketing Johan Radojewski in a statement announcing the hokum holiday party that will also include a guest appearance from an as-yet-unnamed DJ. “We teamed up with Colin Jost and Michael Che to help us seize this moment and encourage everyone to embrace St. Patrick’s Eve, because they’re a duo who appreciates a smooth Irish Whiskey, good company, and a brand-new holiday – just like any Jameson would.”
The St. Patrick’s Eve party Times Square takeover will also feature the first-of-its-kind “rock drop,” Jameson’s spin on the famous New Year’s eve ball drop, which will take place at 8 p.m. ET (midnight in Ireland). Che says he’s so excited about the party, in fact, that he’s considering his first stage dive. “I’ve been saving it, now is the time I feel,” he says, with Jost, as usual, perfectly yes-anding his co-anchor’s bit by comparing the scene he expects to the one in The Thomas Crown Affair “where they’re all walking around in bowler hats at the end? Except it will be a sea of green plastic hats.”
The real holiday evokes fond memories for Jost, who often marched with firefighters in two St. Patrick’s Day parades as a kid, in Manhattan and Staten Island, alongside his mother and grandfather, both of whom worked for the fire department. Che, on the other hand, jokes that he doesn’t have any specific memories of the holiday, because “it’s St. Patrick’s day and if you have memories after St. Patrick’s Day you’re doing it wrong.”
The one thing the “Update” anchors could not reveal was the name of the DJ, though Che teases that “no it’s not a British guy name ‘Prize’ who was knighted. It’s a surprise!”
Starting today, fans can enter a chance to get a spot on the guest list for the Jameson St. Patrick’s Eve party and anyone 21+ can check out a livestream of the rock drop here. The party will take place between 43rd and 44th Streets from 6-10 p.m. EST. In addition, Jameson will light up the Sphere in Las Vegas in Jameson green, wrap ferries and water taxies in the dyed-green Chicago River and do a digital takeover at L.A. Live to mark the holiday.
Niall Horan brought his Irish heritage to the White House for a performance on St. Patrick’s Day (March 17), and took to Instagram to document a sweet moment with President Joe Biden.
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In a video the duo jointly shared to social media, the “This Town” singer smiles into the camera and wishes his fans a happy St. Patrick’s Day, before panning the camera over to Biden, who is dressed in a suit with a green tie. The President then puts his arm around Horan and says, “I’m glad he’s here.”
“Couldn’t celebrate St. Patrick’s Day alone,” Horan captioned the post.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre teased the singer’s holiday performance a day prior, tweeting, “It doesn’t get better than this!”
“I think I speak for all the music lovers in the Biden-Harris Administration when I say we cannot wait to welcome @NiallOfficial to the White House tomorrow for a special performance to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day!” she said.
Horan retweeted the post, writing, “It’s an honour to be invited and represent my country. Looking forward to performing and celebrating St. Patrick’s Day at the White House tomorrow.”
It’s an honour to be invited and represent my country. Looking forward to performing and celebrating St. Patrick’s Day at the White House tomorrow 🇮🇪☘️🇺🇸 https://t.co/iGODUCH4f2— Niall Horan (@NiallOfficial) March 16, 2023
Horan is just months away from releasing his third solo album, The Show, which arrives on June 9. “This album is a piece of work I’m so proud of and now it’s time to pass it over to you to go and make it your own,” Horan wrote on Instagram in a post that featured the cover, in which he is depicted leaning on his elbows in a window and staring up at the title. “Thank you so much for being there for me all this time and I can’t wait to share the next couple of years of this new era with you. I’ve missed you all so much. It’s good to be back.”
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