MILWAUKEE — Attendance at Milwaukee's Irish Fest increased 23% in 2022 compared to 2021, organizers say.
Mike Mitchell, executive director of Celtic MKE, which runs the festival, says Irish Fest reported about 80,000 people attending the four-day festival from Aug. 18-21 at Henry Maier Festival Park.
That's compared to about 70,000 attendees at the three-day festival in 2021, our partners at the Milwaukee Business Journal report.
Mitchell says they wanted to pass 100,000 people this year, which is around the number of attendees pre-pandemic. He identified several factors that may have led to a less-than-expected turn-out. Weather forecasts predicted heavy rain through that weekend. A tough economy led organizers to raise fares to attend the festival. And Covid-19 concerns persisted into the summer of 2022, he said.
