September 18 at noon is the kick-off of the 4th annual Greeley Irish Festival. There will be music, dancing, bagpipes and more through out the day until midnight. Red is the usual color on a Saturday in Nebraska however in this town Green is the color of the day and not because the towns people are Notre Dame fans.

Greeley considers itself the "most" Irish community of any town over 500 population in the United States. When the planning for this festival was started 4 or more years ago the hope was for about 300-500 people to come to the Greeley Irish Festival. The first year there were around 1,000 people that bought tickets to the event and with the handicapped and elderly along with the children that were admitted free the total had soared to an estimated 1,500. These numbers have gone up every year since.

The music headliners again this year is the twin city based Irish band, Wild Colonial Bhoys. The Bhoys, led by Adam Coolong, are an aggressive mix of harder-edged rock and Irish influenced music. Paddyrock Radio describes them as, "the best way to describe their sound is to take the Young Dubliners, The Elders, Carbon Leaf and Great Big Sea, mix them up in a blender, and you'd have a Wild Colonial Bhoys smoothie.

There is a beer garden and Irish stew, potatoes and numerous barbecued foods in the food area. The Culture Center features storyteller and educational speaker, Cherrie Beam-Clarke.

There will be Irish Dancers and of course many Irish vendors will have booths. For more information go to www.greeleyirishfestival.com