Event Review: St. Paddy "Street Party"
- Will Hills and Denisa Kraus
- Mar 31, 2015
- 1 min read
Saint Patrick's Day offers a time for the celebration of Irish culture and heritage, if one neglects the horrifying history of the holiday itself. The City of Nanaimo's Saint Patrick celebration on March 17 was no more derogatory than the holiday itself, telecasting an Irish Rovers concert at Port Theatre in Diana Krall plaza, where, for an evening, they put a cost on public space. While sweeping changes have been made to the liquor laws in British Columbia, the city has yet to adopt the new legislature.
Some community members, like Don Shedder, “love[d] the community atmosphere,” but the event left much to be desired.
While the “hidden beer garden,” as attending VIU student Kodi Hope described it, was quite a blast it was “hidden away from both the stage and the telecast”.
“The kinks could be worked out for next year” said Andrew Dempshire. Nathan Landry, a community member who was willing to pay the $20 admission fee, enjoyed the event but claimed that it “would be nice to have a lack of fencing”
Some were blocked from the “beer gardens” because of the prohibitive cost and were upset with the situation, citing that the partition of public space was upsetting. Members of the traditional Irish band Rising Aura had only this to say: “The only difference between us and them is a fence and money.”
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