Milwaukee Irish Fest is a yearly ethnic festival held at the Henry Maier Festival Park

Henry Maier Festival Park

The Henry W. Maier Festival Park, also known either as the Henry Maier Festival Grounds or as the Summerfest Grounds, is a festival park in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in the United States. The Park is named for Henry Maier, Milwaukee's longest-serving mayor....

, on the Lake Michigan

Lake Michigan

Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America and the only one located entirely within the United States. It is the second largest of the Great Lakes by volume and the third largest by surface area, after Lake Superior and Lake Huron...

, USA, every third weekend in August. More than 130,000 people attend the Fest each year to take in nearly 250 acts on 17 stages. The four-day festival in downtown Milwaukee started in 1981. Irish Fest is the largest of the ethnic festivals held at the Summerfest grounds which report attendance, and holds claim to the largest celebration of Irish Culture in the world.

Festival highlights include:

• performances from local Milwaukee Irish Dance troupes,
• music from nearly 250 artists from around the world, sung in English
  English language
  English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
  
   and Irish
  Irish language
  Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...
  
  ,
• stages for Céilí dancing,
• an area to learn Céilí dancing,
• celebrations of Irish sport and culture,
• Liturgy for Peace and Justice held in the Marcus Amphitheater
  Marcus Amphitheater
  The Marcus Amphitheater is an amphitheater on the south end of the Henry Maier Festival Park in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The amphitheater was built after an extremely overcrowded concert in 1984 to carry crowds of 25,000 fans during concerts...
  
   on Sunday morning.

The annual closing event is the Scattering, a gathering of many of the festivals musicians playing together in one combined session, with fifty or more musicians on the stage at one time not uncommon.

Irish people the world over come to see the festival from as far off as England, Scotland, Egypt, Pakistan and Ireland itself. Many of Ireland's news stations will send reporters over to cover the festival.

Irish Fest celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2005. During that year's fest the new Celtic Roots stage was added, and the President of Ireland

President of Ireland

The President of Ireland is the head of state of Ireland. The President is usually directly elected by the people for seven years, and can be elected for a maximum of two terms. The presidency is largely a ceremonial office, but the President does exercise certain limited powers with absolute...

, Mary McAleese

Mary McAleese

Mary Patricia McAleese served as the eighth President of Ireland from 1997 to 2011. She was the second female president and was first elected in 1997 succeeding Mary Robinson, making McAleese the world's first woman to succeed another as president. She was re-elected unopposed for a second term in...

, attended the festival. The 2010 festival was held August 19–22.