Building on a 25 year relationship with our sister city in the US, Galway 2020 had its own dedicated stand at the Milwaukee Irish Fest to spread word about the Capital of Culture to an audience of over 100,000 people.
The stage for Galway 2020 featured some great musical and cultural offerings from the west of Ireland at the three day Irish Fest from August 15 – 18.
Among them were bluegrass-infused The Whileaways, traditional “supergroup” Back West, Connemara fiddle players The Kanes and Leo Moran & Padraic Stevens (two of the musical talents behind The Saw Doctors).
We Banjo 3, another Galway act and Galway 2020 cultural ambassador, headlined for their eight year.
Chef Martin O’Donnell held various cookery demonstrations displaying the best of Irish cuisine and artist Joan Finnegan’s exhibition Connemara Chroma was opened by Minister Ciaran Cannon.
Other displays included a look at the ancient roads and waterways documented throughout the centuries.
Archaeologist Paul Walsh and Jennifer Moore from the Royal Irish Academy are making the journey to answer questions on the maps, taken from their Irish Historic Towns Atlas series.
While other had drawn maps of Connemara and folklore tales came from the collection of cartographer Tim Robinson kept at NUIG.
A big focus was put on Galway’s maritime tradition with Milwaukee Currach Club creating a 3D model display of he Hooker in the Meehan Boat house.
A huge number of people worked on helping to put together a showcase of Galway for the delegation including Senator Billy Lawless, Minister Ciaran Cannon, Cathaoirleach of the County of Galway Cllr. James McClearn, Mayor of Galway City Mike Cubbard.
Galway and Milwaukee have been cultivating lose relationships for the best part of 25 years, and 20 years ago chose to put it on paper by becoming sister cities.
