Irish Day Moving Forward

Murphys, CA — Many organizers of the Murphys Irish Day festival are stepping down this year, which has led to questions about the future of the event.

Michelle Plotnik, 2012 Irish Day Coordinator, has written this letter to the public highlighting last month’s festival, and looking ahead to the future. Here is a portion of the letter:

“As many of you know, 2012 is the last year for many of the Murphys Irish Day Planning Committee members. We won’t be disappearing entirely but we will be stepping back to allow others to take on the major responsibilities for the event. We had really hoped that Mother Nature would bless us with one of those beautiful sunny days that we’ve seen so many of this winter. But it was not to be, and, for the first time ever, it actually rained on our parade, keeping many of our more weather sensitive entries at home. We certainly missed the horses, the beautiful antique cars and the bagpipers but we appreciated all those entries that did show up and smiled all the way down Main Street lead by St Patrick himself.

Despite the weather, our volunteers started checking in well before 6 am (and continued to check in all day long right on time), the vendors arrived and began setting up, the entertainers rolled in with equipment, the shuttles lined up and everything was ready to go by 10 am. To all of our amazement, the crowds began to arrive, the shuttles dropped off their folks parked out at Ironstone and we had to chase the final revelers off the street at 5 pm well after the event had been officially closed down at 3 pm due to snow. Speaking of snow….were those not the most big, beautiful snowflakes you have ever seen? They did shut down the event early but it was hard not to appreciate their beauty.

We, the Murphys Irish Day Planning Committee, want to express our sincere appreciation for everybody that helped make this event happen again this year.

We are hearing from folks asking what Irish Day will be like next year. We really don’t know yet but we are confident that the show will go on. We heard from visitors and vendors all day long that Murphys is an amazing place with the nicest people. I actually heard from one vendor “why do people keep apologizing to me for the weather…you can’t control the weather.” Another vendor comment was “I want to be mad at somebody but everybody here is too nice.”

Thank you again to everybody and congratulations to the Irish Day Grand Prize Winner of the Trip to Ireland, Michael McMillin of Merced, California.”

-Michelle Plotnik-2012 Irish Day Coordinator