BUTTE - Butte’s known as the Festival City and many of its festivals and events will be returning this summer and that’s something that’s needed by more than just the businesses.
“I need this! Yes, Butte definitely needs this and for my sanity, it’s really important that this comes back this year,” said Montana Folk Festival organizer George Everett.
The Montana Folk Festival and the An Ri Ra Irish Festival will be returning to Butte this summer after being canceled over the past two years due to the pandemic. Butte’s St. Patrick’s Day parade will also be returning on March 17th after being sidelined for two years.
Events like these are important to Butte’s economy.
“If you ask any of these bars or restaurants or hoteliers last year or the year before the impact it had on them,” said St. Patrick’s Day parade organizer Matt Boyle.
The folk festival, which started in Butte in 2008, is a free three-day music festival that brings tens of thousands of people to the Mining City.
“And if we’re lucky we’ll be able to have the success we had in 2019 with the same number of stages, the same number of performances, different performers,” said Everett.
August will also see the return of An Ri Ra, which celebrates Butte’s Irish heritage through music, dance and culture.
“I think it’s important for the spirit of the community. It seems that it’s become safe enough to do particularly outdoor events and we do most of our events outdoors at the Original Mine site,” said An Ri Ra organizer Tom Powers.
Organizers believe these events are going to be well attended, despite many of them being shut down for the past two years due to the pandemic.
“My expectation is that we will probably have more people than we can handle. And that would be fine, that’s a problem we’d like to deal with,” said Everett.
