KINGSTON>> The Hooley on the Hudson returns to the Rondout waterfront Sunday, giving folks a chance to go back the basics, said Ulster County Ancient Order of Hibernians President, Jim Carey, who is coordinating this year’s event.
The outdoor festival, in its 14th year, lets attendees unplug from texting and computers and enjoy socializing through an old fashioned face-to-face outing, he said.
“We’re promoting family, tradition and friendship,” he said. “No batteries necessary, you don’t have to plug it into something and you don’t have to worry about a WiFi connection.”
He called it “Kingston’s biggest party,” and he said, as long as it doesn’t rain, it draws upwards of 15,000 people who come for its unique blend of music across multiple stages, food and drink.
PHOTOS: Hooley on the Hudson 2014
The music, spanning from punk rock to traditional, all with an Irish flavor, starts at noon, with the last band taking the stage at 9 p.m.
“We try to have everything,” he said.
Kicking off the event is Wild Roses, of Gardiner, which is comprised entirely of folks from one family including the mother, father and siblings, he said.
Returning favorites include Celtic Heels School of Irish Dance, and the Ulster County Ancient Order of Hibernians Pipe Band.
New for this year is the Hooley on the Hoof 5K, he said.
It’s a fun run in a similar spirit to the Shamrock Run that takes place before Kingston St. Patrick’s Parade. The Hooley on the Hoof starts at 10 a.m. Registration is under the bridge at East Strand.
The “Trad Stage,” featuring traditional Irish music and spoken word in the Hudson River Maritime Museum’s barn, also makes its debut this year.
This marks the first time the event features the museum as a venue, he said.
John Dwyer Jr., co-manager of the traditional stage, said he had seen a large contingent of folks who take in traditional Irish performances at community centers, restaurants, pubs and at Irish events in East Durham.
He said these performances attract a large contingent from a different demographic than Hooley regulars.
They will share the stage with spoken word performances that are a Hooley mainstay, he said.
These performances feature fiddle playing and uilleann, Irish bag pipes that work by using the elbow to drive air into the bag rather than blowing into a pipe, he said.
Folks will also hear the sounds of the tin whistle and the concertino, which he described as a very small kind of squeeze box accordion.
The museum’s Kingston Homeport and Education Center serves as a more intimate setting for these performances, he said.
“It was never designed to be on large stage in front of a large crowd outside,” he said. “A more intimate setting in a closed building supports that.”
“These are not electrified or amplified instruments,” he said.
The building, with its open timber construction, will be a beautiful setting for performers, like Kingston’s own storyteller laureate Karen Pillsworth and fiddler Dylan Foley, of Highland, who won the Senior All Ireland Fiddle Championship in Ireland, Dwyer said.
“He’s won that four times,” he said. “He’s all of 22 years old.”
Another standout performer is Monsignor, Father Charlie Coen, Dwyer said. “He’s longtime Hudson Valley resident and traditional musician, who has more accolades than I can count.”
“He’s a revered highly skilled Irish musician in the traditional style,” he said.
The Irish Cultural Center of the Hudson Valley, planned for a site once occupied by the headquarters of the D&H Canal Company on Abeel Street, will serve as a venue for events of these nature in the future, he said, adding the Center’s backers are hoping to unveil a rendering at the event.
Carey said a hooley was traditionally held after the harvest season, adding that the word hooligan has its origin in the folks who went to a hooley and partied a bit too long and hard.
But he said any characterization of the Hooley as a drunk fest is wrong.
“In the last 13 years we’ve never had an incident,” he said.
Instead, it’s a great family event, he said.
“At the end of the summer, most families are tired and broke,” he said. “Here’s a great place to bring your family for free.”
Families won’t find carnival rides or bouncy houses, but they will find simple activities life crafts, making cookies or just kids music, he said.
“We find kids have the most fun when he keep it simple,” he said.
The event attracts a unique blend of people, from locals who come every year, to folks coming from New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania, he said.
That crowd is about 60 percent Irish and 40 percent non-Irish, he said.
“They come by boat, by train, it’s an interesting thing,” he said. “I’m always amazed how many come from outside our area.”
He said people use the Hooley as a sort of reunion, meeting up with and catching up with people they only see that day.
“Some people have their family reunion here,” he said.
He said the event is held in the Rondout section of the city because of its rich Irish heritage.
That heritage dates to the 1800s when large numbers of Irish immigrants came to the U.S. and built the Delaware and Hudson Canal between Kingston and Honesdale, Pennsylvania and later worked on the many boats travelling up and down the Hudson River.
“It became known as ‘little Dublin,'” he said.
IF YOU GO
What: 14th Annual Hooley on The Hudson
When: Noon to 9 p.m.
Where: T.R. Gallo Waterfront Park, lower Broadway Kingston
How much: Free
Contact: http://www.ulsteraoh.com/