Comments on the Winter Classic

[Mike50]

Did anyone attend the Winter Classic? What did you think?

[canawler]

My wife and I attended Saturday. The event was to begin at 10AM but it was all but deserted. They never really had a big crowd but it definitely picked up later in the afternoon. The main arena stage was set up nicely but the other stage was actually just a stairwell. The main stage sound drowned out everything in the stairwell when schedules overlapped. The stairwell stage, being all concrete, had terrible sound quality and not nearly enough room for spectators. The main stage also had bad sound as the mid-bass was very muddy and it was hard to understand some lyrics. There were only approx. 10-12 vendors so there really wasn't much to do between bands. I did get to talk to the Amerikilts crew quite a bit.
I live about 1-1/2 hrs away so we couldn't stay for the Glengarry Bhoys because they weren't to start until 10:30 PM. We have previously seen and enjoyed both Seamus Kennedy and Laura Cortese but both were disappointing this time. We enjoyed the Barley Boys but Killen Thyme wasn't our thing. The John Whelan Band and Solas were incredible. Another standout was local band Burning Bridget Cleary. These two young ladies are extremely talented and very entertaining to watch perform ( check them out at www.burningbridgetcleary.com .)

Overall, we had a good time but probably won't be returning.