Keli O’Neill Wenzel in the Paper (and in Ireland)
Keli O’Neill Wenzel, Executive Director of the Kansas City Irish Fest, and President and Managing Partner of O’Neill Marketing and Event Management, is interviewed in the Kansas City Star Magazine today.
The interview covers Keli’s recent trip to Ireland and Scotland to listen to music and follow up on Shane McEntee’s hopes to do more for Irish tourism in Kansas City. McEntee, now deceased, visited KC when he was the Minister of State for Food, Horticulture and Food (a junior ministerial post in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine of the Government of Ireland).
Q. What’s in it for you to get Kansas Citians to visit Ireland?
A. We want to keep the festival real. We want it not just to be backward-looking and historical but forward-thinking. So the more people know about Ireland today and modern Irish music, the better. We’ve looked at why people here really love (all things) Irish, and we’ve narrowed it down to three things: the music, the people and the storytelling and culture that surround that.
Read all the questions in the magazine
Disclosure: In the early years of the Kansas City Irish Fest I worked with Keli O’Neill Wenzel on the festival and enjoyed the experience.
More on Irish Festivals:
• The Biggest Irish Fests in America
• “Irish Festivals” An Essay by Larry Kirwan
• Irish Fest Memories of Eddie Delahunt
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