How It’s New York: It’s cross cultural, full of marquee acts, it’s at Lincoln Center and its Free and it’s a great excuse to stay in the City this weekend
How It’s Irish: Irish music, poetry, writing, dance and artistry with a big serving of Irish American influences
John Lee previewsÂ
tomorrow’s OurLand Festival:Â
a unique event mixing music, poetry, and festival feeling, not to be missed! Our coverage of the launch party is here!
Quite the McMashup at Out of Doors at Lincoln Center this Sunday, July 29 —New York Dolls Syl SyLvain, Get Smart’s Barbara Feldon, Pulitzer Prize winner William Kennedy (singing!),  Dennis Dunaway of Alice Cooper fame, the cast of the Tony Award winning musical Once, bestselling bards including Peter Quinn and Malachy McCourt, and hours of Irish music from trad to rad, all wrangled into the all day, all free OurLand Festival by Irish rocker Joe Hurley.
Emanating from multiple stages around Lincoln Center from 2-10 p.m., OurLand will celebrate the artistic, literary and musical heritage of Ireland, the mark it made on America and the cross-cultural ties that bind the two countries.
The event begins with “The Gathering The Bards: From Galway to Rockaway” at 2 p.m. with literary legends weaving the art of storytelling with original works and classics of Irish-American culture in verse and song.
“Nothing But My Genius” starts at at 5 p.m., as a kind of wild magical stroll on Raglan Road with buskers, poets, painters and dancers with influences ranging from Behan to Beckett, Christy Moore to James Joyce. The segment’s title comes from a comment attributed to Oscar Wilde when he arrived in New York in 1882 and was asked at Customs if he had anything to declare. “Nothing but my genius,” he supposedly said.
At 6 p.m. the focus shifts to Damrosch Park Bandshell for “Thousands Are Sailing,” with a performance from the cast of Once, winner of eight 2012 Tony Awards including best musical, and a celebration of the role legendary musicologist Alan Lomax in preserving Ireland’s musical heritage with Irish Americana performances led by Lomax archive director Don Fleming along with Cherish the Ladies, Lianne Smith and more.
Joe Hurley and The Gents take the stage at 7 p.m. for a set that will include a performance of Hurley’s CD Let the Great World Spin, created with and inspired by Colum McCann’s National Book Award winning novel.
Did I mention that all this is free? Thank you Consulate General of Ireland, The Gathering Ireland 2013 and Lincoln Center Out of Doors. But OurLand isn’t done yet.
The finale starts at 8 p.m. with Joe Hurley’s All-Star Irish Rock Revue, a celebration of “The Great Irish Songbook,” featuring the music of Thin Lizzy, U2, Van Morrison, The Undertones, Pogues, Elvis Costello. Joing Hurley will be co-host Edward Rogers, New York Dolls’ Syl Sylvain, Willie Nile, Michael Cerveris, Ellen Foley, Tami Lynn (Dr. John, The Stones) R&R Hall of Famer Dennis Dunaway, Led Zeppelin’s Shannon Conley and many more.
Event organizers are hoping this will be another day in New York where everyone is welcome to be be Irish and learn for themselves the meaning of the word craic.
