North Wildwood's annual Irish Fall Festival expects to have over 200,000 visitors
About 250,000 visitors are expected to attend North Wildwood's annual Irish Fall Festival this weekend.
The multi-day event will include musical performances, dancing, food and craft vendors.
Mayor Patrick Rosenello expects the festival to be crowded due to the forecasted pleasant weather.
"You couldn't have really scripted a better weekend for the Irish Fall Festival, so it's going to bring a lot of people," Rosenello said. "I think this is going to be one for the record books."
Joseph Lerro, the owner of Joe Joe's expects to do 10 to 20 times the business he normally does during an off-season weekend.
"This is a shot in the arm at the end of the season for everybody," Lerro said. "It's a good chunk of our business especially now at the end of the season when it slows down."
Rosenello added it's not just business owners who benefit from the weekend.
"The waiters and waitresses, the bartenders, the bar backs, the people working all these shops," he said. "This is really a shot in the arm, a shot in the wallet as they head into the winter months."
Tim Kelly sang "God Bless America" on the festival's main stage and said as an Irish American, singing at the largest Irish festival on the east coast means so much to him.
"The Irish have come very far from the famine many centuries ago to where we are today. We're a vibrant, growing community," Kelly said. "People that have really worked very hard to be where we are, and I'm so proud to be Irish."
