18-03-2025
North Country Goes Green Irish Festival a success for Clayton
Mar. 17—CLAYTON — Despite moving the North Country Goes Green Irish Festival from Watertown's Dulles State Office Building to Clayton's Cerow Arena, officials say the weekend was a success.
"It was a great weekend, it really was," Dave Missert, co-chair of the event, said Monday.
Missert said that while difficult to measure overall turnout because of the space, he believes they were "on par" with what they had in Watertown.
Festival-goers told Missert that they loved the open layout.
"The layout was probably the best part of the change," he said. "Everything right on one floor. It was really nice."
Missert said there was a line out the door on Saturday.
"I don't see any reason why we would not go back to Clayton," he said.
The festival ended on Saturday instead of Sunday to make cleanup easier. Missert said that was the plan no matter what.
"The village and the town were wonderful to work with. They welcomed us into the area with open arms," Missert said.
As for vendors, Missert said there were no complaints.
One venue that also saw an uptick in customers was O'Brien's Restaurant & Bar.
Owner Elizabeth "Buffy" Golden said that the Irish Festival helped Clayton and that residents were excited.
"It definitely helped the businesses," she said. "We had a way better weekend than we typically would at this time of the year and it was nice to see people in town ... I know people in Clayton were excited about it."
Golden said she "absolutely" would welcome it again next year should organizers decide to come back.
"I'm excited about it," she said.
Michael J. Hazlewood, owner of Wood Boat Brewery, said that he, too, saw an uptick in business as a result of the Irish Festival and would be in favor of Clayton hosting it again.
"There definitely were a lot more people in town," he said. "It definitely helped us out a little bit."
He said that this was a nice boost to get into that busy summer season.
"This time of year, we'll take whatever we can get," he said. "These events are I think why Clayton does well is because we have events like this to keep people in town."
All proceeds from the Irish Festival go to local scholarships for kids.
