WATCH: Oak Forest Gets Giddy in Green for Fleadh
Check out our favorite scenes from the 3rd annual Oak Forest Fleadh—and then add your own!
We've never seen so much green.
Oak Forest residents marched to the beat of its own parade—a day before the return of the South Side Irish festivities.
Residents lined Cicero Avenue from 157th to 151st streets, as bagpipes, horses, Irish dancers, leprechauns painted the street green for the 3rd annual Fleadh (Gaelic for "festival").
The day started off with a 5K, with donations from runners to benefit the St. Damian Food Pantry. Runners put their chins down and pushed into the wind of the early morning cold. Some—like Australia native Rodney Bashford—gussied up in green for the occasion. Bashford ran with a can of Guinness around his neck, shot glasses strapped to his head and one in his hand, "in case anyone wants to fill me up along the way," he joked.
Businesses along Cicero opened early, doling out breakfast and beer for patrons. Kids took to the street before the parade during Open Streets, riding, rollerblading and walking on a normally busy avenue. The parade featured local businesses, organizations and groups decked out in Irish style and spirit. The fun continued into the evening, with a pub and restaurant crawl packed with live music, drink deals and corned beef.
Oak Forest Patch Editor Lauren Traut, New Lenox Patch Editor Michael Sewall and Mokena Patch Editor Paul Dailing worked the crowd during the parade, capturing some of our favorites. Check it out!
Now, add your own!
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In This article
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St. Damian School
5300 155th St, Oak Forest, IL -
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City of Oak Forest
15440 Central Ave, Oak Forest, IL
Bill Griffin
9:07 am on Monday, March 12, 2012
I like the whole thing. I think a lot of people respected the family part of the day early with the 5k run, Open Streets and parade. Then you can have adult time after 5. One thing that I would like to see is all of the businesses involved in the 'Pub Crawl', waive the cover charge. A lot of people avoided any of the bars that required a cover. This led us to find out about CIndy's Pub. What a great little place. We wouldn't have discovered it if they had a cover charge. We will return and it's thanks to the Fleadh and the ownership of Cindy's being so nice and wanting people to visit their bar. Good times.
Lauren Traut
11:22 am on Monday, March 12, 2012
That's so great! You discovered a new local favorite! I'd say that makes Fleadh a success! :)
Colleen
3:26 pm on Wednesday, March 14, 2012
We went to Mrs. O'Brien's Pub. There was live music and no cover charge. It was "pleasantly crowded." The place is really clean, especially the restrooms. They had employees checking on them and keeping them tidy throught the evening. All the patrons were super-friendly. We'll be going back there for-sure.
Colleen
Tinley Park
Richard DeVries
11:20 am on Monday, March 12, 2012
Yeah our group of 10the avoided any bar charging a cover. That is bad business in my world.some of these bar owners have head up the butt syndrome.
Mike Beahan
2:47 pm on Monday, March 12, 2012
Cindy's benefits from the Fleadh due to the fact that it is often overlooked because it's not on Cicero and isn't a huge place like Oliver's or Gaelic Park. They had a great free food spread with Italian Beef and hot dogs. I hope they gained some regular customers after the Fleadh.
Marcotte's and Blarney Stone (as far as I know, they were the only bars charging a cover) figure they are going to fill up anyway so why not get extra money for it. A little greedy in my opinion.
Our group also went to Postgame Pub, which technically is in Midlothian. We felt bad for them because they weren't part of the Fleadh based on being on the north side of Central. They also had a free food spread. They also have a beautiful outside area that went well with the great weather.
Johnny
10:59 am on Wednesday, March 14, 2012
It would be nice too hear Irish music next year. or Irish bands. Durbin's had Red rebel county.
Ease up on the cover charge during the pub crawl
Mike Beahan
4:28 pm on Thursday, March 15, 2012
Overall the Fleadh was great. One complaint, however. The "medals" for the 5K were beyond lame. They didn't say Oak Forest Fleadh 5K or anything identifying the wearer as a participant. Instead, they were the same "medals" that the bars were giving out to everybody that said Miller Lite.
This was not the case the first 2 years. Why they decided to make THIS particualr budget cut is beyond me but next year how about some real medals.