BEREA, Ohio (WOIO) – The 39th Cleveland Irish Cultural Festival returns to Berea, Ohio this weekend.

The festival will take place Friday, July 19 through Sunday, July 21 at the Cuyahoga County Fairgrounds.

The festival started in 1982 to celebrate Irish music, dancing, sports, and theater among Clevelanders. Currently, an estimated population of 1.6 million Irish people live in Ohio.

“We didn’t know it would become an annual thing, ” said organizer John O’Brien Sr. “We had nearly 4,000 people at the first one and they kept asking about the next one so we kept it going.”

The event is known for its musical entertainment and draws national and international Irish bands.

The festival welcomes internationally renowned artists Gaelic Storm, Eileen Ivers, and Rory Makem to this year’s lineup, as well as several other regional and national acts.

There are a variety of activities for the whole family including a children’s area with activities and crafts, camogie games, and lots of Irish history and culture to round out the whole weekend.

The festival is cashless for admission, food, beverages, and festival merchandise. Parente said the progressive move is to help improve the guest experience and offer

secure transactions. Other vendors may choose to accept cash payments for their merchandise.

The three-day event takes place at the Cuyahoga County Fairgrounds, 19201 E Bagley Rd, Middleburg Heights, OH 44130.

Festival hours:

Friday, July 19th from 5:00 – 11:00 p.m.,

Saturday, July 20th from 1:00 – 11:00 p.m., and

Sunday, July 21st from 1:00 – 10:00 p.m.

A mass will be celebrated at 11:30 a.m. on the 21st. Parking is free and children under 10 get free admission.

Advanced tickets will be available for purchase online. General admission is $20.00 per day, weekend passes are $50.00. Wristbands are $10 for the Children’s Area or $35 for a family-pack. For more information, visit www.clevelandirish.org

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The Cleveland Guardians are coming out of the All-Star break with the best record in the American League, so it seems safe to say that they are in a pretty good position heading into the second half of the 2024 season.

However, it’s also fairly clear that the Guardians need to make some roster upgrades in order to ensure they can make a deep playoff run.

Former MLB general manager Jim Bowden—who now writes for The Athletic—offered a rather interesting take on Cleveland’s situation heading into the MLB trade deadline.

While Bowden acknowledges that the Guardians need starting pitching, he qualifies his statement by saying that he does not believe president Chris Antonetti and Co. are under a whole lot of pressure to actually make any improvements.

It’s a rather intriguing position to take for sure, given that Cleveland owns MLB’s longest active drought without a World Series title (it last won one in 1948).

Are the Guardians the New York Yankees? No. They don’t play in a major market, and they are not expected to spend big money (as evidenced by the fact that they rank 27th in payroll). However, Cleveland clearly has a big opportunity to a win a championship this year, so it would be a real shame if the Guardians didn’t go for it at the deadline, especially considering they have some obvious holes.

Cleveland could actually use multiple starting pitchers, and it also could stand to bolster its lineup with another power bat to put alongside of Jose Ramirez and Josh Naylor.

The Guardians went just 7-11 over their last 18 games heading into the break and have gone just 22-20 since a blistering 36-17 start.

Cleveland has really been playing .500 baseball for a month-and-a-half now, indicating its blatant need for some more pieces.

The Guardians have not made a truly significant acquisition at the trade deadline since 2016, when they landed relief pitcher Andrew Miller in a deal with the Yankees.

We’ll see if Cleveland bucks that trend before July 30.

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) – The Ohio Turn Pike announced Friday morning that it was experiencing issues due to the widespread technology outages.

Cuyahoga County experiences disruptions in connection to widespread technology outage

According to a post on X, formerly Twitter, customers may experience issues with the E-ZPass website.

The post said it also is working to resolve the issue quickly.

Airlines continue to be disrupted by global outage at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport

This is a developing story. Be sure to return to 19 News with updates.

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