Shamrock Fest 2016


We have seen Flogging Molly twice before, around or on St.Pattys day, it's a fun, bit of irregular tradition. When we found out they would be part of the DC Shamrock Fest we decided to buy tickets. Luckily the tickets were quite cheap, they charged a lot more (like more than double the price) if we wanted to drink alcohol. It was a long event going from 3 in the afternoon till 11 at night, with I think 30 other bands and DJs being featured. But we mainly just wanted to see Flogging Molly, who didn't come on till 8:30.

We got a hotel, since we didn't want to make the hour drive home so late at night, and we killed time there before heading over for Flogging Molly. Our hotel was unique, being on a college campus, and from what I understood, a campus for deaf people. Interesting. When we first got to our room, we realized they had given us two queen beds instead of one king. Boo! Plus the neighbors were SO LOUD. We went back to the front desk for them to correct the issue. The new room they gave us was on the top floor, and was a nice secluded corner room, with a fun view of the heart of DC.



After checking in, we hit up the handy Yelp and looked up a place nearby for a early dinner. I was pleased to find out that & Pizza was just a couple streets from where we were staying, a place that had been on my Foodie Wish List for quite a while. They have some unique pizza toppings, certainly the most unique pizza I have ever seen. And you can add whatever toppings you want. People were walking away with a mountain of toppings on each pizza! 


We just went off the menu, not really sure what flavors would be good. We shared, two;  the Moonstruck and the Gnarlic, adding chicken. I should have added tomatoes to the Gnarlic, it just seemed to be missing something, but both pizzas were really good. The Moonstruck was so unique, topped with mushroom truffle, goat cheese, mushrooms, fig marsala, red pepper chili oil, and crushed black pepper but was amazing and by far my favorite out of the two that we ordered. They have a number of locations in the DC area, and are certainly worth checking out!


The Moonstruck

The Gnarlic + Chicken



At around 7 we decided to head over to the fesitval. We didn't want to deal with trying to find parking and it was a bit far to walk (through a somewhat run down neighborhood) we decided to hire a Lyft driver! If you have never heard of Lyft (or the more popular, Uber) it's basically just a personal taxi service. I was a little nervous about our first time, but we could not have gotten a more friendly driver. He picked us up at our hotel very quickly and asked us about what bands we were interested in seeing. Since he had never heard of Flogging Molly, he had us put some of their music on for him. He asked if we had bought the tickets for the bottomless beer, and we made other small talk. Putting the two together; that we didn't drink and that we were originally from Utah, he asked if we were Mormon. He said that he was originally from Sierra Leone, and his sister had been converted after meeting missionaries there. Small world! 



The festival was crazy! I think there were 5 other stages going. The ground was so sticky, just covered in beer! The past Flogging Molly concerst we had been to in Utah, the alcohol is confined to one area. Not the case here! Nearly everyone was smoking and drinking. Being that the fesitval was already nearly 5 hours in, so many people were just totally smashed. Some tiny blond girl, she seriously could not have weighed more then a buck ten, came up and just babbled on and on to us, and then stumbled off back into the crowds. I honestly wonder how many people get so smashed that they get separated from their friends and are just lost for the rest of the concert? Probably a good handful. What do the event employees do with those people? My biggest fear was getting thrown up on. Thankfully that didn't happen! 

I bought a Flogging Molly shirt, and Dave bought an Irish flag.











It was nuts to say the least. But it's always cool to Flogging Molly play. We also watched the Dropkick Murpheys for a bit, they are a harder band, and have lots of moshing going on so we stood quite farther back. 


So much trash!

At about 10 we decided to get a Lyft back to our hotel. If you have never used Lyft, it was so easy to use and something I certianly recommend for getting around any city where you don't want to dea with driving and parking. Uber is the more commonly used service, but Lyft had partnered with the festival and offered the first ride free, so that's why we used them instead.

Since we are never in the city, especially so late at night, Dave wanted to get some yummy late night eats. Where we live, the only late night options are Taco Bell and iHop.  Boo. Again, we used handy Yelp to find good eats nearby. We went to Copycat Co. Which simply served bao, dumplings, skewers, but all very yummy. I loved the cute menu!



I managed to find parking right in front of the place, and Dave ran in to get take out. Despite being 11 at night the place was so busy! The entire street was so busy! It was fun to experience such a hoping night life, even though we just got take out hahaha. 

We got one of everything, tried the bao, which were basically just like soft stuffed rolls pretty much. Yummy dumplings. And chicken and lamb scewers. Oh man, the lamb was amazing! I am dying to go back and get that again!  Since it was dark, I didn't get pictures of the yummy stuff, but here is one I stole off yelp;

#notmyfeet

We wrapped up the night by watching some StudioC (perks of staying at a hotel on a college campus), and let ourselves sleep in the next morning.

Before the trip, I had been looking around to see what sorts of things were in the area by our hotel. I was super excited to find that Union Market was literally next door to where we were staying! Basically a hipster, indoor farmers market that I have been wanting to check out for a while! After checking out of the hotel, we walked across the street to explore the market.

It was a bit small, but still packed with lots of fun little shops. So many things I have wanted to try! We will have to visit again.

We decided to try TaKorean, a Korean taco shop, another thing that had been on my Foodie Wish List for quite some time. I actually wasn't crazy about the flavors of the tacos, but oh well! It's still fun to try something new! 

We then decided to get a few baked goods to take home.

And of course, before we left, we had to take some photos of the cool graffiti on the side of the building. 

It was such a fun weekend! And I hope we can make another little over night trip to DC again soon! 

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