Tara Feis – the beloved annual free St. Patrick’s festival in Savannah – will not happen again this year because the city of Savannah did not to fund it in this year’s budget.

The non-alcoholic family-friendly festival in Emmet Park was the kick-off of Savannah St. Patrick Day festivities for 26 years and took place the Saturday before the parade.

WTOC-TV reported the city was cutting funds for Tara Feis in 2018. The city did not fund the festival again for 2019.

“This is in no way the city of Savannah saying that Tara Feis is not a great event. It is the city of Savannah saying that we can no longer be in the festival business,” said City of Savannah Public Information Officer, Michelle Gavin is quoted as saying on wtoc.com in 2018. “The city has to stick with this new strategic plan and really focus on that and commit the funding to those priorities.”

Savannah City Manager Rob Hernandez has changed the way the city awards funds for events such as Tara Feis and the Savannah Children’s Book Festival in Forsyth Park, which has also been cancelled after 14 years.

Find information on the 2019 St. Patrick’s festivities in Savannah & Hilton Head Is. here. 

This entry was posted on Friday, January 19th, 2018 at 12:38 am and is filed under Art/Culture/Entertainment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.