The Paddy Mirage

'The hearth of Irish creativity'

 

In August of 2003 The Paddy Mirage was built in the Blackrock Desert Nevada. Forty Irish people made the journey to be involved in the project and experience the world's most creative festival. People who got involved in the project ranged from bartenders in Dublin to The Hothouse Flowers and artists like Jessica Roth to the twenty something's that were just interested in the experience. Promotion was done all over Ireland for the event. The fundraisers were given gig of the week in the Irish Times supplement, The ticket. Radio interviews were done on Dave Fanning's show, FM 104, Spin 103, News Talk 106 and Annalivia. All wanted to get involved in some way and we are in talks for a radio documentary with FM 104 next year.

A television interview on Irelands AM was also done. On this show we talked about the event and then burnt a mini model of the bar. This is all just an example of the interest shown so far. Our web site gets a huge amount of hits and our e-mail inbox in inundated with people looking for more information and how to get involved. After 11 months of planning and preparing the Paddy Mirage was finally ready to travel to its new home. We had done two big fundraisers and over €8000 of personal finance had been invested. We had a team of forty who believed in the idea and had all worked to see it happen.

The bar was first built outside San Francisco in Petaluma on David Bests farm. Willy and Danny McCauley had worked non-stop to make sure we had everything we needed on the mountain. When I arrived a lot of the bar had been built. The next week was spent doing the finishing touches and taking it apart. Not only this but all our supplies had to be bought. We had to cook for forty people for over a week so there were quite a lot. Most of it was guesswork but our chef, Roy, was more than up for the task.

One of the most difficult things was the guesswork. Once you are in the desert there is no coming back. We had to run a camp, a bar and use as little waste as possible and leave absolutely no trace. This takes a lot of preparation and even more money. Once we had our 24-foot truck hired, had figured out how to drive it and packed it up we made our way to the Blackrock City. We arrived three days early in order to get the bar open for six-o clock on Monday. We knew what the bar was supposed to look like so it was relatively easy to assemble despite the heat. Danny McCauley had done an amazing job and we owe him a debt of gratitude. Nine of us arrived early and we made our deadline with ease.

Our first night was a huge success and by the late evening we had one of the busiest theme camps on the playa. This set the standard for the rest of the week. Those who came once, came again. For the entire week alcohol flowed and not one dollar exchanged hands

We brought 30 kegs of larger, 30 crates of Guinness and over 60 gallons of spirits with us. While there we met a cocktail barman (Thanks Steve, your Appletini will always have a special place in my heart) who mixed drinks every day from four in the afternoon till whenever he got bored or ran out of drinks (which was a long time). Every day people would bring us more alcohol to give away. Jameson, Paddy, Powers, Schnapps, Larger, Guinness and even some home brew moonshine, that blew peoples heads off, were all gifted to us. All week musicians turned up to play in the bar. One family visited us over three days and played traditional music much to everyone's delight. We had a piano in the bar that brought some amazing players at the strangest of times. The bar never closed even if the drink stopped flowing, if only for a few hours.

The music highlight came on Thursday and Friday night. The Hothouse Flowers graced the Paddy Mirage with some amazing playing and stage antics that left people stunned. Some couldn't believe the fact that they had come to play but by the end of the week it just all seemed right. At nighttime we had Irish DJ's take the stage. Roy and Jacqui kept people dancing till the early hours of the morning and beyond.

The busiest night was of course when the Man burnt. There was an electric feeling in the bar. Anything could happen. Anything is possible. A lot of new friends were made around those barstools. Alt f ideas were exchanged and creativity flourished. People came to admire the effort put in and all the art that had been collected to be displayed in the bar. Everyone had words of thanks and encouragement for us. So much so that we have been inspired to go back next year and build a bigger and better bar.