St Patrick's Day.....slightly early!

Although today is St. Patricks Day, we all started early here in D.C with the annual Shamrock Fest at RFK stadium this past Saturday. After a hard interval ride and a refueling session at IHOP (mmmhhh...chocolate chip pancakes!) Sarah, Lisa and I headed off for a day of music, irish festivities and a few beers.

The festival had over 40 bands and DJ's throughout the day and an estimated 30,000 party-goers. However, the main attraction (for us anyway) was none other than Paul Oakenfold, world famous DJ who is a bit handy on the wheels of steel :-) After a brief time of listening to Jimmies Chicken Shack we headed over to the DJ stage to grab the all important front row spot...who cared that it was over 2 hours until Oakey took to the stage?! In the meantime we listened to the other DJ's, had a few beers and wished that we hadn't had that last pancake! Finally, Oakey was sighted backstage and the crowd suddenly grew and it was a struggle to keep the front-row spots that we had. Fortunately Sarah and Lisa know what they are doing and with some well thrown elbows they held their own to remain at the front just as Oakey sauntered out onto the stage......

For the next hour I then proceeded to get my second workout of the day.....the crowd was certainly pumped that Oakey was in DC and to say that the crowd was a bit rowdy would be a slight understatement. Oakey put on a great show for the hour and it was definitely the highlight of the festival.....however the day wasn't over just yet and was there a surprise still in store?

After Oakey had finished, Tommy Lee took over on the DJ stage to finish the day off (yes....that Tommy Lee, he of Motley Crue and Pamela Anderson fame) and slowly the crowd petered out as the rain began to come down. Now came the surprise of the day, as we were heading out of the venue, the Irish Stage was still playing and suddenly an Australian (or New Zealand if you can tell the difference) voice bellowed out over the speakers and introduced himself as none other than Russell Crowe (yes....that Russell Crowe, he of Gladiator, American Gangster and the soap Neighbors!). We had heard rumors that he may be at the festival and there he was at the very end of the day in front of us and the few remaining stragglers singing "Folsom Prison" and "Cockles & Mussels"....

That topped the day off for the girls and we headed off home happy and slightly deaf.......