Sure, the North Haven Fairgrounds will be full of music, food, drink, sports and plenty of socializing throughout Saturday and Sunday, but the feis — the regional cultural competition all day Sunday that includes dancing, traditional music, Irish bread-making and Gaelic language — is one of the festival’s cornerstones.

However, this year, the organizers went one better.

This year, they’re bringing in Anthony Kearns — as in Anthony Kearns of The Irish Tenors, frequently found singing alongside Ronan Tynan and Finbar Wright. Kearns, whose repertoire runs a wide swath through opera and traditional Irish music, will perform at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, followed by venerable Irish group The Wolfe Tones at 4:30.

"One of our main concerns was to touch a higher level of audience," fest chairman John O’Donovan said. "That we were able to get him is the main thing. Pat Kennedy (a parade committee member and longtime host of an Irish music show on WNHU, 88.7 FM) suggested Anthony Kearns and everyone got excited. I’m not one to judge, but people who are qualified to judge say his voice is special."

The fest will also bring name music on Saturday, along with the usual full complement of local musicians and dancers. The opening-night headliners will be one of the foremost of young Celtic folk-rock acts, Lenahan (9 p.m.), preceded by U2 tribute band Joshua Tree at 7.

But the addition of Kearns is just one of the new wrinkles in the festival this year.

One is the inaugural Connecticut Irish Festival 5K Road Race, taking place at 11 a.m. Saturday. It’s a benefit for the Connecticut Chapter of the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Association, which raises money to fight the fatal, incurable Lou Gehrig’s disease. Part of the reason for the run is personal.

"We’ve lost a couple of members (of the Irish-American Community Center in East Haven, presenters of the festival), and a girl in the club is quite ill with ALS," said O’Donovan, who’s serving as the race coordinator and assistant to race director Joe Riccio. "It’s a good cause."

There will also be a 2-mile fitness walk and a kids’ fun run. Call Riccio at (203) 481-7453 or email him at wssac-ct@juno.com for registration details.

The other new wrinkle is for people who are extremely able-bodied. The Highland Games — featuring heavily muscled guys in kilts throwing heavy objects great distances — will take place from 1 to 8 p.m. Saturday.

"We wanted to do this last year, but the timing wasn’t right," said Rich Regan, last year’s festival chairman. "It’s something new."

And while many people associate the games with the Scots, who originated them, "It’s also a part of Celtic culture, something people don’t really get to see."

Ten men from around the Northeast will compete in seven events, in order from easiest to hardest: the open stone put (putting a 16-to-22-pound rock, shotput-style); the Breamer stone put (throwing a 22-to-28-pound stone from a standstill); the 56-pound weight for distance (thrown with one hand); the 22-pound hammer throw; the 16-pound hammer throw; the caber toss (the best-known event, throwing a cedar log from 16 to 22 feet long, weighing 100 to 180 pounds); and the 56-pound weight for height (thrown with one hand over a crossbar, high-jump-style).

"The caber toss — that’s the one everyone wants to see," said Roy Bogue of Hamden, who gave a demonstration two Sundays ago at the IACC with fellow competitor Ryan McCarroll of East Haven. "If you talk to someone about (the games), they say, ‘Oh yeah — the telephone pole.’"

The competitors are amateur and the only real rewards are the occasional TV appearance — Bogue saw himself twice on ESPN2 the past two years — and the camaraderie. The games are competitive, but "It’s not a cutthroat competition. We’re brothers out there," Bogue said, and McCarroll recalled the time all his gear was stolen from his car and his fellow competitors let him borrow some of theirs at an event.

For Bogue, 29, a onetime track-and-field athlete at Southern Connecticut State University, it was an extension of what he did in college; he was steered toward the games by his old college coach, Bill Sutherland.

As for McCarroll, 26, a former boxer who served in the Navy, "It’s part of my heritage," he said. "I knew all about it. My father told me about it. I got bigger and stronger and wanted to compete. A mutual friend and I went up to Eli’s on Whitney (in Hamden) for a few beers on a Friday night about three years ago, and I got to talking to Roy, and he said, ‘Yeah, I compete all the time.’"

IF YOU GO

Event: Connecticut Irish Festival

Time: 2-11 p.m. Saturday, 9 a.m.-7:30 p.m. Sunday

Place: North Haven Fairgrounds, Route 5 at Exit 12 off I-91, North Haven

Admission: $10, under 16 free

Info: (203) 281-3563, (203) 248-9892, or www.iacc-ct.com

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fran Fried can be reached at (203) 789-5678 or ffried@nhregister.com. ©New Haven Register 2003