A Buffalo tradition is back for another year as the Buffalo Irish Festival kicks off Friday. It’s the second year that it’s being run by the Buffalo Irish Center, a cultural center that is struggling to make ends meet.

The festival’s co-chair, Tim Flanagan, says the Buffalo Irish Center has dipped into their reserve funds to stay afloat. He says events like the upcoming festival gives them hope.

"My mom tells me, you know, my first time in here, I was in here for an Easter breakfast. I was two months old and now I'm 45. So, you know, there's a lot of people like me that have just spent their entire life in here," Flanagan said.

The Buffalo Irish Center is a pretty old building. Before it was the cultural center it is now, it was a 50 year old YMCA.

"And a lot of the Irish immigrants who were living here, people like my grandfather, got together and decided that they needed a home. And so the St. Pat's organization and the Knights of Equity were the two organizations that came together to buy this building. And then it was just the old timers we call them, right? Just start working on the building, fixing things, transforming it into what it is today," Flanagan said.

Today, the almost 100 year old building houses 40 cultural organizations. It’s also a bar and restaurant. But as inflation rises, it’s cutting deep into the non-profit organization’s funds.

"It's, you know, food costs are running the restaurant. They're more expensive. The beverage part is more expensive. Staffing, it's like any business right now, costs go up, especially in the current economy. So, you know, dipping into reserve funds, dipping into whatever we have saved up here is what we need to do to keep the building open and running," he said.

Flanagan says the funds are needed to keep the building in shape.

"Whether it's the plumbing in this room. The HVAC system, of course, just decided to die on us. So now we need to replace that. The roof still needs major repairs done to it. The front windows are falling apart because they're 100 years old" he said.

The estimated cost to get all the work done is not cheap.

"Probably $1,000,000. That's what we're looking at." he said

Flanagan says renting the building out, donations, and events like the Buffalo Irish Festival help immensely.

"We had 5,000 people attend last year’s festival, so hopefully that number even doubles this year - that would be great. And it was a really huge success. So we made enough money to do the festival again and that was goal number one. And then goal number two now is really to continue to build upon the success of last year's festival so that we can start raising more funds. And then a portion of that will start coming back to the Irish Center, because the Irish Center is the owner of the festival," Flanagan said.

The Buffalo Irish Festival will be at Lakeside Lawn on Friday from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m., on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., and then 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday. The festival includes Gaelic games, music, and food.

Flanagan says the center also accepts donations, but it’s not just money - he says if people can also volunteer to help fix the place up.