David Harris
The National Celtic Folk Festival comes to Portarlington on the Northern Bellarine Peninsula over the June long weekend.
The festive extravaganza will showcase some of the world’s most culturally rich performers in concert, workshops, sessions and cross-disciplinary community art projects. There are also theatre and spoken word events, competitions, forums, singing sessions, dances, gatherings, pipe bands, and markets for you to enjoy. The program offers a diverse range of art forms, along with the many interpretations of Celtic and Folk culture within this picturesque Australian setting.
The festival market features stalls selling an array of goods and crafts profiling local designers, Celtic wares and a variety of local produce. Visit clans and associations from across Australia with displays including Celtic martial arts and the resident Vikings who settle in for the weekend to present traditional Vikings practices of wrestling, crafts, and iron mongering.
In a National Celtic Festival first, the festival will welcome the Australian Highland Cattle show! Highland cattle were imported into Australia by Scottish migrants in the middle of the Nineteenth Century and this show is a great place to see the best of the breed, with cattle appraised by an international host judge.
The festival showcases national and international artists who attract over 16 000 local and interstate visitors to the region. With a reputation that grows each and every year, this is Australia’s largest and most diverse Celtic gathering.
From young blood to veteran artists, bagpipes to bodhrans, there’s something for everyone in 2019!
Head to http://www.nationalcelticfestival.com for further information and to book tickets.
Early bird tickets are on sale now until 1st April.
Inyal (Scotland)
Duncan Chisholm (Scotland)
The Lumber Jills (Canada)
Tim Scanlan Trio (Japan)
Maggie Carty and Mairtin Staunton (Ireland)
Angela Usher (Ireland)
Eileen O’Brien (Ireland)
Mary McNamara (Ireland)
Austral
Colin Lilllie
Fiona Ross and Shane O’Mara
Caledonian Castaways
Bush Gothic
Sasta
Jimmy O’Hare
Out of Hand
The McKinnon Sisters
Rooyla Booyla
Bhan Tree
Rich Davies and the Low Road
Gerry and Mary McKeague
Bella The Bookworm
Celtic Piping Band
Melbourne Comhaltas
St Joseph’s College Celtic Group