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David Harris

National Celtic Festival - First Artists Announcements


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.  


First Artists include:


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  

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