Celtic Festival success

THE National Celtic Festival finally got to celebrate its 18th birthday over the long weekend in Portarlington after two years of last-minute cancellations.

Unperturbed by the weather, thousands turned out for the four-day winter event along the foreshore and throughout the town’s venues to watch Celtic martial arts, see dozens of musical acts from across the country and overseas, take part in workshops and navigate the labyrinth.

Male and female heavy games champions from Australia and New Zealand also competed for supremacy in caber (tree trunk) tossing, stone rolling and carrying events.

Festival director Una McAlinden said “let’s get the party started is our catchphrase … two years later and we were still using it”.

“As soon as the doors opened, the party well and truly started,” she said.

“We didn’t even know if people were going to turn up … you lose your confidence.”

“We needed this one to work … the last two years we had to pull out weeks before event due to lockdowns, so that close to the event we’d already spent a lot of money.”

Ms McAlinden has taken heart from not only the numbers that turned out for the festival, but also the feedback she received from them.

“The impact on diverse members of the community, I never knew how many it touched.

“People have been saying they really needed this, it’s been a healing thing.

“I had somebody yesterday say this weekend has been better than any mental health therapy they could have imagined.

“Ticket numbers flew through the roof, the whole site was jam packed … people came from basically every state in Australia.”

Preparations for next year’s event are already underway, Ms McAlinden said, with people already booking accommodation for 2023.

“Everyone is fired up for next year.”