The largest inter-Celtic festival in the southern hemisphere is annually held in Portarlington, on the beautiful Bellarine Peninsula, a few miles away from Melbourne. Thus, throughout June’s long week-end, the National Celtic Festival welcomes all those who wish to celebrate their Irish, Scottish or Welsh heritage in a relaxed atmosphere. Sometimes, Breton people attend the event, most of the time, selling French (!) crepes…
During four days, a large public comes to enjoy numerous and various activities in a good-natured and warm family atmosphere, despite the southern winter which is beginning.
And it is a great opportunity for us to be able to show a few aspects of our Breton culture. So thanks to our friend John Bell, we could led a Breton dancing workshop with more than 30 dancers. Then, we offered some dancing and music displays to a quite and receptive audience.
But beyond this, this festival is especially an opportunity to attend nice and friendly Irish dancing workshops, like those organized by the Melbourne Comhaltas association, and also, various ceilidh (balls) that take place throughout the week-end.
Last but not least, the festival program proposes each years fantastic concerts with prestigious performers coming from all over the world. So we had the chance to see performers such as Tony Mc Manus, Calan, Kevin Crawford and Colin Farrell (Lunasa) just to mention a few among others.