It’s back! Pan Celtic to return
Hayley Geoghegan performing in the busking competition on Tullow Street last Saturday during Streetfest, part of the Pan Celtic International Festival Photo: michaelorourkephotography.ie
“IT Was like winning the Lotto when it was announced that we’re hosting the festival again for the next two years. It’s an incredible honour,” said Bríd de Róiste yesterday, Monday, about Carlow town hosting the Pan Celtic Festival in 2026 and 2027.
For five days last week, Carlow town was hopping with music, dancing, storytelling, craic and friendship as it hosted thousands of visitors from six Celtic nations, including Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Brittany, Cornwall and the Isle of Man.
The aim of the Pan Celtic Festival is to celebrate and promote the language, music and culture of those six nations and with 200 events taking place in 20 venues last week in Carlow town, they certainly achieved that. “We reckon we had over 2,000 people from overseas at the festival, plus our daily domestic visitors, so that’s about 10,000 people over the week. It must be worth €1m to Carlow, but this is not a business, this is a cultural event that brings people together. We focussed on the very best things that Carlow had to offer and the people loved it. They said that they’ve never experienced a community like the Carlow community. It’s so expansive, everyone got behind it. The place was hopping all week!” continued a delighted Bríd.
One of the great highlights was a parade on Thursday that displayed the colour, music and beauty of the Celtic visitors and, thanks to divine intervention, the sun shone down on everyone as they walked through the streets of Carlow.
“Thanks to the Poor Clares, the parade took place in brilliant sunshine after so much rain that morning. It really was a whole-town effort, the colour, the music, the joy. We didn’t understand the languages from the other countries, but that’s where the music came in,” added Bríd.
The festival is organised by a local voluntary committee with funding and support from Carlow County Council and its members, the Local Enterprise Office and Foras na Gaeilge. So far, the town has hosted the festival seven times, including for the past three years. Now the next two years have been secured and Bríd and the voluntary committee will once again rise to the challenge.
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