The National Celtic Folk Festival (NCFF) has wrapped up another successful year in Portarlington with a “huge turnout” over the weekend-long cultural event.
Festival director Una McAlindan said the festival was in its 19th year and was in full swing for the first year since 2019.
Ms McAlindan said the NCFF was attended by more than 15,000 people from Friday, June 9, to Monday, June 12.
“We were a bit nervous about the turnout considering the economic downturn and coming back after COVID,” she said.
“The weather was on our side this year, which made a big difference to all the outdoor activities, but it was a really great weekend.
“It’s really nice when people are pumped about it, and they can’t wait for next year when we haven’t even finished this year.”
Ms McAlindan said she loved how the festival was a “really good mix of community” and showed the “generosity of spirit” of everyone that attended.
“There were artists from all over Australia and the vibe was unbelievable,” she said.
“With the international acts, it was fantastic to finally get them here. We’ve been working on getting them here for three years or more.
“There was also the Geelong Gales, who were celebrating 160 years of the rules of hurling written in Geelong, so we had hurling on Sunday, which was a bit of a highlight.
“They had quite a few traditional activities and in Ireland, you would traditionally be marched onto the game, so we sort of tried to recreate that and that worked really well.”
The NCFF featured Celtic and Folk activities, food stalls, sporting events, and live music from Australian and International artists.
Ms McAlindan said the event was a “huge success” and looked forward to seeing what would happen next year.
