![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thelaurelofasheville.com\/updatestage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Asheville-Celtic-Festival-AVL-Celtic-Fest-1210572-copy.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
By Bellamy Crawford<\/p>\n
In 2023, the Asheville Celtic Fest attracted more than 4,000 attendees eager to dine on haggis, drink scotch and listen to the skirl of bagpipes. These lovers of kilts, Border Collies and sword fights will be pleased to know that this year\u2019s festival has been expanded to a two-day event taking place on Saturday, February 17, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Sunday, February 18, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., at the WNC Agricultural Center in Fletcher.<\/p>\n
This will mark the fourth year of Asheville\u2019s Celtic Fest, which is proudly organized by members of the nonprofit Asheville Celtic Group. \u201cOur 501c3 organization was founded for the primary purpose of creating educational opportunities around the cultural influences of settlers from Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Cornwall, Isle of Man, Brittany and Breton,\u201d says festival co-founder Dave Donnell.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thelaurelofasheville.com\/updatestage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Asheville-Celtic-Festival-ACF_logo-copy.jpg\"){kind=logo}
Donnell and his business partner Mark Ferguson began discussing the idea of putting on a Celtic festival in 2018. \u201cMark had been operating a successful Scottish food business, hauling his Scottish Cottage food trailer to festivals near and far. And, with my experience hosting large events, we decided to join forces,\u201d says Donnell. Eventually, the duo decided on a festival date, chose a venue and began investigating vendors.<\/p>\n
The first festival took place in February of 2020, and it had everything from traditional Celtic athletic battles to a 40-foot replica of the Edinburgh Castle, which Donnell built by hand. \u201cIt was a huge success,\u201d Donnell says. \u201cTickets sold out in the first few hours of opening.\u201d<\/p>\n
After that wildly successful year, the Asheville Celtic Fest was canceled in 2021 because of COVID. \u201cWe were determined not to let it die, though, so we decided to hold the festival again in 2022,\u201d says Donnell. \u201cThe second festival was also a huge success, so we held a third last year.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the third annual Celtic Festival, Donnell and Ferguson were able to increase special features, including a working trebuchet (giant catapult, also hand-built by Donnell). There were Border Collie demonstrations; family research opportunities; Celtic dance troupes; a royal court; an entire village of artisans and crafters; countless plates of haggis, shepherd\u2019s pie and Welsh miner cakes; mead, whiskey and Highland Brewing stouts and ales; hundreds of people decked out in their finest kilts and Celtic costumes; and the Knoxville Pipes and Drums band\u2019s ceremonious festival opening performance.<\/p>\n
Artist Jim McClain, owner of McClain & Company Wood Works, is excited about the festival\u2019s growth. \u201cMy wife is a potter, and we are both returning to the festival for our third year as vendors,\u201d says McClain, whose family immigrated to the US from Scotland and Wales during the 18th and 19th centuries.<\/p>\n
Celtic culture enthusiasts will be pleased to know that 2024\u2019s festival will include all of the previous years\u2019 features extended across two full days.<\/p>\n
\u201cTwice the vendors, twice the costumes, twice the fun,\u201d says Donnell.<\/p>\n