BETHLEHEM, Pa. — After bad weather last year put the future of Celtic Classic festival in doubt, organizers didn't get the bright-skied reprieve for which they hoped this year.
But the 37th year of North America’s largest free Celtic heritage festival, which concluded Sunday, was much more visitor-friendly than the full-fledged rainstorms that washed out the 2023 version.
Despite the drizzle, people at the Classic on Sunday said they were having fun.
“It's just a lot of fun, you know? People just get out, and I guess they show their Celtic pride.”Jim Hooper, a Celtic Classic attendee from Willow Grove, Montgomery County
“It's just a real neat atmosphere — I mean, the food, the Highland Games, the vendors, the music,” said Jim Hooper, a Celtic Classic attendee from Willow Grove, Montgomery County.
“It's just a lot of fun, you know? People just get out, and I guess they show their Celtic pride.”
Sherri Anderson of Bethlehem, who was at the festival with the Scottish Society of the Lehigh Valley, said she attends the festival not only for a dose of Celtic music and culture, but for a sense of shared community.
“I love this event," Anderson said. "I’ve probably missed about three years since it started. It gives you a little connection to where you came from, and it gives you a connection to people who are out here.”
Several long-time attendees said Sunday that while the crowds were much larger than last year’s low-turnout festival, they were not as large as the typical crowds of Celtic Classics past.
Officials with the Celtic Cultural Alliance, the body that organizes the Celtic Classic, did not grant requests for an interview Sunday.
Continuing on, and competition winners
Low attendance last year put this year’s festival took on higher-than-usual stakes for the Celtic Cultural Alliance.
Heavy rain last year canceled a marquee event and kept many would-be attendees at home, leaving the alliance on shaky financial footing. At the time, festival organizers said they were not sure the alliance would have enough funds to put on this year’s Classic.
A $75,000 state grant this spring shored up the organization enough for the Classic to return this weekend.
They did not quite get their wish as far as weather, as overcast skies brought drizzly conditions for most of the weekend.
But the festival at least was able to continue on.
Each year, the Celtic Classic hosts the multi-day National Highland Games Championships, challenging athletes to throw a series of heavy objects in contests derived from Scottish history.
Sunday afternoon, festival organizers crowned John Van Beuren as first-place winner after the 10-challenge gantlet, followed by Kyle Lillie in second and Nik Aston third.
On the other side of the festival’s Highland Field, drum-and-bagpipe-playing bands from across the Eastern United States competed Saturday and Sunday.
Siren City, a pipe band based in Norfolk, Virginia, won the competition for Grade Four bands. Bergen Irish of Bergen County, New Jersey, won second and the Kearny, New Jersey-based Sean McGonigal band took third.
Results in the more competitive Grade Three division were to be announced later Sunday evening.
