National Celtic Festival was a great weekend

Roving entertainers

Hubby and I attended our very first music festival on the Queen’s Birthday weekend.

Why oh why did we wait so long????

Thank you, National Celtic Festival at Portarlington

We had an absolutely fabulous time!

And thank you Bellarine Bayside caravan park.

It took us a while to decide whether to go or not. In fact, I did not buy the tickets until we had hitched up our van and was ready to drive out of our driveway.

We had already booked our site in the caravan park so even if we decided not to attend the festival we knew that there was plenty to do around the Bellarine region.

The staff are always so welcoming at the Bellarine Bayside and even though this was a busy weekend for the town, the friendly smiles were still plentiful.

The caravan park was quite full, but I have no idea if that was because people were going to the festival, or just looking forward to a relaxing long weekend.

But we were very fortunate as we could still look out over the bay from our caravan. Yes, our little Roma pop top was positioned nicely on an ensuite site. And we were lucky, as it appeared that all ensuite sites were fully booked.

And how lucky were we to have such great neighbours in Ensuite 9.  Darryl and Bron were so willing to share their knowledge about music festivals to us first timers. They had really spent some time going through the program as there were many events that they had highlighted. As novices, we were fairly limited, as we had little knowledge of many of the performers, but Bron and Darryl were there to offer advice.

So off we headed to the Portarlington park, armed with knowledge and excitement all ready to hopefully have a great time. Marquees and tents, of all sizes, were spread around this beautifully treed park, which is situated nicely on the hill overlooking the bay.

Performers were scattered throughout the park halls, marquees and neighbouring church halls. Once you had received your wrist band you had access to all venues. But the choice as to who to see was difficult as so many exceptional artists were on at the same time.

Our Saturday was spent enjoying the very deft finger work and foot tapping music of the Adelaide Scottish Fiddle Club, and listening to the wonderful entertaining stories and songs from Colin Lillie. 

The Parks Hall was very popular on the Saturday evening and we were very pleased that we arrived early enough to find seats towards the front. Damien Leith knew how to involve the crowd and keep everyone spellbound with great music and snippets. Trouble in the Kitchen and the Paul McKenna Band kept the tempo upbeat, which was needed on such a cold night, but I must remember a knee rug next time.

Such a diverse group of entertainers, from well known to those who are just finding their feet in the entertainment industry. One thing was for sure though, all the music had you tapping your toes or clapping your hands. And many of the audience were singing along, not necessarily in tune, but that did not matter.

It was so wonderful to see adults and children swirling and twirling around in the vacant space below the stage. The smiles and laughter from people enjoying the music and atmosphere flowed through all venues and left audience members uplifted and in high spirits.

The weekend was all about fun and inclusion. And you did not need to spend money on a ticket to be part of the fun, as there was plenty of free entertainment to keep you captivated. Market stalls selling a variety of foodstuffs to fulfil the appetite, from the typical baked potato, hot soup or Scottish shortbread, or for those who were tempted, haggis. We thoroughly enjoyed a large plate of freshly made Dutch pancakes, mine sprinkled with sugar and drizzled with lemon.

Hubby was so pleased to grab sausage in bread for a second breakfast

 Sunday was a repeat of Saturday: fabulous entertainment, clapping, singing and toe tapping. And not enough time to see everyone whom we had marked in the program. But I will keep this year’s program with my written notations so I will know who to attempt to see if we are lucky enough to be able to return next year.

In conclusion, it took me quite a few years to finally attend a music festival, now perhaps the seed has been sown and I will hunt out a few more.

                                      Happy and safe travels everyone.