7-12-2013 5:36pm

Craft Beers and New Vendors Add 'Foodie' Atmosphere to Celtic Festival

The 18th Saline Celtic Festival will be on Friday, July 12, and Saturday July 13 in Mill Pond Park in Saline, Michigan

The festival attracts over 3200 attendees and over 1000 volunteers and merchants. Each committee chairperson puts in countless hours of their time to give the Saline community and surrounding areas a successful event that caters to festival goers and their families.

Highland Athletics is an annual crowd favorite at the Saline Celtic Festival. These ancient games, whose origin predates the 11th century are a thrill to watch! Events such as the Caber Toss, Stone Put, and Sheaf Toss showcase the strength and athleticism of the contestants. The Celtic Festival hosts both professional and amateur tournaments.

Music plays an important role in the Saline Celtic Festival. Each year, we strive to provide a wide range of musicians and dancers on our stages. From acoustic traditional Celtic ballads to high energy Celtic Rock, you’ll hear it all at the Celtic Festival. Our lineup includes popular headlining bands, award winning musicians and dancers, as well as up and coming young talent. Each year we invite many local and regional artists to punctuate our roster. This year’s lineup includes the Celtic Supergroup; Solas, The Tartan Terrors, Brother, Blackthorn, and many more!

Listen to the music of four Pipe and Drum Bands, dressed in their resplendent uniforms, and proudly wearing their tartans. The mass bands event with all four taking the field together is a sight to see!

The Celtic Festival offers many activities for audience participation. Festival goers may try their hand at such field entertainments as Golf Chipping and our popular “Haggis Hurl.” The Celtic Survivor Challenge has become a popular attraction at the festival. Entrants must succeed at contests of physical and mental challenges as they advance through the feudal system from a lowly serf to King or Queen of the Festival.

The Wee Folks Island offers fun and crafts for children and a rubber ducky race in a stream flowing to Mill Pond, where Millie the Mill Pond Monster prowls the shoreline delighting festival attendees of all ages.

Our Merchants area has expanded to include favorite local vendors from our Saline Farmer’s Market as well as several new vendors displaying all manner of products.

The Saline Celtic Festival has partnered with the Saline Main Street Association to add a new event that will replace our 5K. This is called the Mastodon Mayhem Challenge and is a Warrior Dash type run that will happen throughout Mill Pond Park with obstacles, mud, hills, etc. Our previous 5K event happened outside the park grounds and ended within the park - we're excited to have this one happen entirely within the grounds.

We've expanded our liquor control area so that in includes all of Mill Pond Park. This has been a gradual enhancement for our guests - from last year's expansion from a single beer tent to now free range throughout the park.

Along with this expansion, we've made the very important decision to offer Michigan Craft Beers for the first time in the Celtic Festival. This is part of our improvement plan designed to offer additional attractions for our local guests who otherwise might not have entertained the idea of coming to the festival. We've invited Bells, Arcadia Ales, and New Holland Brewery, Arbor Brewing Company, to set up in our tents with their individual offerings. To partner with this expanded selection, we're also inviting new food vendors to create more of a Foodie's experience within the park.

To enjoy with the food and drink, we'll continue to offer the fine selection of traditional and modern Celtic Music which has been synonymous with the Celtic Festival for 18 years.

As you can see, we're positioning ourselves to cater to a new demographic of festival goers, while remaining true to our Celtic roots.

Thursday Night – Arcadia Ales Tap Takeover at Dan’s Downtown Tavern. To partner with the Summer Music Series, featuring the music of Creole Du Nord there will be Ancient Athletics Demonstrations downtown.

Friday Night – Pub in the Park, featuring Brother and The Tartan Terrors 5:30pm – 11pm. Admission - $5. Senior citizens, children 12 and under and active military - Free

Saturday – Festival Day – 11am to 11pm. Advance Tickets are Adults : $10, Youth (13 – 17) $5. Gate Price – Adult : $15, After 6pm - $10. Youth (13 – 17) $5. Senior citizens, children 12 and under and active military - Free

(This press release was submitted by Celtic Festival Committee President Amber Sotelo)