A day with the celts

I had seen the ad for the "Northeast Louisiana Celtic Festival" while driving once by Ruston downtown. I have been recently interested in celtic culture so I thought it was a great chance to attend. It was going to be held at the Ike Hamilton Exposition Center of West Monroe, so it was about a half and hour drive for me. The morning was nice and shinning so I had a good drive. The first thing I could see of the Fest were the outdoor games where a bunch of buff guys dressed in scottish kilts were trying to throw a sack of pasture as high as they could.

Tickets were only $10 but they offered a 50% discount to students so it was very cheap for me to get in. Once inside you could get a very nice programme of the events. I went to the main stage where a band called Southern Harvest was playing some Bluegrass music.

I was a bit surprised since I thought the event was about celt music, but later I learned that Bluegrass music somewhat comes from Irish, Scottish and Welsh music so the selection wasn't totally inapropriate. I enjoyed a delicious scottish shortbread and made the selection of shows that I would attend during the day. I made a little tour by the facilities and visited some of the vendings around. I got myself a nice welsh blanket and wanted to buy a welsh T-shirt with the dragon but the seller would refuse to sell. Then I went to the Children's area, where a group of irish dancers would perform. I liked the dances, and I also watched a small theater play about Halloween.

I was getting hungry so I went for lunch. They had a good variety on scotting, irish and some other celtic food, so it was hard to decide! I went for the cornish pattie, which is what I would call a "meat empanada" anywhere in Latin America.

I liked it very much!

Then it was the turn for Brendan Nolan on stage. He is a very famous and talented irish folk singer. His music was cool but the next band was my very favorite from the Festival. Their name is Celt Iberia and they play a very nice selection of spanish celt songs from Galicia, the forgotten seventh celtic nation. The voice of the lady was amazing and so it was the band's instrument playing. They ended up with two encores of flamenco music that make the audience ignite! Thumbs up for Celt Iberia!

Then I attended one of the workshops where a member of the Scottish Pipe and Drumbs band was explaining some facts about playing bagpipes. Later in the evening I saw the Louisiana Youth Orchestra playing some Irish folk songs. The day closed with Needfire, a celtic rock band! I think they truly rocked!!!! What a nice day at the Celtic Fest!