National Celtic Festival 2023

National Celtic Festival

9 – 12 June 2023, Portarlington Victoria

The National Celtic Festival is back and the easiest way to get there is via Port Phillip Ferries direct to the venue. Held over 4 days of the June long weekend this winter festival is regarded as Australia’s premier Celtic Folk Festival and attracts over 18,000 people to the region.

There’ll be food trucks, markets, free live music, free entertainment, outdoor bars, open fires and more… and it’s all so easily accessible from Melbourne via a fast ferry direct to the venue.

This is both a ticketed & non-ticketed program and offers maximum opportunities for participation and free entertainment for single day-trippers and full weekend ticket holders.

Weekend of Family Fun on the Bellarine

If you come across the bay for the day, there are lots on offer in the free areas from 10 am on Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

• A full program of live music, theatre and spoken word performances across twelve venues around town
• Food Trucks – something to tantalize every taste bud.
• Pipe Bands
• Dance Stage
• Busking
• Bustling Market on the foreshore – With uninterrupted bay views across to the You Yangs and, on a clear day, Melbourne.
• The South Pacific Highland Games Championship to be held at The National Celtic Festival – The inclusion of this Scottish cultural event will provide a new and exciting spectacle to the Bellarine and the greater community. The event will be featuring the best in each class Male and Female – Australia and New Zealand as well as local heavy athletes, some of the largest athletes in the world competing in traditional highland games heavy events including the heavy stone throw, the sheaf toss and the crowd favorite the caber toss. All with expert commentary by a master of ceremony.
• The Enterprize – A once-familiar sight on Portarlington Pier, Enterprize is returning! She is delighted to announce a busy schedule of one-hour and one-and-a-half-hour sails open to the public, with NCF performers aboard to entertain you! A replica 1830’s-style topsail schooner, Enterprize gives you the opportunity to experience traditional tall ship sailing. She is crewed by volunteers from all walks of life who enjoy both sailing the ship and the continuation of traditional ropework, rigging and maintenance skills handed down by sailors past for hundreds of years.

More about the festival

The festival takes in the foreshore area and venues across the township of Portarlington on the Bellarine Peninsula and offers a dynamic program that represents a diverse range of art forms. There are performances, concerts, workshops, masterclasses competitions, forums, demonstrations, visual arts projects, themed events, and more.

The market area includes food trucks and expo stands, designer markets, instrument makers, demonstrations, ancient ceremonies and rituals around open fires, highland cattle exhibitions, Gaelic Football displays and new works/projects from visual artists.

The festival organizers recognise the significance of the land on which the festival is held to the indigenous people of the area and in collaboration with local elders have developed means to acknowledge this in a meaningful way.

The festival caters for all age groups and for a diversity of cultural and family groups. It has become an annual event for families and friends to gather, offering time to relax and experience the depth of Celtic culture through the festival’s culturally diverse arts program.