National Celtic Festival 2025

National Celtic Festival 2025

6 – 9 June 2025, 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.

Free entertainment for day trippers all weekend

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.

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 various venues around town
• Food Trucks – something to tantalize every taste bud
• Geelong vs Melbourne – Hurling Clash
• Heavy Games
• Declan McGovern – Irish Chef
• Geelong Highland Pipe Band
• Marie & Mathew’s Irish Social Dancing
• Geelong Scottish Dance
• Bustling Market on the foreshore
• The Enterprize Tall Ship

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.