Get out your kilts, Holland's first Celtic festival is two weeks away

Irish dancing, kilts and pints of Guinness are coming to a park near you.

The first-ever Holland Waterfront Celtic Festival and Highland Games is June 24-25, promising a weekend of entertainment, athletic competition and toe-tapping Celtic tunes on the edge of the Macatawa River.

The festival was co-founded last year by a pair of Holland residents, Craig Rich and Peter Grimm. Rich has long been active in Holland civic life as an elected official on the Holland City Council for almost 30 years, and Grimm has been actively involved in Holland's St. Patrick's Day parade.

Rich, who has some Irish and Scottish heritage and a longtime passion for Celtic cultures, said the festival is for everyone.

"In Holland, we all celebrate everybody's heritage and everybody's culture," Rich said. "I've been going to the Cinco de Mayo celebration for 40 some odd years, and I've been a participant in Tulip Time since I was very very young.

"There's a lot of non-Dutch people who participate in Tulip Time and there's a lot of non-Hispanic people who celebrate Cinco de Mayo, so I think anybody can come and celebrate an Irish-Scottish festival without being Irish or Scottish. It's one more awesome, fun thing that makes Holland an amazing place to live."

On Friday evening, the festival kicks off with an adults-only ceilidh — ceilidh is the Scottish Gaelic word for a social gathering featuring traditional Irish or Scottish music and dancing — starting at 6 p.m. in a huge pub tent at Window on the Waterfront Park.

The Grand Rapids-based Irish pub band The Leprecons and CrossBow, a Michigan band with a modern take on Celtic fiddle music, will provide the entertainment for the ticketed event.

Then, on Saturday, a $10 admission fee covers the day-long festival at Window on the Waterfront Park (in the Riverview Park-soccer fields area).

More: Kate Boeve bringing Scottish Highland Games to Holland

The festival is family-friendly and free for kids under the age of 13. Throughout the day, music groups will be performing Celtic and Irish music in the pub tent and Irish dance troupes will show off their skills on the dance stage.

The Highland Games will be a highlight. In the games, men and women in kilts compete in events such as the caber toss — throwing a long, telephone-pole-like log vertically — and the hammer throw.

Kate Boeve, a Holland resident and a world-renowned competitor in highland games competitions, is the athletic director for Holland's games.

Two other special guests to catch Saturday are Liam the "extra large" Leprechaun, a regular at Michigan Irish and Celtic festivals and St. Patrick's Day events, and Hugh Irwin, "the kilted magician."

Holland's Irish pub, The Curragh, will be serving up fish and chips and other Irish and Scottish dishes. Local bakeries will provide Scottish and Irish baked goods. And, of course, Guinness will be on tap for those over the age of 21.

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The festival will also feature opportunities to learn about Celtic heritage in Irish history displays from the Irish Consulate and a Scottish "Clan Village" where people can learn about Scottish clans and get help researching their own Scottish ancestry.

The hope for the festival is that it becomes an annual staple for the Holland community, like Tulip Time and LAUP's Fiesta.

"With the Curragh Irish pub right here in downtown and the whole social district element of downtown, this just fits in so well with what's been happening in Holland: the diversity, the culture, the entertainment district and the whole feel we have downtown," Rich said.

The festival's website is hollandcelticfestival.org.

Entertainment schedule for Saturday, June 25

Music stage

• 10 a.m. Acoustic Vagabondi

• 11:30 a.m. Selkie

• 1 p.m. Ironwood

• 2:30 p.m. Mona Shores Fiddlers

• 4 p.m. Uneven Ground

• 5:30 p.m. CrossBow

• 7 p.m. Conklin Ceili Band

Dance stage

• 10 a.m. McClintic School of Highland Dance

• 11 a.m. Ardan Academy of Irish Dance

• 12 p.m. McClintic School of Highland Dance

• 1 p.m. Ardan Academy of Irish Dance

• 2 p.m. Scoil Rince ni Bhraonain

• 3 p.m. Michigan Irish Dance Academy

• 4 p.m. Scoil Rince ni Bhraonain

• 5 p.m. Michigan Irish Dance Academy

Scottish Pipe and Drum Band

• 11 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. Muskegon Regional Police Pipe and Drums

— Contact reporter Carolyn Muyskens at cmuyskens@hollandsentinel.com and follow her on Twitter at @cjmuyskens. 

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Holland Waterfront Celtic Festival