The Celtic Classic

Not as big as musikfest, bit a lot of fun!
There are a lot of the same food vendors which is good to get your favorites, and there seemed to be more craft vendors this year which I enjoy to look at, however, with my finacial situation paying $ 250 on a sweater will never be part of my budget in the near future.
Enjoyed some whiskey tents, didn’t get to see any sporting events. Hopefully I will be calling Bethlehem home for a bit longer and will be able to thoroughly enjoy all the fests that occur.

I’m giving up on Celtic Classic… Why? Well, we’ve been going as a family for years now, but the things we liked the best about it seem to be gone. There are no more original crafts… just the same catalog quality crafts that you see any most festivals with a Celtic theme. There are no more instrument makers and the music vendors (CDs) are gone. The food stinks too. They used to offer great Irish stew, shepherd’s pie, pasties, etc… and those «Famine Log» rustic french fries are gone too (not for the last couple of years). Granny McCarthy’s from Bethlehem used to have a food booth but no more.
This year I ordered shepherd’s pie and got an 8 oz styrofoam cup filled with about 6 oz of shepherd’s slop. Oriental people served the food to us… they couldn’t even speak enough English and one was adding up your purchase by drawing big invisible numbers with his finger on the counter (and getting it wrong). The meat pie was frozen and we had to demand some gravy on top… they gave about a teaspoonful. Mmmm… yummy shepherds slop for 7 bucks! Oh yea… and they tried to tell me I didn’t order my son’s pulled pork sandwich – even though the total paid prooved we did! (Pulled pork, wraps and pizza at a Celtic fest… ugh.)
The music is also suffering. Less authentic traditional music and more and more garage band noise (fusion celtic rock…). I’ve always liked folk rock since the sixties but this stuff is just loud and low quality. The music tent is so loud, smokey (yes… no one telling people not to smoke) and smells of beer – cheap beer at that. BTW, they really should make this place a no-​smoking zone… huge crowds and tents and fire hazards don’t mix.
The lines are getting longer and longer. The crowds are so extreme that you can’t possibly see the sports events (unless you are VERY tall or standing on top of the couple of slight hilly areas or on the bridge up above. Paid grandstand seating? These are sold out years ahead… Perhaps these events should be in a large stadium venue and not a flat field with crowding throngs pushing to see.
Parking is a nightmare. Sure, there’s a shuttle… the lines for that are incredibly long.
Kids events are few and far between… and lame at that. They used to have great kids musicians but the last two years zilch.
For our family it was torture driving around for a half hour to find parking (and WE got lucky!), more torture standing on lines for 20 minutes to get food tickets (what happened to using cash?), still more torture standing on a _​short_​15 minute line for food, and then standing around like jerks trying to find a table to sit at in the main tent (we never found one.) We wound up walking behind the portapotties and sitting on the wooden road barrier to eat our food.
We breezed through the tacky gift tents… nothing unique or original.
Bethlehem oversells these events (Musicfest is another nightmare, and Kriskindlemardt is getting tired and same old same old.)
Goodbye Celtic Classic… «Classic», you ain’t anymore.

Celtic bands were late going on to allow for a NON-​CELTIC band to play. Bad form and bloody awful.

Large men in kilts. Really, must I say more?
Well — I will anyway.
I come for one reason — caber tossing. This is the equivalent of grown men, running and flipping telephone poles. It’s f’n insane. The highland games truly are made of gargantuan men doing ridiculous feats for our entertainment. I can dig it.
The music is fun. I’ve heard the food is good (nothing I could eat but I don’t mind). The marketplace has almost nothing by artisans (which is sad).
Here’s my gripe. It’s a Celtic festival right? There’s should be fantastic alcohol from the uk flowing like a river… nope. It’s sponsored by crap American beers. Killians is the best they offer, and that’s domestic (and crap as well). My suggestion? Get a bit pissed (intoxicated for the rest of you) before you arrive with the true nectar. No true celt (or respectable person at that) should have to deal with the swill they vend in plastic cups from the back of box trucks…
…but it’s still always a great time.

Celtic themed, somewhat smaller, musikfest.
Those of you who have been to Musikfest will recognize a similar layout, even down to tent locations and food stands. The footprint is somewhat smaller, only including the area under the bridge and down to the river, however this still provides ample craft booths, music, and food to explore over the course of this 3-​day festival.
Come for the highland games, pipe bands, and try the fish and chips!

This event seemingly gets better and better with each passing year. It’s getting so big, that I’d almost say it’s at the point where it’s outgrowing the real esate of the venue.
Between all the live Gaelic music, outdoor beer drinking, Irish and Scottish foods, bagpipe cometitions, fiddle competitions, and general mayhem, it’s a great time.
And how could I forget the Highland Games. Because who isnt entertained by gigantic missing-​link-​looking guys trying to throw a 22lb hammer as far as they can, or seeing how high in the air they can toss a 56lb weight?
This year Gaelic Storm was the featured closing band, and given that they’re fairly famous on the world music scene, I was pretty impressed they were able to get them. The performance was fantastic, and so impressed was I that I was willing to forgive that they were in the James Cameron sapfest, Titanic. I even left with a CD.
The fact that The Celtic Classic is completely free (save what you eat and drink) is really a nice touch, and probably one of the better entertainment values in the tristate area. Kudos to little Bethlahem for pulling this off each year.

Yay Celtic Classic! Once a year for 3 days (the last full weekend in September)– some of the best Celtic bands in the world, amazing athletes, adorable dancers, guys who love wearing kilts, bagpipe bands, and beer drinking wackos appear in Bethlehem, PA and rock out.
It’s really a lot of fun, and sort of hard to describe to other people.
Friday night is sort of slow– lots of music, some vendors are still setting up. Generally we dedicate Friday night to shopping… wandering the vendors and looking through all sorts of crapandshit. Irish flag underwear, bibs that say «Tis Herself,» Guiness paraphernalia, kilts and tartan goods, swords, dance shoes, family crests, shortbread… you get the point.
Saturday is a full day. There’s a parade through town around noon where all the pipe bands, both Bethlehem HS bands play and the scottish clans (not the KKK) march. One high school has a fife corps and the other one has a bagpipe brigade. Can you imagine your high schooler learning to bagpipe. Fun! (ouch!) There are athletic competitions all day– weight for height, weight for distance, sheaf (not to be confused with sheep) tossing, hammer throw, and of course the cabers. There are dog herding demonstrations. Then the pipe bands mass and play all at once, which is nutty. Although there is music all day, they save the good stuff for the evening– and there are 6 stages, so there’s a lot to choose from.
Sunday is much like Saturday– caber tossing finals, and the pipe bands compete in the piping glen. I think the 5K is Sunday morning too… unless it’s pouring like this year.
They’re always looking for volunteers, and I have helped out for the past few years– they feed you and give you an awful t-​shirt in return.
This year there were some differences in the festival– the big difference was the grand pavilion turned sideways– which was a terrible idea, actually. it meant that people in the back couldn’t hear or see. They also renamed the stages to dumb things– Monacacy Moor (which most people seem to call Monocacy for short) was just the Moor Stage this year (although I still heard people call it Monacacy) and the Tavern in the Glen was just called the Tavern Stage… it was less colorful. Also, I think they stopped selling «Yards of Ale» although I saw a few festival die-​hards sporting their yards from years past. What gives? People love wearing beer.
One of my favorite vendors was missing too– I (heart) the welsh cookies guys. Charming welshmen, please.
This year it rained, the creek flooded on the second day, and two stages had to be evacuated– but in years past it has been stinking hot, so you never really know what to expect weather-​wise.
Generally speaking, though– if you have any Celt in your blood, this is a fun event. And even if not, if bagpipes or men in kilts make you weak in the knees… make the trip.