Celtic Fling 2.0

Last year we attended The Celtic Fling that’s held every summer on the Renaissance Faire grounds. We had no idea there would be so much music there, or that we would enjoy it as much as we did. This year, it was just a given that we’d go, and the music was the main reason behind attending. Several of the bands were repeats from the first year, but there were a handful of new ones as well, including one featuring a didgeridoo and a cover of Pink Flyod’s, The Wall. We also heard covers from Johnny Cash and They Might Be Giants mixed in with traditional Celtic music.

I was really excited to see that they had a couple of pipe bands this year, something that was missing previously. I don’t know if it’s because the festival is mainly geared toward the Irish, or if there just aren’t a lot of pipe bands in the Central PA area – who knows. They really pumped up the fact that this was the first year ever that they would feature the bands in a “pipe-off.” One band was supposed to play, and then the other would come back with, supposedly, a bigger and better song. I was all sorts of excited – I really miss playing in a pipe band and I love watching competitions.

Yeah. The first song was Scotland The Brave. No disrespect or anything, but that has got to be the most boring song. Maybe it’s because we had to play it over and over and over…and over, when we did parades and competitions, but it doesn’t exactly get me excited. The next song was a little more promising, but then everything went downhill from there, including the other band doing their own rousing rendition of STB.  Maybe with a year to practice, they can figure out something else to play next time.

The music was definitely the main draw for us, but there were other things to enjoy. Like an entire family dressed up like pirates, perhaps. Or the woman who was doing face painting in a leather corset that was not exactly holding everything in its proper place. Or the lady belly dancing in the aisles at the Scythian concert. And then there were a few things that were not so enjoyable…like the creepy guy who stared at me the entire time I was breastfeeding Sophie – I kept checking to make sure I was all covered up and tried giving him the evil eye. Didn’t work. Or the old couple that Tom saw making out during the Enter The Haggis concert. Good times.

By about six o’clock, I could tell the girls were bushed. The festival was still going strong with a group concert coming up at seven. Tom and I looked at each other and decided to pack it in. We joked that these kids were really holding us down from our partying ways, but I was exhausted too, so we headed out on our long hike to the car.

As I was unpacking the stroller, I asked Ella if she had a good time. She rubbed her eyes and said, “Yeah. Where we goin’ next?” “Home,” I said. “No, Mom – we go to another festival!” Tom jokingly asked if she wanted to go to the after-party. Her eyes lit up – “yeah!” I guess we’re the ones holding her back – we are now officially old.