The Saline Celtic Festival is an annual tradition that returns for 2025 under the new name – the Michigan Celtic Festival – that was introduced in 2024. It is a celebration of traditional Irish and Celtic culture. In 2023 they moved from Saline’s Mill Pond Park to the Washtenaw Farm Council Fairgrounds and remain at the fairgrounds this year.
Have you ever been to the Saline Celtic Festival? We have visited a couple of times and had a great time. Based on our experience, I’ve put together some information about the Michigan Celtic Festival and 5 Tips for Visiting. We were not able to attend in more recent years between sports, our travel schedule, other committments, and the weather.
About the Saline Celtic Festival
The Saline Celtic Festival developed from Saline’s sister city relationship with Brecon Wales. The volunteer run event highlights traditional Celtic culture.
The Festival traditionally includes Friday night (5p-midnight) and Saturday’s main Festival event (10a-midnight). Friday night has been revamped into a family-friendly event with music and dance workshops and performances as well as the beer night.
The 2023 move from Mill Pond Park to Washtenaw Farm Council Fairgrounds provided several advantages.
- Ample free parking on site
- Many activities are indoors providing protection from rain or extreme heat
- Bathrooms with running water and flushing toilets
Typical Michigan Celtic Festival Activities
The Wee Folks Fun is definitely the place to be for young kids. Wee Folks Fun will open in Building E at noon with Arts & Crafts and games. Throughout the afternoon there will be ducky races, crafts, and carnival games. Wee Folks Fun will wrap up with the Wee Folks Parade throughout the festival at 4:30p and close at 5p.
The Saline Celtic Festival offers a chance to watch activities like Jousting, Highland Games, Highland Dancing, and more. Definitely make time to watch some of these activities. The Highland Games are our favorite spectator activity. There are also dance and music workshops.
New for 2025 is Cricket & Hurling, Combat, and Genealogy. Unfortunately it looks like jousting is no longer an activity. I enjoyed watching that the first year we attended.
Throughout the festival, there are typically activities for kids to try their hand at. My daughter loved participating in a mini highland games challenge and fencing lessons.
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Past Years at Saline Celtic Festival
We had a great time at both the 2014 and 2015 Saline Celtic Festival as shown in the video below and in our 2014 review.
In 2014, my daughter’s highlights were the Wee Folks Island and watching the Highland Games. In 2015, the highlight was taking on the kids challenge course and taking a fencing lesson with Ring of Steel. At 9, she decided to skip the Wee Folks Island in favor of the other activities.
Five Tips for the Michigan Celtic Festival
1 – Buy Tickets in Advance
Michigan Celtic Festival Tickets are cheaper if you buy them in advance. Online tickets are available for $15 for Adults, $10 for seniors, and $5 for youth. At the festival they are $18/adults, $10/seniors, $5/youth. Online ticket sales end on June 30.
2 – What to Bring
If you will be visiting Wee Folks Fun, bring a bag for your child’s creations – preferably one that you wouldn’t mind getting paint on if their creations are still wet.
Make sure to wear comfortable walking shoes. There is plenty of walking at the Michigan Celtic Festival.
Be sure to bring water to drink especially if it’s warm.
3 – Getting to the Festival
Getting to the Festival is even easier now that it is at the Fairgrounds! There is plenty of FREE parking. There is no longer a need to take a shuttle or park blocks away.
4 – Plan Your Day – Check the Schedule
Be sure to check the schedule and plan your visit accordingly to make sure you hit the highlights. The first time that we went, we spent about 45 minutes on Wee Folks Island partially because I had bought my daughter an entry into the hourly duck race and we had to wait for the race. I do suggest visiting Wee Folks Island early in the afternoon as they ran short on some craft activities in 2014.
5 – Don’t Miss These Activities
Obviously for each family, different activities will be at the top of their activity list. Both years we really enjoyed watching the Highland Games activities. For my parents and I it brought back memories of a Nintendo NES game that we had that featured the caber toss.
I also recommend watching some of the Highland Dancing. I also suggest walking around the entire festival to see the artisans and other demonstrations.
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