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BEVERLY -- Organizers with the 2023 West Virginia Celtic Festival and Highland Games are excited with the way things are progressing leading up to the June 17 event set at 4-H Camp Pioneer.
Close to 1,800 people are expected to take part in the all-day extravaganza, that will feature Celtic ancestry tents, clan villages, highland dancing, live Celtic music, storytelling, blacksmith demonstrations, Celtic food and merchandise and much more.
"Everything is going phenomenal, unbelievable, actually," Timothy Ferguson, the festival's president, told The Inter-Mountain Thursday. "This thing has grown to the likes we couldn't imagine.
"I've been to probably 100 or more festivals, and I believe that we have events and activities piled up to compete with any festival that's found in the eastern United States, other than maybe the national Celtic gathering. And right now we have 18 clan tents signed up, which is very impressive."
Two major parts of the celebration are going to be the fully sanctioned highland games, along with the growing list of vendors that are expected to take part in the festival.
"We're going to have guys at the festival attempting to throw telephone poles, among other things," Ferguson said. "And we are going to have a bunch of food, clothing and merchandise vendors at the festival. It's going to be a full-blown festival with everything we've planned, plus more."
Ferguson said even though the festival's events and activities are growing, there is still time for people and organizations to get involved.
"Because we are getting filled up doesn't mean we won't accept something that will add more to the festival," Ferguson said. "We would love to have more and right now we are waiting to hear back from a couple of acoustic bands. We have six bands so far, but we need some acoustic performers to do shows in between the highland dancers."
Ferguson said the festival is still searching for traditional Celtic food vendors and volunteers for the event.
"We'd love to find some more food vendors who do traditional Celtic food," he said. "We have two right now, but they don't do Celtic food for a living, they just agreed to do some dishes for the festival. And we are still looking for some volunteers to help us with it."
Non-profit organizations looking to get involved with the festival are also encouraged to reach out to Ferguson.
"If non-profits want to set up some kind of a stand, we can work something out with them," Ferguson said. "We've talked to the Boy Scouts about coming out and setting up something because right now is their annual recruiting window.
"If any non-profits want to sell trinkets or something like that, or put a bucket out for donations, it's fine with us. We want them to be able to afford to run their organizations and we understand fully because it's really hard to get money with the way the economy is right now."
The Kanawha County Cloggers have recently been added to the list of the festival participants, along with a group of border collies that will herd ducks.
Ferguson said he has also been talking with a local organization about serving turkey legs at the festival.
"Turkey legs are popular at Celtic festivals," he said. "People walk around chewing on a turkey leg all the time at these events."
For more information on the West Virginia Celtic Festival and Highland Games, go to the festival's website at wvcelticfestandgames.com.