2026 January: Celtic Festival Day 2

 

Welcome to the British Isles!

11 January 2026

We had to hustle this morning because the church service today would be held in the park. Clark, being in the band, had to be at the park at 8:45 (early for us). Service started at 9:30 and I just barely made it there ahead of time. 

Time got away from me a bit (playing Wordle, etc.) and, leaving the boat at 9:15, I had to walk fast to make it there on time. I passed Andrew going the opposite way on a golf cart (he works at the marina) and thought about asking him for a lift to the front gate but decided to just step up my pace a bit instead. 

Even so, on the walk to the park, I had to stop and take a picture of the Ibis crowded together taking a bird bath in a puddle. 

White Ibis bathing

The park had three gates open for the festival yesterday, so I chose the closest one and marched (head down watching my step on the sloping terrain) almost all the way to the gate only to look up and find it padlocked! 9:28 Yikes! I had to backtrack and then walk all the way around to the back of the park to find the next closest entrance. As I came out of the pathway to the locked entrance, I saved a couple from my mistake by pointing them in the right direction to get in.  Interestingly, as I hurried on my way, I heard the woman say, "God sent you to us at just the right time."

The "pews" (folding chairs) were already packed when I arrived at the church tent, so I grabbed one of the last seats at the very rear of the tent. We had a good turn out with many of the congregation being visitors from other churches like St. Joseph's Episcopal Church.

Good crowd for services

Before services began, I could see the band way up front. The picture below shows Nancy seated on the left, Clark on guitar, Jacob ready to play the bongo drum, and Tom getting set to lead the ensemble.

Pastor Deb and her close friend from seminary school led the services.

Services concluded circa 10:30. Clark helped John, who worked the sound system, pack up his equipment and take it to his car. That took a while. "Johnny Live" had a "gig" to get to at a nearby venue and had to hustle for that engagement. While Clark was helping John, I sat vigil over Clark's guitar to be sure it didn't accidentally walk away by itself. 

By the time Clark came back and we were ready to go, the gates had opened (at 11:00) and folks were flowing in to the event. Clark needed to get his guitar back to the boat, and we needed to pick up tools for our late day work assignments. With that in mind, we headed back to the boat to switch out gear and grab lunch.

Checking out today's program, we decided we definitely needed to be back by 2:30 to hear the "Screaming Orphans". We got back early enough, however, to hear the "Piper Jones Band" as well. Although today was a shorter day program-wise, the afternoon was well worth attending!

With time on my hands this afternoon, I wandered the vendor booths with my camera in hand.

The art contest tent ...

The picture I chose that, to my knowledge, did not win a prize ... (I never heard who won the "Peoples' Choice" award.)

Celtic jewelry tent and Celtic Country flags ...

Leather bags from "The Celtic Bag Co." 

Florida Keys Watercolor Society fun booth for kids and adults ...

Leather hats - pirate, cowboy, gaucho, ...

Kilts for sale for a wide variety of clans ...

American Highlander Kilts

Celtic Exchange ... Jewelry & Crafts from Ireland and Great Britain

I also wandered by the food trucks.

The "Holy Grail" whoops I mean "Grill"

Order spot at The Holy Grill

The pub tent had competition for pretzels. We did a taste test. Not biased at all, we decided the pretzels at the pub tent were superior in taste.

Clark pointed out that the machine running at the Kettle Corn tent was making ice cream. I saw the sign today that I did not notice yesterday.

Making ice cream

Unlike yesterday, where we got a mix of sun, clouds, and rain showers, today we got only the hot sun. Given that, I grabbed a folding chair under the viewers' tent and sat to enjoy some music for a couple of hours. A man sat next to me and said, "Yesterday I only got wet when it rained". It was humid today for sure.

Late afternoon, I took another walk around the park and noticed that some things had already closed down. The athletic fields were deserted and all the participants and trailers were long gone.

No more bouncy houses

The petting zoo was still open but everything else nearby was gone.

Last year the main gate was close to the highway. This year we had to use an alternate, and less convenient, entrance. The town decided to build a skate park that blocked access to our prior "Gate #1". Some progress has been made on the skate park facility since we arrived in Marathon at the end of November. It should be impressive when completed.

Pictures taken through holes in the fencing...

The last Celtic Festival program event of the day was entitled "Shenanigans", and Clark and I both wondered who or what that would be. Interestingly, it turned out to be all the afternoon performers getting on stage together to do a jam session. The announcer basically said they were going to figure out the music as they went along as this had not been rehearsed. The band members clearly loved it as did the audience.

The stage was just a bit crowded!

The resulting music motivated many people to dance and clap along.

Two of the church band members got into the spirit ... Nancy and John

I caught some folks watching the show.

"Sing alongs and
Drink alongs"

Friends - Steve & Nancy

At the very end of the day, the music director called Pastor Deb up onto stage to thank her for the hospitality. 

Pastor Deb

A lot of effort goes into the festival. The money collected goes to support the children at "Hammock House". 

Those in charge work on the event all year long. The dates for next year are already marked on the calendar.

Pastor Deb joined in the singing for the last song of the day "Wild Mountain Thyme".

Although we were enjoying the music and the amateur dancers, I knew we had a lot of work ahead of us. Our job description changed multiple times. First we thought we would be tearing down the faux castle entrances this evening but were told that would be done on Monday. Then we assumed we would be needed to take down the Pub tent since we had built it. They had that covered. 

What Nancy (in charge) said she needed was for us to take down the banners all around the park and keep the commercial banners labeled and sorted separately from the church banners. A few minutes before 5:00 I tried to push Clark to start on the banners. He wouldn't budge away from watching the stage. I said, "You'll make me stand here until 5:01 before we can start, won't you?!" He just smiled.

At 5:02 we set off with wire cutters and a tarp to collect banners. We should have brought a bin for the oodles of plastic wire ties we cut off the fencing. I shoved them in my pocket as we collected them! I had to empty my pockets periodically as they filled up and those buggers hurt when they poked into my thigh!

We started at the eastern side of the park and worked our way around. I quickly lost count of the number of banners we cut down!

We collected a stack of them and delivered them to the truck to return to the church. We thought we were done, but Pastor Deb pointed out we missed the banners (not on the fence)  located on the back of the stands at the athletic field. Oops! Didn't think to look there.

We needed help with one banner that was on the outside of the fencing facing Route 1. With the exit blocked by the skate park development, we tried to disconnect and capture the banner from inside the fencing. A man showed up on the other side of the fence and asked if he could help. We cut the ties, he caught the banner and tossed it up to us over the fence. 

We thanked him. He walked away and then proceeded to jump over this 8 foot tall fence to go back to working on tearing down another booth nearby. Holy moly! Clark said, "Did he just jump over that fence?" Neither of us could believe it.

We managed to collect all the banners and flags scattered around the park and have them back on the truck but not until well after sunset. Earlier, as we were taking down the banners, I looked up to see the sky blessing the day with a brilliant mix of colors.

By the time we left the park (near 7:00 p.m.) the police had packed up and gone. They were there, since there is no traffic light at the park, to stop traffic for pedestrians. We used their help multiple times over the past two days, but to get home tonight, we were on our own. We had our bikes, since Clark was wearing a tool-heavy backpack, and pedaled to 33rd street to use the traffic light to cross the street.

The steaks I hoped would thaw out in the fridge for tonight's dinner were still too frozen to cook, so I threw together a pasta dish instead. We were both groaning from overusing our muscles today, so after dinner we turned on a Netflix romcom to relax. I managed to eek out a blog update. 

Clark disappeared after the movie. I found him after I posted my blog update fast asleep in bed! He still has one more Celtic Festival job to do. He will be over at the park again for 10:00 a.m. to help tear down the castle walls!

2026 January: Florida Keys Celtic Festival Day 1

Found an old friend at the Celtic Festival
We met last year!

10 January 2026

The Celtic Festival opened today at 10:00 a.m. Ev had volunteered to be backup if needed at the Pub Tent and was told to arrive around 11:00 when help may be needed. When we arrived, however, Ev was told that the booth was fully staffed and operational without additional help needed, so we took a stroll around the grounds to check out the vendors and activities.

Although the weather was questionable, a reasonable crowd had already gathered for the festivities.

Tent of spectators ready for the music to begin

Police Pipe and Drum getting ready to perform

We walked by the Pub Tent and saw it was up and running!

Pub Tent

Since we now had  plenty of time to explore the grounds, we walked over to see the "kiddy" area and strolled the aisles of the vendors booths.

Bouncy Houses galore

Petting Zoo / Pony Rides

Several booths had heritage data dependent on the various clans represented. The woman shown below is part of the Johnstone clan. The map she is standing beside shows Scotland partitioned by clan.

Proud Scottish Heritage

The Tea Tent was  busy. I waved to my church friend Connie as I walked by, she was busy selling tickets at the door.

Entrance to Iona Tea Garden
offering Tea, Scones, & Sandwiches

Throughout the day, competitive games and demonstrations took place.  The athletes are all women.

Getting ready to compete

How high can she throw the lead weight

Swinging to gain momentum

Up it goes!

Masters World Champion
multiple years!

Sheep dogs were present as well as their sheep though we did not watch them do their duty.

Just hanging around waiting to be
chased around the field

Besides the Pub Tent that we helped with, a number of food vendors participated in the event. Ev bought some Kettle Corn and checked out the ice cream maker at the same booth.

Besides the ponies and the sheep, we encountered some other animals today either as part of the event or just visiting.

From last year, I believe that the owl is unable to fly. S/he has no issues whatsoever with folks coming in close to say hello.

Coming into the park we met a young lady with a ferret. She graciously posed to show off her pet.

Pet Ferret

While listening to one of the musical performances, the fellow below poked his nose out from the seats in front of us to check out the audience. The person next to me was eating popcorn, and I think the dog's nose was twitching as he watched her eat.

Beautiful Pup

An amateur art contest "Art in the Park" was held as part of the event, and Clark and I voted. The one I voted for did not win, but the one Clark chose did! Clark referred to it as the "one of the swamp".

Mangroves picture took 1st place

Pineapple came in 2nd

Baby turtles heading out to sea
3rd place

At noon they held the opening ceremonies (even though the doors opened at 10:00). Musical groups and athletes walked / played instruments in the parade. It was led by our very own Pastor Deb as this festival is her "baby".

Pastor Deb and driver Kathy

Pastor Deb's husband, Kirk, 
with Clark
(Clark was not in the parade)

Bagpipers

Pole toss athletes

The big draw for this event is the musical groups playing lively tunes and the Irish Dancers kicking up their heels (quite literally).

Drake Irish Dancers

It was good they had a covered stage as it started to rain as the dancers took the stage.

We both like "The Screaming Orphans". We even bought one of their CDs today.

The Sean Heely Band, that came here from Virginia to perform, played lively music and had a dancer with them.

Sean Heely Band

The "Police Pipe and Drum" group performed several times.

The woman of the "Police Pipe and Drum" group that played a drum was fascinating to watch as she spun the "drumsticks" in the air. The "drumsticks" were padded balls that she waved over her head in between beats. 

 Amazing Woman drummer

Around 1:00 we walked back across the street to our marina to get some lunch. Generally speaking, festival food is not to our taste. It was nice to take a bit of a break to regroup. When the clouds and rain moved out of the way, the sun was hot. We found a non-rainy patch of time where we could walk back to the boat and not get wet. 

The marina was deserted. Perhaps most of the people including the staff were at the festival. Instead of boaters, we found an egret enjoying the peace and quiet of the marina.

A kite surfer was taking advantage of the nice water conditions.

We stopped into the Club House to use the facilities on the way back to the boat. I snuck a peak at the difficult puzzle to see what progress had been made since New Year's Day. Surprise! Done! Hopefully the next one we work on won't be quite so obnoxious.

Sadly we found a big patch of old sea grass had come to rest behind our boat, so we grabbed boat poles and gave it the old heave ho out of our backyard! Friends that walked by joked about us having to "cut the grass" in the Keys.

As we sat down on the boat to eat lunch, I got a call from Nancy to ask if I could come work at the Pub. She thought we were  still somewhere in the park. When she found out we were on the boat, she said she would hunt someone else down to help as her need was immediate.

Later, she asked if we would both work the Pub at 5:00 as she had no one working that last shift of the day until 7:00 p.m. All her workers were leaving at 5. So, just before 5:00, we showed up to find out our duties. I got hot dog and pretzel duty and Clark got to be cashier.

Nancy foreground
Clark at front taking orders and money
Woman in the middle mixing Vodka drinks

Watching my pretzels be heated

Hot dogs on the left; chili on the right
Hot dog anyone?

Vodka being added to the Pub menu was new this year. Next to the pub, the vodka company, Mutiny, offered samples to taste and then sent anyone wanting a mixed drink to the pub. Folks were lined up all day for the mixed drinks including, for example, Bloody Mary and Celtic Lemonade. Mutiny did not have a liquor license to sell the product themselves. They gave the vodka to the festival as a donation to raise money (and it worked)!

The last performance of the day was by "Albannach". They give a lively performance that most folks find mesmerizing. Ev enjoys their upbeat music and Clark wants to be as far away from the percussion as he can get. Sadly for him and good for her, the pub is very near the stage!

"Albannach" with a
Didgeridoo

Clark did not believe me when I said the group sounded Australian, but Google says "the didgeridoo is an ancient Aboriginal Australian wind instrument". 

In between fishing hot dogs out of the pot and burning my fingers on the pretzel oven, I looked up to notice the amazingly beautiful sunset over the park and ran out to capture the scene before it was gone forever!

Sunset at the Celtic Festival

We are to report back for duty tomorrow. Church services in the park at 9:30 (Clark has to be there at 8:45 to prepare with the band), perhaps pub duty during the day (tdb), and tear down of everything, tents etc., Sunday after the event closes at 5:00. Rain or shine it all has to be cleared out by end of day tomorrow.