New This Year to the Dayton Celtic Festival:

The Dayton Irish Arts Institute comes to the festival!  The United Irish of Dayton, in partnership with the University of Dayton’s Continuing Education Department, announce the Dayton Irish Arts Institute which will present Celtic workshops from Thursday, July 24, through Sunday, July 27, 2008, prior to and during the seventh annual Dayton Celtic Festival.  The University of Dayton will host some of the workshops on its campus and also will provide FREE workshops in the Dayton Irish Arts Tent on-site at the festival.

The purpose of the workshops is to provide area residents with high quality Irish cultural instruction in an effort to increase and strengthen Irish traditions in the Miami Valley.  The breadth of instruction includes courses in music, arts and crafts, language and dance.  The workshops will be comprised of both group and individual sessions, with instruction being primarily in the evening and over the course of the weekend of the Dayton Celtic Festival.  Individual instruction will occur in the afternoon on Thursday and Friday July 24th and 25th. For more info contact Kevin Graham at 937-864-2641 or kevingraham@woh.rr.com

In honor of the Scotsman who invented the bicycle the Dayton Celtic festival will have a family bike ride on Saturday, July 26th at 1:30 p.m. leaving from the river level bikeway at RiverScape MetroPark encompassing 3-5 miles.  For more info contact Fran Phillips at 937-254-8727 or richphil1@sbcglobal.net. Pre-registration is not required for this event.

The Dayton Celtic Festival will host the Ancient Celtic game of tug-a-war between the Dayton Police and Firemen on Sunday, July 27, 2008 at 1:00 p.m.  For more info contact Fran Phillips at 937-254-8727 or richphil1@sbcglobal.net.