Welcome to the Cowtown Celtic Festival
The Southwest Celtic Music Association, producers of the world famous North Texas Irish Festival (NTIF), is proud to present the inaugural Cowtown Celtic Festival (CCF) in the historic buildings of the Will Rogers complex.
NTIF has been a Dallas cornerstone event in Fair Park since 1984, and has grown to be the largest event of it's type in the Southwest and second only to the State Fair of Texas in Fair Park attendance.
The SCMA has recognized for some time that Dallas and Fort Worth are in many ways linked, but in others miles apart, and although based in Dallas, the Board of Trustees of the SCMA felt that they needed to fulfill it's mission of bringing Celtic cultures to other parts of the southwest. Thus the Cowtown Celtic Festival was born.
Tickets Now On Sale
Tickets are now available online and will be at your favourite neighborhood Tom Thumb store very soon.
Clans Invited
Applications to pitch your tent at the festival are now available online. Sorry for the delay, but it's been a busy summer! Click here for the PDF
Performers Announced - Two more added!!!
The National and Featured performers have been announced. Bios and photographs are now available on the Performers page.
The performers in Ragamuffin Road (formerly Urchin Street) have now been announced.
Check back on the performer listings as we get closer to the event. Two more bands have already been added - maybe more to come!
Not Just Another Irish Festival
The SCMA board was adamant from the initial planning discussions in 2008 that this festival would not be a recreation of NTIF. It would have it's own identity, character, theme, content and, over time, possibly even it's own volunteer management and coordinators.
Creating a new identity is relatively easy, compared with building a new volunteer crew. Cowtown Celtic will thus draw heavily on the broad base of experienced volunteer staff of NTIF, but wherever possible we will seek out Tarrant County folks to work and train along side them.
Start Small and Grow
Don't expect to see anything as large as the NTIF in the first year or so. NTIF has drawn much of it's strength from the fact that it started small and grew progressively each year. The First NTIF was only about 600 people and ten bands. CCF will start small - maybe not that small and we are targeting to be about one quarter the size of the 2010 NTIF in this first year
However, please note that our editor in chief did point out that the first event cannot be called the "First annual". The Chicago Manual of Style insists that we cannot use the phrase "Annual" until we have held it at least two successive years. So, note the change in the top banner - it's now the "Inaugural" festival - and I had to look that spelling up in Webster's!
Book Your Hotel Room Now
Remember to reserve your hotel room early to take advantage of the early bird discount. Room rates have already increased, and the reserved block will soon end. Book now so as not to be left out in the cold!
Photo courtesy John Roberts.
Architect Wyatt C. Hedrick designed the three buildings for the Texas Centennial celebration in 1936 using a mixture of classical revival and modern styles.
The complex features three buildings: an auditorium, a coliseum, and a 208 ft. tower that sits between them. The Auditorium and the Coliseum have almost identical facades that feature a curving facade with six monumental piers.
Find Us On Facebook
Cowtown Celtic joins the NTIF and the SCMA on Facebook. Come check out the latest news, gossip and links.