The Interceltic Festival Of Lorient: The Meeting Point Of Celtic Cultures.
The Lorient Interceltic Festival has been welcoming over 600,000 festival-goers every August since 1971, for 10 days and 10 nights of celebration dedicated to Celtic music. This internationally renowned event highlights a different Celtic culture each year.
Introduction
The Festival interceltique de Lorient or FIL is the largest global gathering of Celtic cultures.
Every year in Brittany, it brings together Celtic music groups and hosts around 2500 artists (musicians, singers, dancers, visual artists, and filmmakers) from various Celtic countries: Bretons, Welsh, Irish, Scots, Asturians, Galicians, Acadians, or Australians...
This festival, which is the annual meeting of contemporary Celtic cultures, takes place in Lorient from the first Friday to the second Sunday of August.
It is held in over 20 performance venues throughout the city.
History of the festival
The Lorient Interceltic Festival was created in 1971 on an idea by Jean-Pierre Pichard.
The ancestor of this festival took place in Brest; subsequently, the city of Lorient volunteered to host this event.
Today, this event has become one of the largest international festivals. With its 650,000 spectators, it is the first French festival in terms of attendance.
Every year, the festival welcomes a Celtic culture country as a guest of honor.
The countries and provinces invited in recent editions were: Asturias (2003); Acadia (2004); Ireland (2005); Australia (2006); Scotland (2007). For the 40th edition of the festival in 2010, the honored region was Brittany.
Edition 2023 -> Edition 2023
The 2023 edition of the Interceltic Festival of Lorient will take place from August 4th to August 13th, 2023, with Cornwall and the Isle of Man as guest of honor.
The Interceltic Festival 2023 offers 300 shows and activities on 12 stages, festoù-noz, music workshops, conferences, daily concerts on stages and in bars, master classes and competitions of Celtic instruments, parades, an arts and luthiers garden, a Solidarity space, a Quai du Livre, an artisan market, but also sports: gouren, Breton athletic games, rugby, Celtic wrestling, Gaelic football, and exhibitions of Celtic countries' artworks.
