DAYTON, Ohio — From the music, to the food, and course the dancing…since 2002 the Dayton Celtic Festival has been a free, fun and family friendly festival for everyone to enjoy.

“There’s a lot of great entertainment, food, beverage, do some shopping, just experience Riverscape. It’s just a great activity for downtown,” said Shawn Kain with the festival.

What You Need To Know

  • Dayton Celtic Festival kicks-off this weekend in downtown.

  • The festival has been a family favorite event since 2002.

  • More than 80,000 people are expected to come enjoy Irish food, music and dancing over the three-day festival.

The Dwyer School of Irish Dance has been performing in the festival since 2012, and they’re one of several dance schools who will be showcasing their best moves over the weekend.

“I just recently placed 6th in the world and I’m lucky enough to be a six time regional champion,” said dancer Sean Dwyer.

Dwyer is 21 years old and has been dancing since he was four.

Being a champion takes a lot of work.  

“I try to run or go work out and everything, but what really helps is actually just dancing because there’s no other kind of stamina like dance stamina,” he said.

“It’s something we work on. We’re very passionate about it. We’re doing it 365 days a year so this summer festival is always great,” said Dwyer School of Irish Dance owner Kathleen Dwyer.

Each year, the festival attracts more than 80,000 people, hundreds of volunteers, and lots of music. 

“We have bands coming from Ireland, Scotland and Canada. Our headliner bands, we have six, we have Gaelic Storm, they’re always real popular and we’ve been fortunate to have them about every year of the festival,” Kain said.

Like many of Ohio’s major cities, Dayton has a strong Irish influence that’s kept the festival running year after year. 

“That was one of the reasons we got the festival going in the first place. There was a call in other cities for a similar type of festival and there was a call for us to put on something here and that’s what we’ve done and we’ve been fortunate to have it since 2002,” said Rain.

For Irish dance teams, it’s not only a performance, but a teaching moment. 

“It actually helps for their competition because they are getting up and it teaches our younger ones how to get on stage and it gives them an opportunity to watch the more seasoned dancers,” said Kathleen Dwyer.

As for Sean Dwyer, even though he’s retired from competitive dancing, he’s still sharing the craft with younger students and his community.  

“I still teach. I’m an assistant teacher at the Dwyer School and I love teaching the kids. It’s really fun, I really enjoy it,” he said.

Along with plenty of activities for the kids, one of the biggest highlights is the traditional Gaelic Mass outside on Sunday.

Prayers are said in both English and Gaelic.

The festival kicks-off Friday night at 5:30 p.m., Saturday at 11:30 a.m., and Sunday at 9 a.m..

For more information, click here.