We didn’t know Maryland was big enough to have a north and a south, but apparently it does. And the South-part wanted ClanDonnell!

It’s the annual Southern Maryland Celtic Festival on April 27, 2019.

It’s the premier event of The Celtic Society of Southern Maryland, and one the earliest Celtic festivals of the season.

The festival was at the Jefferson-Patterson Park and Museum in St. Leonard, southeast of Washington, D.C.

The festival has including storytelling for many years but revamped the program for 2019. ClanDonnell was the beneficiary of the revamping. We were scheduled for three different one-hour storytelling sets during the day.

We told stories under the “Storytelling” banner through much of the day. We gladly shared the limelight with Thomas Gallagher, a young Celtic storyteller with a repertoire of Irish legends.

We were scheduled to tell some stories during the evening Ceili. The festival ends with a three hour music and dance session on the main stage. ClanDonnell was to do at least one half-hour storytelling set while the bands are setting up and tearing down.

We didn’t get to do a set at the Ceili, though. The band which kicked of the session didn’t want to leave and we didn’t want to interrupt its musical set.

But that didn’t diminish from the great day had at St. Leonard!