The title of Face of the Festival is awarded each year to a person that has

taken on the spirit of our festival and gone out of their way to help the National Celtic Festival - this person has usually been 'possesed' with a infectious passion for our festival and the culture  ...............

This years face of the festival is Mary McEvilly

Mary McEvilly hails from Co. Mayo, an area in Ireland steeped in traditional music and language.  From a family of accomplished and well-recognised musicians, Mary been playing fiddle and concertina from a young age and has taken her skills and talents around the world, both playing and teaching in Ireland, the US and Australia.

An experienced performer at festivals and concerts across the globe, her devotion and adherence to the traditional styles of playing has delighted audiences and ensured she is always welcome at any session.

“I am delighted to be the 'Face of the Festival this year”, said Mary.  “It is fast becoming a premier festival in the circuit in Australasia and I am very excited to be a part of it”.

The 2010 National Celtic Festival

'Face of the Festival' is ...Pria Schwall-Kearney.

Pria Schwall-Kearney, such a young face of the festival! (no offence to the old faces) Pria is the 2010 Face of the Festival and exemplifies the great passion and enthusiasm for Celtic music that is taking it into the 21^st Century .

Pria has been a great supporter of the National Celtic Festival generously sharing her amazing talent as a musician and dancer with us now for many years. She inspires us as she continues to seek new ways of understanding the diverse Celtic Traditions. Over the years Pria has been a great driver for many of the ideas to develop the profile of young performers at the Festival.

Pria has performed at the National Celtic Festival with the Melbourne Scottish Fiddle Club and more recently with the band String Theory. Recently, Pria was a finalist in the Young Folk Awards at the Canberra National Folk Festival. Her fiddle playing began at the age of 14, where she was introduced to the art of fiddle playing by Judy Turner.

After spending many years learning and refining her fiddle playing in sessions and being inspired by so many great Australian fiddlers, her passion took her to the UK and North America to learn more. During this trip she was wowed by the vitality of the amazing North American scene, and returned home with a heap of new sounds in her head.

After honing her teaching skills in fiddle and step-dance at most of the major festivals in Australia and also getting the hang of 5-string fiddle, she again returned to North America in 2008. This year was spent playing, teaching and performing music in Quebec and Appalachia and learning, amongst other things, how to fiddle in French and how to play the banjo.

An accomplished instrumentalist, Pria is passionate about community music and is working on two teaching CDs, spanning Quebecois and Old Time music. She has also toured Australia/NZ with old time duo Pigeonwing Strings (www.myspace.com/pigeonwingstrings), formed in the US with musician Greg Fair. Pria will also teach at the Celtic Southern Cross Summer school in 2010.

www.myspace.com/priaschwallkearney

2009 Face of the Festival - Maria Forde, Performer

2008 Face of the Festival - Jimmy Moore, Performer from Sydney

2007 Face of the Festival - William Hutton ,  Perfromer in Claymore

2006 Face of the Festival - Claire Schultz, previous owner of the Grand Hotel and supporter of the Festival when we first came to Portalrington