Oatlands Plantation will present Celtic celebration

Oatlands Plantation near Leesburg, Va., bids weekend visitors "cead mile failte" (a hundred thousand welcomes) to its first Celtic Festival Saturday and next Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Guests can stroll among Oatlands' 260 acres, tour the 1803 mansion and formal gardens and spend time in the picnic grove, where storytellers will tell tales of the "auld" country.

Four stages of continuous music, dance and acoustic entertainment will be presented throughout the two days. Celtic Thunder, one of the country's best-known traditional Irish bands, national Scottish harp champion Sue Richards and the North American champion Irish step-dancer Regan Wick are among the performers, along with Scottish bagpipers, a prize-winning Welsh choir, champion fiddler and a youth group performing the music and dance of Galicia in native costume.

The festival is a celebration of Celtic culture found in Cornwall, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, the Isle of Man, Galicia in Spain and Brittany in France. You can attend workshops in the Celtic language, Celtic harp making and other programs. There will be falconry, sheepshearing and roof-thatching demonstrations. Celts clubs will present living-history encampments from the first, sixth and 18th centuries, and you'll see Scottish athletic contests, like the caber toss.

A craft market of more than 50 juried artisans will exhibit and demonstrate Celtic crafts, such as kilt making, woodcarving, glass-engraving, jewelry making, and the sheep-to-shawl process. A pub tent will have traditional Scottish ales, a tea garden will offer Celtic foods and vendors will sell Celtic goods.

Admission is $6 for adults; free for children under 12. Oatlands is on Route 15, six miles south of Leesburg. For information, call (703) 777-3174.

Arts festival

The Columbia Festival of the Arts brings 10 days of music, theater, dance and visual arts to the Columbia area Friday through June 26. Festival-goers can also attend symposiums, master classes, open rehearsals and films. On the bill this year are author and raconteur Garrison Keillor in a joint performance with prize-winning poet Roland Flint, jazz artist Max Roach and his Double Quartet, blues great Taj Mahal, the noted modern jazz dance company Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company and Columbia Pro Cantare appearing with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.