Pikes Peak Celtic Festival - Colorado Springs, Colorado

Aaron Scott (RunningAaronds)

I want festivals in Colorado Springs to succeed so it pains me to write a review of a festival that has little to bring visitors. First, the location: there's limited parking and then you have to park in the neighborhood. Since this area is high crime you'll want to get here early enough to park near the event. Memorial Park had a shooting just last night. Ugh! Pick a better location please! Second, the events: music, shopping, competitions, clan tents. Well, that's pretty much it. The music is good but very limited seating. Albanach is definitely something to see... If you can see them. If not, there are multiple shows. The shopping is scarce and mostly expensive. Even the Renaissance festival is cheaper. Very few vendors. Several clans are represented if you are looking for information. You won't be able to see the competitions easily. They are fenced off at a distance and are positioned so you can't see the athletes or what is happening. Finally the food: tasty Scottish vendors and a few American selections for those not creative. Very tasty, though. The Scottish Pie Shop always has a huge line and they are very slow. Try one of the others if you can.
I wanted to do the whiskey tasting and the Braveheart 5k. I had to buy 2 weekend passes to get both activities and then I had an extra ticket that was wasted. They wouldn't sell the activities separate from the weekend pass. Then, while attending the whiskey tasting, no less than 4 people were able to come in and attend for free. FREE! I paid over $40 and had to buy 2 full weekend passes just to go to both activities and I didn't need to pay for the whiskey tasting at all! Frustrating!

Try the highland festival in Estes Park. Better everything. Better location. Better food choices and more of them. More vendors at better prices. More clans represented. Parking is better. I can't find a reason to complain about that one. Skip Pikes Peak until they can move it and get more organized. Hopefully it gets better, soon. We definitely need more things to do in the Springs.

Heather Smith

Not handicap friendly. No handicap parking. They had teens telling you where to park and they have no clue. $10 for parking. Watched a truck get stuck in the mud. The only cool part was the opening ceremony and a person playing the bagpipe. I couldn't get to the tents that had things for sale due to all the mud. They need to put it somewhere where it's handicap accessible and a lot easier for people to get around. It was $20 a person with a $6 fee so it came to $46 plus a $10 parking fee which I don't see anywhere on the website where it says that you have to pay for parking. There's nothing for the kids to do. I saw many kids getting bored and therefore acting out because they're restless. It was a complete waste the money and I will never go back.

Claudia Paolone

Felt so bad as it rained, poured and it was a hard time to walk around. Luckily the 2 pc band sang the Celtic ditties and so tried their best to try to make it fun!
We did enjoy it and knew it would have been much more fun without the storm!

I'm with Puddin'

I have attended the festival for years now. It pains me to say that this will be the last year we attend. What the hell happened? The parking was atrocious. Then you have to drag your kids down a huge hill to get to the entrance. I saw parents with their strollers and such getting stuck or almost falling over from the uneven terrain. The festival this year was basically held in a mud pit. I was horrified to see people pushing their family members around in wheel chairs and strollers in the mud and horribly uneven ground. Not an easy task.

Second....no shade. I had to sit with my young son under a tree with muddy ground to find shelter from the sun. Thankfully, there weren't too many ants and I was able to kick the thrown out apple cores somewhere else. The slobs can't be bothered to drop their trash in a trash can.

Third.....the food took 45 minutes plus to come out as they were doing each order separately. They didn't have anything prepared up front. Previous years, it only took 10 minutes. Of course, the band was playing so loud next to the food trucks that you couldn't hear anything. That was fun.

Fourth....didn't care for the rock band playing 80's/90's music and adding a few bagpipes to try and sound Celtic. I realize this is my personal bias, so perhaps better groups played during the weekend. We were already incredibly annoyed after arriving, so perhaps this contributed. However, previous years had great groups who actually played their own music. I go to a Celtic festival to hear Celtic music, not rock I can hear on the radio.

I don't understand moving the venue to a mud pit when you had a perfectly pleasant park to hold it in. It was spacious and you didn't feel like everything was squeezed together. Incredibly disappointed and will be checking out the Estes Park festival next year. I heard there were mixed reviews from the people who worked the festival this year, so I'm sure some people thought this was great. To each their own.......not for us unfortunately. We wish you the best.

Miranda Wyatt

I have come every year, not counting the last 2 years due to covid. Not worth wasting your money since it's moved to the Mining Museum. Was so much better at Memorial Park. I understand the city got greedy and started charging them a fortune, but it's not even worth coming to anymore.

Josh Kraus

It was a smaller event and not enough to do and see. Music was decent during the day but that's not what I expected. I'm looking forward to the Elizabeth Celtic Festival in July. They have tons of Artisan etc... and my kids love all the activities for them.

PDK

Was really looking forward to attending this event for the first time since moving here in 2016 from attending a well-planned and hugely successful event in Richmond, Virginia.
Very disappointed. I applaud the work of the WMMI but this is not the venue for this event. Too small. Only 1 stage. One has to bring their own chair & carry it around. WMMI is not suited to a large crowd.
More vendors/unique craftworkers are also needed. Even WMMI charged full price to see the museum. It should have been at least half-priced with the greater volume of people on the site. The cost for admission & parking onsite was not worth the short 2-hours we spent there.
There was no schedule posted at the site. Even the participants in the bugle corps did not know the details of the opening event (We were hoping for a parade).
We won't be back unless changes/upgrades are made. Unfortunate.

David Annett

Horrible venue choice this year, What was wrong with Memorial park?!?!?

parking was absolutely horrendous, had to off-road to get a space, walk a lot and then trudge up and down a hill to get there. The mining museum they chose this year is literally in a PIT, a pit of mud and overgrown weeds!

I just don't understand. You had a great venue, in a beautiful open GRASSY field with ACTUAL parking, but you moved it to this place?

No thanks. Been to this festival many years, was looking forward to it this year. Was truly disappointed.