Lorient gathers the Celtic nations — the six traditional ones plus Galicia, Asturias and the diaspora of Canada and Australia — for ten days of music, dance, pipe bands and competition. The centrepiece is the Grande Parade des Nations Celtes on the first Sunday, when several thousand musicians and dancers process through the city, and the national championship of the bagadoù is decided in the stadium.
A guest nation is honoured each year, which rotates the programme's centre of gravity.
The organiser reported 306,000 visitors for the 2023 edition. We keep the year visible because more recent figures have not been published in the same form.
Lorient was flattened in the war and rebuilt, so the setting is functional rather than picturesque; the festival is the attraction. Accommodation across southern Brittany tightens for the ten days, and Vannes or Quimper are the usual fallbacks.
PlanningSeasonal window in early August; a different Celtic nation is the guest of honour each year.