The line-up for an annual festival of music and culture, set to take place later this month, has been announced.

The 2020 Yn Chruinnaght Celtic Gathering will feature a week’s worth of both live and online performances, including folk music sessions, a community afternoon, a grand concert and a family ceili, along with virtual concerts and cultural workshops hosted across the water.

The organisers of the festival have had a slightly fraught time getting their details of this year’s event finalised, after their original plans were derailed by the coronavirus restrictions.

They were forced to postpone the guest international artists until next year and had intended to go with a purely online event, which they had christened ’Yn Chruinnaght’ Tannaghtyn S’Thie Festival’ which, translated from Manx Gaelic means the ’Stay At Home Festival’.

Among the groups which were set to feature were the trad Scots group Deaf Shepherd, featuring Peel-based guitarist Malcolm Stitt, the Cornish sea shanty choir the Bryher’s Boys and guitarist Tim Eady.

However, with the removal of all social restrictions on the Isle of Man, the organisers were handed a window of time in which they could organise some public events as well as the virtual ones.

The festival will now get underway from Monday, July 20, with a series of free lunchtime music sessions featuring many of the island’s traditional musicians at Noa Bakehouse from 1pm.

Each day will be themed around a Celtic nation, with Breton music on Monday, Welsh on Tuesday, featuring Jamie Smith and Paul Rogers, Irish on Wednesday, Scots on Thursday, with Malcolm Stitt and Isla Callister and Cornish on Friday.

Also, all through the week there will be online concerts from some of the artists.

The Breton duo Lors Landat and Thomas Boisson will join David Kilgallon and Mera Royle for the Monday night virtual concert and Irish singer Eoghan � Ceannabháin will sing Gaelic songs on Wednesday evening.

The Glenbervie Folk Duo and Paddy Callaghan will host a night of Scots music and folk tales on Thursday and the online festival will close with a set from the Bryher’s Boys, who will sing a set of Cornish and traditional shanties.

There will also be online workshops and courses on music, crafts, dance, language and story-telling on each nation over the week.

The weekend will see a two-day celebration of Manx music and dance, with a concert at the Peel Centenary Centre on Friday, July 25, from 7.30pm and a family day and ceili at Peel Cathedral and Corrin hall on Saturday, July 26.

The online ’Tannaghtyn S’Thie’ festival can be viewed for free on the Yn Chruinnaght Facebook page, along with more details at ynchruinnaght.com