A packed house at the Peel Centenary Centre brought the Yn Chruinnaght Celtic Gathering Festival to life on Friday evening.

The main concert of the shortened festival featured performances from Manx fiddle player Isla Callister and guitarist Malcolm Stitt, along with poetry in English and Manx Gaelic from Manx Bard Annie Kissack.

The night was finished off in spectacular fashion by Clash Vooar.

The festival also featured a night at the White House on Sunday evening with the Mollag band.

The hastily-arranged public festival, which has been organised within the last three weeks, was hailed as a success by the organisers, including committee member, Chloe Woolley, who said the festival reached out to thousands of people across the world.

’This year’s Yn Chruinnaght Celtic Gathering was a much bigger success than we could’ve imagined,’ said Chloe.

’We’re so grateful to friends from the Celtic nations for contributing content towards the virtual element and also all the local artists and festival goers who turned out en masse at short notice to help us put on a real life festival.

’As well as the Manx audience, we reached a mighty 36,000 people through Facebook and our website.’

by Mike Wade

Twitter:@iomnewspapers