One of the longest running Manx music and cultural festivals has announced a major image change, ahead of a landmark anniversary.

The organisers behind Yn Chruinnaght have renamed the festival Celtfest Isle of Man.

The rebranding ties in with the summer festival’s 40th anniversary.

Along with the name change, organisers have also announced the line up for this year’s programme, which includes music from some of the best young folk acts and an appearance by a well known TV personality.

Celtfest Isle of Man will be officially launched by Professor Alice Roberts, an anthropologist and broadcaster who has recently presented a BBC TV series exploring the history of the Celts.

Professor Roberts will present a lecture on Celtic history at Peel’s Centenary Centre on Tuesday, July 11.

From then, the programme will feature a wide variety of music and cultural activities, largely dominated by Scottish and Irish music. Wednesday, July 12 will see one of the top Scottish traditional composers Hamish Napier and his nine-piece band perform his groundbreaking album ’The River’, which is a conceptual work based around his local river, the Spey. He will be supported by the local teen folk group Scran.

They will be followed the next day by top Scots trad group Talisk, making their island debut on Thursday, July 13, and featuring the talents of BBC Best Folk Musician nominee Mohsen Amini along with Hayley Keenan on fiddle and Craig Irving on guitars.

Irish music will then dominate the next two nights of entertainment, with performances from Irish singer Rioghnach Connolly on Friday, July 14, and top young Irish band Connla on Saturday, July 15.

Rioghnach is a true musical gypsy, turning her hand to almost any genre of music. She has visited the island before, singing with her blues band Honeyfeet at the blues festival in Laxey in 2014. She has also sang guest vocals with electro-folk group Afro Celt Sound System.

Connla, who round off the festival on the Saturday night, have been described as the hottest new band in Northern Ireland, and feature the stunning talents of Ciara McCafferty (vocals), Ciaran Carlin (whistles), Paul Starrett (guitar) and siblings Emer and Conor Mallon on harp and uilleann pipes.

There will also be a full schedule of cultural and family activities throughout the course of the festival, such as daily lunchtime music sessions at Noa Bakehouse and a day dedicated to Celtic-inspired arts, crafts and dance at St German’s Cathedral in Peel on the Saturday, featuring puppeteer Fi Angwin performing inspired re-tellings of Celtic myths and legends. The whole day will be called ’The Gathering’, in recognition of the translation of the gaelic word ’Yn Chruinnaght’.

Speaking about the decision to change the name, Celtfest organiser Chloe Woolley said she felt that it was time that Yn Chruinnaght was given something of a facelift, and that a name change would help spread the appeal of the festival.

She said: ’After great thought and consultation with various bodies, we thought that something that says what it did on the tin will appeal to more people, and help get more people engaged with the festival and with Manx culture.

’It’s a Celtic festival in the Isle of Man. You can’t really go too wrong with that.’

’We have had feedback from the past couple of years that said the festival maybe needed to be a bit more inclusive.

’If you know what Yn Chruinnaght is, and you’ve been before, then you are already sold on the idea. But to reach out to new people, it can be harder with a gaelic word that people can struggle to pronounce.

’You still hear people on the radio trying to say it, and we’ve even had people here saying "I thought it was a Welsh festival".’

She added: ’We’re still Yn Chruinnaght as an organisation, and we still hope to put on other events throughout the year, more language based or one-off dance events. It gives us more options. At the core of it all is the basic idea that we are still celebrating Manx and Celtic culture.’

Celtfest Isle of Man is sponsored by the Isle of Man Arts Council, Conister Bank and the Isle of Man Steam Packet.